Seven Up - again

Thursday 14^th August

Another work day with seven of the team attending – but a slightly different seven than last week. (Jonathan, Andrew, Nigel, Martin, Polly, Stuart, Peter). The others were either on holiday, doing paid work or had family commitments.

The River Isbourne bridge, structure number BU21A, was the work site for the day.

On the up (Malvern) side; the task was to clear the access from the vacant track bed down to the headwall; then on the safe side of the safety rails down the two wing walls to the stream. The dry conditions making this a much less hazardous task.

On the down (Cotswold) side, the main task was to make the steps leading down to the headwall safe. These were constructed by a contractor during the Isbourne flood works a few years ago; but due to Covid-19 were never fully completed. We used a mix of spent ballast and some smaller spoil to level out all of the 29 steps. Jonathan used the telehandler to transport this material from the PW stockpile in the up side yard at Winchcombe. With careful direction he positioned the telehandler by the Winchcombe up advanced starting signal, then extended the boom to enable the spoil to be deposited on the down side of the running line. This was undertaken under a line block agreed with the Winchcombe signaller, between the empty down train to Cheltenham and the first up passenger train. Nigel, Andrew, Peter and Martin undertook the shovelling and barrowing of the spoil to the steps – assisted by gravity! Stuart attended to the ramming and filling of the steps and Polly constructed some shuttering to form an extra step at the bottom. Four telehandler loads of spoil was more than sufficient for the steps, we spread the extra between the buffer stops of the first down side siding and the top of the steps.

A dust cloud arises as a load of spoil is deposited as close to the down side steps as possible.

Stuart ensures the infill is packed in level.

Looking up - three of the shovelling team take a breather.

The bottom part of the steps completed.

Meanwhile, Jonathan donned a safety harness and suitably attached to the safety rails on the down side headwall removed the bramble and other vegetation that was growing there.

Clipped to the safety rail, Jonathan takes a break from vegetation removal. In the background Stuart finishes off the step infill.

After lunch, attention turned to the vegetation growing on the down side wing walls. Working both from above and below (but not simultaneously!); we removed creepers and moss from the mortar joints. The moss being bone dry came away easily with a long handled hoe. On the high mileage wing wall we removed several inches of soil – with a lot of bramble roots embedded within. The copings of both the low and high mileage wing walls are now exposed – and all the mortar joints are in good order.

Low mileage down side wing wall after clearing.

The now exposed copings of the high mileage down side wing wall.

 

 

From the river the down side looks a lot neater - but not finished. The remaining bushes above the bridge arch require removal. The low level of the river is obvious; Andrew is walking on the lowest tier of gabions, normally these are under water. [Photo by Jonathan]

From above the down side steps are now unmissable.

Wildlife report: One brown trout was observed in the River Isbourne; but with some of us wading in the stream, it made a hasty retreat. Like a lot of water courses in the Midlands, there is a significant growth of Himalayan balsam. Whilst this has pretty pink flower heads, it is a non-native invasive species. However, completely eradicating it is almost impossible. Cutting the stems spreads the seed, so encourages further growth. The only effective way of dealing with is to pull the plant out by the roots, then to stamp on the flowers and seed heads. This prevents the seed from germinating. All in all a very laborious and time consuming process -so we only remove plants that are obstructing the water flow.

Squeeze Avoided

Thursday 7^th August

It was a good thing that only seven of the team attended today. If all the team turn up for work we need a minimum of three vehicles to convey us and our tools to the work sites. Today, only two vehicles were available; S&T and C&M were using the other two. Roger, Jonathan, Dave, Nigel, Ian, Martin and Peter were the magnificent seven; the blue tail-lift Transit and the Isuzu their stallions!

First stop was Two Hedges Road, or more precisely the down side high mileage vehicle track and footpath alongside the former Bonsai World site. The task here was to reinstate the fence alongside the site – removed to allow the new stream inlet pipe to be fitted. The new inlet apron with integral bars looks very smart. This type of collector could in several other locations to stop debris entering the drains.

Many hands help make fencing jobs easier. [Photo by Dave]

The reinstated fence by the gate leading from the vehicle track/footpath into the adjoining field. [Photo by Dave]

 

After coffee the team moved to the ditch behind Willow Drive mobile home site at Woodmancote. This was to finish vegetation clearance of the toe ditch on the low mileage side of culvert 38A; and to cut an access gap down the embankment near to Station Road bridge. We cleared the debris from the other week and dug out the high spots in the ditch. Water is flowing more freely now, further digging may be required if the winter storms do not wash more of the silt out. We also uncovered a third salt glazed pipe which could be an original field drain at the high mileage end of the toe drain. We cleared as much silt out of the pipes as possible. There is a lots of detritus still there as we had no room to put it in vehicles to take back to Winchcombe. A strange find uncovered was what appears to be a "heritage cement fibre pipe" lying in the undergrowth.

Third SGP pipe feeding the ditch near Station Road. [Photo by Roger]

After the rain over the past week, there is flowing water in the toe ditch. [Photo by Dave]

We returned to Winchcombe for late lunch and then some of us went on the train to Broadway to undertake a visual survey of the culverts and cross drains that we will be clearing and visual inspecting next month. The remainder of the team headed for the Rive Isbourne bridge to meet with Peter and John (S) from the Bridges team to discuss further clearance of the wing walls there.

Down side low mileage wing wall of the River Isbourne bridge; moss on the mortar to be removed. [Photo by Jonathan]

Finally, over afternoon tea, we discussed the exhibit that Ian is coordinating for the Railway 200 event at the end of September.

Wildlife report: Again the highlight sighting was from the River Isbourne, but this time in the river. Three brown trout swimming upstream. Also a large number of dragon flies. And lots of Himalayan Balsam,  which is a non-native invasive plant. However total eradication is very labour intensive.

Home and Away

Thursday 31^st July

Seven of the team in attendance for a variety of tasks. The initial split was into three groups – one group heading south, one group heading north and one group staying ‘at home’ in Winchcombe Yard.

Jonathan, Peter and Martin were the group heading south. First call was to deliver a IBU (large plastic tank) that we had surplus to requirements to a former Drainage HoD at Bishops Cleeve; a small donation to the general railway funds received in return. Then on to Swindon Lane bridge (42). This is on the schedule for a detailed external inspection this year; so the task here was to ensure that access was clear and that there was no vegetation obscuring the wing walls. Next was a visit to the end of the field track on the down side high mileage of Two Hedges Road. This is where our contactor has been working installing a larger diameter pipe to carry the ‘Bonsai World’ stream under the field track and footpath. The contractor started work on Tuesday – by today it was almost complete. Just some concrete to pour around the new inlet. This stream then flows in a crest ditch at the top of the embankment; eventually joining the inlet of culvert 40B. We now need some prolonged or heavy rain to get the stream flowing so we can check that this has eliminated the leakage down the embankment here.

The reinstated road tack and footpath leading to the gate to our neighbours field. [Photo by Jonathan]

The new inlet from Bonsai World with grill to prevent large objects and animals entering. [Photo by Jonathan]

Dave and Nigel took the north work. Again this was access and vegetation clearance prior to a detailed external inspection; the target was culvert 6B by the foot crossing at Laverton.

6B down side before clearing ... [Photo by Dave]

... and after. [Photo by Dave]

Next task was further north at Cross Drain 5A by Little Buckland bridge. Here they cleared and deepened the exit ditch from the lineside fence to the roadside. The roadside ditch that this flows into has a very shallow gradient; and is very shallow. Gloucester County Highways have no plans to improve it.

Nigel working on the outlet of 5A at Little Buckland - the fence is not the railway boundary here. Like at a lot of the underbridges; the railway land extends in a triangle towards the road. [Photo by Dave]

So we are going to take steps to limit the quantity of water flowing through 5A. To this end we will install a brick dam in the downside toe ditch alongside Archer Farm to route the majority of the water flowing from the farm’s drains south to Cross Drain 5B.

Temporary plywood dam in the down side toe ditch - this to be replaced with a nice brick version. [Photo by Dave]

Ian and Andrew were the two who stayed at home. This was to work on the repair of three of our brush cutters. However, the scope of the task soon expanded to start the reorganisation of our area of the old wooden shed. The reason – we first had to locate a new mounting collar for the big FS560 brush cutter. Not in the spares box; not in the small red cupboard, not with the rest of the bits of the 560; not fallen on the floor under the bags of cement; not under the flail – but eventually found on the top of the red cupboard hidden under bundles of paper towels. However, all that searching has meant that we now have more room in the shed; with much easier access to tools, bags of cement, the portable generator and the flail. Further tidying and reorganising of the shed will have to wait for the roof to be repaired and for S&T to complete their move to their new workshop. Ian successfully repaired all three of the brush cutters – so we are now back to full strength of 9 working machines. Once the bird nesting season comes to an end on 1^st September; we, and our Lineside Clearance colleagues, will be making a lot of use of these machines.

Inside the wooden shed after the initial tidy-up.

On return from their expedition south, Jonathan, Peter and Martin lent a hand with the shed reorganisation. Then after lunch they headed to the River Isbourne bridge to take advantage of the low water levels to remove vegetation that had started to grown out of the stone gabions. They were able to complete the down (upstream) side – the up (downstream) side will have to wait for the access and the wing walls to be cleared. Because of the rain earlier in the day – this was too slippery to undertake safely.

Wildlife report: Today’s highlight sighting was that of a kingfisher flying low over the River Isbourne.