Thursday 6th November
A group of seven (Dave, Nigel, Martin, Polly, Stuart, Phil and Dee) headed to Manor Lane at Gotherington to continue with our annual programme of clearance and visual inspections of culverts and cross drains. The targets this time were cross drains 36A, 36B, 37A, 37B and 37C. The later is by the foot crossing; approximately half way between Manor Lane and Woodmancote. As the weather was dry, and very warm, and even for a while sunny; they managed to also include the clearance of cross drain 37D which is just south of the crossing.
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| Manor Lane bridge (36) in the background, with the outlet ditch of 36A by the roadside in the foreground. [Photo by Dee] |
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| Dee focusing on taking a photo for the visual inspection whilst Martin and Nigel take a breather from clearing work at the top of the embankment. [Photo by Dave] |
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| Even in the dry summer, the vegetation around 37A outlet had grown well. Stuart gets to grip with it. [Photo by Dave] |
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| The far outlet end of 37A has concrete slabs as side protection. A nice surprise was to find all still in position. [Photo by Dave] |
Badgers were here! Dry straw that has been a nest back in the summer. [Photo by Dee]
Two
other team members were also working – but on other tasks. Jonathan
spent the day on vehicle maintenance. He successfully the broken door handle of
the new (to us) white Ranger personnel carrier. However, despite his
best efforts, he was unable to sort out the wiring in back
compartment of the Ranger. It
appears that the circuits for the lights that don’t work have a
change or wire colour in some difficult to access location. Also not able to be repaired was a damaged wheel arch on the white tipper Transit.
Andrew attended the Heads of Department meeting at Toddington. These are one of the few occasions when almost all departments of the Railway and the board of directors all come together. So in corporate management terms they are a very useful networking event. In his address, John Dora, the chairman of the board of directors of the GWSR, remarked that he appreciated working on a railway where there was almost one drainage worker for every mile of track! The comparable ratio for Network Rail is orders of magnitude less. However, a reorganisation of our team to allocate individual miles to each team member is not on the cards!
Wildlife report: The group at Gotherington remarked on the non appearance or any raptors as no red kites, buzzards or kestrels were seen. As expected for late autumn, flocks of finches (or other small brown birds); gulls and starlings we observed. They also noted evidence of badgers using one of the drainage chambers as a nest whilst it was dry during the summer. Closer to home, in fact right by the door to our wooden shed in Winchcombe Yard, we noticed a very tame robin. Perhaps we should provide a nest box for him (or her); as a nest in some of the piles of material would not be ideal. Wildlife and environment aspects were the subjects of a discussion with railway’s new Biodiversity lead, Andrew Baker, after our end of work tea break. Andrew was keen to hear of our wildlife spottings and knowledge of the terrain alongside the railway. He outlined some of the environment management and stewardship schemes for which grants are available. Not surprisingly some of these go hand in hand with water management, in particular flood mitigation. We identified several locations where improvements to calcareous grassland and seasonal bog ecosystems would make a big impact.
