Thursday 2nd October
Two new volunteers joined the team today, making the total team size 13 (hence the Baker’s Dozen). Welcome Phil & Dee. Also we were joined by the Railway’s Civil Engineering Director, Peter Brown. Peter hopes to join all the Civil Engineering teams for a day each month; thus we could say the total team size is now 13¼. One challenge of a large team size is finding sufficient space in road vehicles to get everyone and our tools & materials to the work sites. An additional Ford Ranger will shortly be added to the vehicle fleet. The purchase of this is as a result of a very generous donation from one of the team. It will certainly be a very useful asset.
The
ten of us attending all
headed for Chicken Curve. Ian, Stuart and Peter (D) took the high road
along the vacant trackbed. They cleared cross drains 20B and 20C,
plus the complex network of ditches that take the cess drainage from
the Defford cutting. Not surprisingly following the hot and dry
summer, none of the ditches and streams were flowing. But the
vegetation had grown tall; fortunately this was mainly grass. One of
the benefits of regular clearing is to stop bramble and other scrub
and small saplings becoming established. Once
access was cleared, Andrew
completed the internal visual inspections of these two cross drains.20B outlet - not a drop of water!
The
other seven took the low road (Beckets Lane) to access the foot of
the down (Cotswold) side of the embankment from the main B4632 road.
Martin and Polly
commenced the task of locating more of the manholes on the piped toe
drain. Finding the first of these was a challenge, it was hidden by
many years of bramble and brush growth alongside the boundary fence.
Dee, Peter (B) and Andrew equipped with a long tape measure and the
plans of the Chicken Curve rebuild marked out the likely locations of
all four manholes. After a bit of raking of the undergrowth all were
found. Surprisingly
we we able to open all the metal lids – none had rusted solid! Also
surprisingly, there was only a small quantity of silt in each
chamber, easily removed with a grab.A small quantity of silt removed from the second manhole. Standing water below the pipe level but little silt in the next manhole
Meanwhile,
Jonathan donned a set of disposable overalls and then after following
our confined spaces working procedure climbed down the first manhole
near the road. Using
a short shovel, he
managed to dig out several inches of silt and decaying old roots.
Phil hauled all this out in a bucket on a rope.Jonathan preparing to enter the first manhole.
Unusually
we returned to the Churchward House mess at Winchcombe for lunch –
one advantage of a close work site. After lunch we all returned to the
toe drain. The prime task was to use our set of drain rods to clear a
constriction in the upstream section of pipe from the first manhole.
Despite repeated
attempts by many of the team pushing on the rods, this constriction
proved obstinate. Most likely this is a big bundle of roots – best
tackled by bringing in a contractor with jet vac equipment. Finally
with a can of blue marker spray we marked the location of all the
manholes – so we can find them a lot easier next time we come to
inspect and clear them.Phil, Polly, Peter (B) and Martin during the attempt to rod the pipe upstream from the first manhole. Cleared and marked manhole - easier to spot next time. 47105 passes with a down afternoon train.
Wildlife report:
For most of the
morning we had a buzzard circling overhead. No doubt the long grass
on the embankment sides at Chicken Curve provides good hunting for
small rodents. A pair of magpies also appear to have taken up
residence on the up side of the line. Whilst in the orchard on the
down side we noted quite
a few LBJs (little brown jobs); probably finches, but just too
far away for a full identification. Plus the obligatory friendly
robin, keen to take advantage any of our diggings.
Railway 200 weekend
Along
with most of the Railway’s departments, we had an exhibit at
Toddington for the Railway 200 celebration weekend on 27th
and 28th
September. Ian master-minded our display, set it up and manned it on
the Saturday. Whilst Peter (D) was in charge on Sunday. Thanks to
those two for the extra hours over the weekend, plus also thanks to
the First Response team for providing temporary storage for some
items at Toddington before and after the weekend.Ian waiting for the first visitors to our Railway 200 exhibit at Toddington. [Photo by Ian]
