When the Cat is Away

Over the past few weeks the Drainage team leader and blog writer has been away undertaking a practical study of applied fluid dynamics, mainly from a narrowboat on the canals of the East Midlands but also in one or two waterside refreshment establishments. Hence the pause in weekly blog updates. Thanks to other team members for these notes and photos.

Thursday 19^th June

The weather certainly curtailed our activities today. Flaming June had arrived at long last! Attending were Nigel, Peter, Polly, Roger and Dave. We inspected both sides at syphon culvert 7A. Polly and Nigel then proceeded to carry out minor repairs to the upside outlet.

Polly and Nigel working on 7A outlet. [Photo by Dave]

 

Result - much tidier. [Photo by Dave]

The down side structure is much more problematic. The bank behind the structure is gradually moving and has caused the top 7 or so courses of the brickwork of the high mileage side wall to shift inwards. This will require a rebuild in the not too distant future.

We also investigated along the roadside fence line on the low mileage down side at Stanton bridge 10, with access for a mini-digger in mind. We established that currently this section of fence has no removable section, and discussed where and how to install such a section.

At this point, the heat became overwhelming and we returned to Winchcombe for a rail based tour of culverts going south behind 2807.

Wildlife report: demonstrating that it's summer time and the living is easy were several red kites and buzzards effortlessly idling away their time on the thermals. Also a partridge and her (unlikely to be his?) many tiny offspring running along the empty side of the trackbed and slowing our reversing from Stanton Yard to culvert 7A.

Field of flax adjacent to the upside by Stanton Road Bridge (10). [Photo by Dave]

Thursday 26^th June

Attending were Ian, Jonathan, Peter, Polly and Dave. The main focus was the roadside fence on the low-mileage down side of bridge 10 (Stanton Road bridge). We cleared a good length of the fence line of vegetation before removing the fence rails at this cleared section. This left two exposed fence posts, one of which (the one further from the track) is easily removable, while the other will require a little more encouragement. We lightly nailed a couple of rails back across the exposed posts to form a temporary barrier, easily removable when access for the digger is required. The rest of the removed rails were placed to the side of the exposed area, invisible from the road, for reattachment after the ditch work is completed.

Working roadside rather than trackside on bridge 8 at Stanton. Jonathan, Ian, Roger and Polly in action. [Photo by Dave]

Peter and Jonathan get to grips with a fence post. [Photo by Dave]

Jonathan and Polly check the temporary access fence. [Photo by Dave]

The vegetation and overhanging branches were cut back for some distance northward along the crest, in preparation for the digger to excavate the crest ditch.

Looking along the crest of the downside cutting to Stanton Road. [Photo by Dave]

We found one field drain along the cutting between bridge 10 and the aqueduct, clearly marked by a post and blue-marked sleeper at rail length 8. There was no clear sign of a French drain taking the outflow down to the cess and, as the drain emerges high up on the cutting, the digging of a ditch along the crest might well cut into this field drain anyway.

Blue dots on the sleeper mark where land drains enter the cutting. [Photo by Dave]

We returned to syphon culvert 7A with the intention of adding dye to the inlet chamber and investigating where the flow reappears as this does not seem to be the outlet chamber. The consensus was, however, that the volume of water passing through the inlet chamber was so small as to make the exercise impractical. We will have to wait until rain re-establishes a better flow into the culvert.

Finally, we cut back some of the vegetation around the entrance to Stanton Yard.

Thursday 3^rd July

A day spent clearing access to and the inlets and outlets of the larger culverts that are on the programme for external detailed examination later in the year.

First was culvert 3B near Peasbrook Farm. A surprising amount of water flowing here. Note whole Himalayan balsam plant pulled out on down side and left to dry on top of head wall.

3B downside entry - an easy one to deal with. [Photo by Dave]

 

 

Polly is almost lost in the vegetation alongside the 3b upside exit. [Photo by Dave]

The low water level allowed access to the bottom of the exit stream. [Photo by Dave]

Next was culvert 4A.

4A downside inlet from above. [Photo by Dave]

Not a drop of water entering 4A. [Photo by Dave]

Looking through the bore of 4A. [Photo by Dave]

Finally culvert 5C.

Just a slight flow into 5C. [Photo by Dave]

Thursday 10^th July

With most of the team away on holiday or out for other reasons, there was no normal Drainage work today. However, Jonathan met with Adrian Clements from Tewkesbury Borough Council and Sarah Clayton our Infrastructure Manger to discuss the problems with debris and other rubbish entering culvert 39A at Pecked Lane, Bishops Cleeve. This carries the stream that runs through Honeybourne Meadow. Discarded rubbish can block the mesh on the entry; whilst larger items can get stuck in the exit where it splits into two pipes which emerge alongside Pecked Lane.

Still Not Flaming June!

Thursday 12^th June

The second working day in a row where rain has affected our plans! With some of the odd jobs we planned to attend to between Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve postponed for a second week.

Until we install proper permanent location marker posts, we use blue marker paint to denote the position of the cross drains and culverts. But after a few months the rain washes it away! [Photo by Jonathan]

Before the heavy rains (it was more than a shower) set in at lunchtime, the team attended to several odd jobs south of Two Hedges Road. This included measuring at cross drains 40B and 41A for safety rails; repointing on the up side exit chamber of cross drain 41B and the down side inlet chamber of cross drain 41A. Also at 40B we added a barrow load of stone as scour prevention to the outlet chamber.

Polly with a bucket of mortar for repointing down side of 41A. [Photo by Jonathan]

Another small repointing job attended to was a crack in the down side wall of the footpath approach at Pecked Lane crossing.

Polly made quick work of repointing the crack in the footpath retaining wall at Pecked Lane crossing.

The Bishops Cleeve area received some heavy thunderstorms over the previous weekend, several roads, including Church Street, we flooded. So we checked all the water courses between cross drains 37F and 41B – nothing untoward noted. However, it is very apparent that the recent rain has cause the vegetation to rapidly grow; we are going to have a lot of clearance work in the autumn to restore access.

Even after the heavy showers in the past few days, some watercourses are still bone dry. This is cross drain 41B.

Before declaring the rain to heavy to continue with repointing and concrete repairs, we placed another barrow load of stone as scour prevention into the outlet stream of cross drain 37F.

The seven members of the team who got rather wet were John, Peter, Andrew, Nigel, Dave, Jonathan and Polly.

Wildlife report: Before the rain stated, we watched an impressive ariel ballet from gulls, red kites, buzzards and crows. North of Station Road Bridge we has a quick glimpse of a deer – probably a muntjac. On the floral side, we noted quite lot of wild roses in bloom.

Not flaming June!

Thursday 5th June

Our first wet working day for over two months. Fortunately the heavy shows coincided with morning coffee break and lunchtime.

Two teams, both starting work at Pecked Lane, Bishops Cleeve.

Jonathan, Martin and Peter formed the first team. Their first task was to clear the debris that had accumulated inside culvert 39A; where it splits into two pipes almost at the railway boundary on the up (Malvern) side. They also cleared the trash screen on the down (Cotswold) side inlet in Honeybourne Meadow.

Checking for gases in the manhole above the split of culvert 39A. This is part of the confined spaces entry procedure we follow. The build up of debris below is very obvious. [Photo by Jonathan]

Debris removed - revealing the start of the twin pipes where sticks get caught.  [Photo by Jonathan]

Cleared trash screen on the inlet of 39A right under the boundary fence. [Photo by Jonathan]

Then it was a trip down to Elliots to collect a tonne of building sand. An indirect journey back was lineside, which enabled stops for attend to silt clearance at cross drains 37E, 37D, 36B and finally 36A at Manor Lane. Ironically all these clearance tasks were on our ‘dry day’ list! However, the recent rains so far have not significantly increased the flow and, more importantly, the depth of water in these watercourses.

Martin and Peter clearing silt from the down (Cotswold) side inlet of cross drain 36B.  [Photo by Jonathan]

After lunch, the bag of sand was unloaded in Winchcombe Yard using the telehandler in Jonathan’s capable hands.

Meanwhile, the larger team (Nigel, Dave, Polly, Andrew, Stuart, Roger) headed south of Two Hedges Road to the point where the cutting becomes an embankment. The task here was to raise the height of two up side cess chambers to make them more visible; and to replace broken concrete lids with blue mesh. For both chambers we used double (220mm) height GRP chamber rings. One chamber is a standard cess chamber; but the other is where a foul water pipe passes under the railway, effectively cutting through the cess drains on both sides. Probably this chamber and the corresponding one on the down side were built whilst the railway was closed. They are a non standard size. So this meant some of the team returning to Winchcombe to collect two reinforced concrete lintels and a few bricks on which to sit the GRP ring. This delay, together with the heavy rain shower at lunchtime, meant the rebuild took a bit longer than expected. Consequently we postponed attending to some other small tasks between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington. Typically, arrival back at Winchcombe coincided with the rain stopping. So at least unloading the vehicles, including storing away the reusable concrete lids and concrete chamber ring, took place in the dry.

GRP ring on the standard cess chamber (left); the bigger chamber with the foul water pipe running through it on the right.

Polly completes the reduction base for the GRP ring on the odd sized chamber.

Job complete - chambers proud of the ground and with visible blue mesh covers.

Wildlife report: The headline item today was finding a slow worm south of Two Hedges Road. Otherwise most animal and bird life was sensibly sheltering from the rain.

Slow worm.

 

 

 

Wednesday 4th June

Attendance at a meeting at Toddington coincided with the train preparations. The two GWR 2-8-0s make a very pleasing sight when side by side.

 

A good day for washing

Thursday 29^th May

Warm, sunny and with a strong south westerly breeze, ideal conditions for drying washing outside – and also almost ideal conditions for working outside.

The target location for today’s team of eight was either side Little Buckland bridge.

The first tasks were placing some scour prevention rocks in the bed of the outlet streams of culverts 3B and 4A. Next, taking advantage of the continuing spell of dry weather; two of the team checked the outlet manhole of cross drain 3A, removing the last little bit of silt.

4A outlet - the stones we added in the bed are there (honest!).

Still a small flow off the adjoining fields into the toe ditch/pipe and then into 4A inlet. [Photo by Jonathan]

A ‘dry day’ task that we were not able to undertake was some minor repointing of the outlet headwall of culvert 3B. Whilst the water level was low; the amount of vegetation growing on the steep sides of the outlet channel prevented safe access. We will have to devise a safe way of clearing all of this before proceeding.

A deep and steep drop to the outlet of 3B.

The main task for the day was in the toe ditch on the down (Cotswold) side on the low mileage side of culvert 4A. Two brush cutters and one hedge trimmer were put to action to clear access from the lineside and then along the length of the ditch. There are two chambers in this ditch on the low mileage side of the culvert, these are where run offs from the adjoining field enter. The ditch is piped between the second chamber and the inlet of 4B. One section of pipe was missing; so we repaired this with a length of plastic twinwall, neatly cut to fit into the existing pipe and the adjacent chamber. We also cleared out both chambers and the inlet of 4A. Most of the material from the chambers was badger bedding – not surprising as there is a large active badger sett in the side of the embankment. Worryingly there are also signs of badger excavations on the up (Malvern) side too.

The gap in the toe ditch pipe filled with a length of twinwall.

One of the entrances to the badger sett on the down side.

Continuing with our programme of installing safety markers for headwalls, we measured up the headwalls of 3A, 3B, 4A, 5A, 5B and 5C. 5C is over half way on to Laverton Meadow; so that was quite a long work. However, this did give us the chance to inspect all the drainage and fencing improvements made by our neighbour at Archer Farm. This will have sorted out the long standing problem of pooling water during the wet seasons in parts of the down side toe ditch.

Cross drain 5B inlet chamber in the down side toe ditch along side Archer Farm, reconfigured with a new overflow pipe from the farm's pond.

What a difference - the reinstated toe ditch and sheep proof fence near 5B. [Photo by Jonathan]

Almost the same spot back in October last year before work commenced.

For the record the team today (in no particular order!) was Peter, Nigel, Roger, Polly, Dave, Martin, Andrew, Jonathan.

Wildlife report: The interesting observations were early in the day – we found both a frog and toad in the yard at Winchcombe whilst loading materials. Near Peasbrook we spotted more roe deer; and several rabbits. Plenty of insects of a multitude of species – including some ladybirds. Taking advantage of the abundance of flying inserts were several swifts.

Gala overtime

Like many GWSR volunteers, several members of the Drainage team also help out with other teams and departments. This is especially true with Special Events. For the 2025 Cotswold Festival of Steam (‘Spring Gala’) four of the team were assisting. Roger spent all three days manning the First Response Team's mobile unit; Jonathan was on crossing duty at Winchcombe; Andrew put in a turn as good train chaperone; and Ian helped prepare 76077 for display in the steam shed at Toddington.

Riding a freight train south of Cheltenham Racecourse was an unusual opportunity to inspect the cess drains without a long walk from the station.

 

 

 

 

Looking almost like a complete loco, 76077 in the steam shed at Toddington.

Late arrival at Gretton (updated)

Thursday 22^nd May

After various delays over the past few months, the two wagon loads of spoil excavated from the foundations of the new platform 2 building at Broadway finally arrived at Gretton.

The Motive Power folk shunted the two wagons onto the car park unloading siding at Toddington, in between offloading visiting locomotives for the Cotswold Festival of Steam (the Spring ‘gala’). Then a grab and tipper lorry emptied the wagons. Martin and Peter provided assistance for this. Due to the nature of the spoil and the fact it had sat in the wagons for several months, the spoil from the corners of the wagons had to be manually dug out. Three lorry loads were taken to the top of the haul road from Working Lane, opposite the Royal Oak pub. Here Jonathan was waiting with the telehandler to level out the material once tipped from the lorry. Also Stuart, Dave and Andrew were on hand with shovels and rakes to break up the large lumps of clay and to remove the few bits of brick and concrete. Most of the material went in the embankment hollow between culvert 24A outlet and the top of the haul road; with a bit just beyond (high mileage) of the culvert. The hollow is now less pronounced; however, there is still scope for more infill to complete the levelling out.

Unloading spoil from Broadway via Toddington.

Using the telehandler to compact and level out the spoil.

Job done - telehandler departs.

Whilst waiting for the first lorry load of spoil, Stuart, Dave and Andrew fitted an extra GRP chamber ring to the outlet chamber of culvert 24A. This will ensure that when the vegetation grows taller (brambles have started growing already) the chamber will be readily visible. 

Now proud of the embankment all round, the outlet chamber of 24A.

Despite the dry spell, culvert 24A still had a small amount of water trickling through it. This was all coming from the down side cess near Greet tunnel, this collects a lot of water running of and percolating through Langley Hill. Cross drain 24B was completely dry – so Dave took the opportunity to clear the apron between the railway embankment and the haul road of the moss and weed that had accumulated.

24B apron cleared. [Photo by Dave]

Stuart, Dave and Andrew also paid a visit to Gretton to investigate a report of some culverts being contaminated with foul water. Some evidence was found; which is now with Tewkesbury Borough Council Environment Health and the Environment Agency to investigate further. *Update Friday evening* - Severn Trent Water attended on Friday. They determined the cause was a broken joint in a foul water pipe in an adjoining property. Now fixed.

Meanwhile, Nigel and Polly made a return visit to Didbrook to make the repairs to the broken pipe leading from the down side cess at culvert 16A to the road under Didbrook No2 bridge (16). The small break was fixed with concrete sitting on a saddle made from a half section of a larger diameter twinwall pipe.

Twinwall saddle on the small break; holds the concrete repair. [Photo by Polly]

For the large break, where several section of SGP pipe had completely broken, the repair was mixture of a replacement section of 9” SGP pipe and a new sleeve fashioned from 300mm twinwall pipe. The twinwall overlaps the SGP, with the resultant small gaps plugged with mortar. Finally some spent ballast from the winter relaying work at Hayles Abbey filled in the excavations. Thus a satisfactory completion of a task that has been on our ‘to do’ list for over 4 years! Most of that time was waiting for a suitable dry spell so that the pipe was not running.

Large break repair almost complete; just another barrow load of spent ballast to entirely cover the twinwall pipe needed. [Photo by Polly]

Nigel demonstrates the height of the undergrowth. [Photo by Polly]

Final task for the day was to cut some of the lengths of old scaffold pole to the correct lengths to install as safety markers on the structures between Toddington and Winchcombe which we measured last week.

Wildlife report: Our arrival at the top of the haul road opposite the Royal Oak disturbed a roe deer. We also spotted many rabbits there – so too did a Red Kite circling overhead. We spotted wild garlic in the damp and shade at Gretton; whilst by the haul road there is lots of cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) and red campion (Silene dioica) plants. Also Dipsacus fullonum, wild teasel, last year’s plants with their dead teasel heads are easy to spot; but this year’s growth without the flower heads takes is not so easy to distinguish.

New teasel plant. [Photo by Dave]

In Winchcombe yard, we noted the house martins were glad of the overnight rain which had produced a few puddles and thus mud for nest building.

Dry work

On our list of outstanding tasks, there are several marked as requiring a dry spell. With no significant rain for nearly two months in the Cotswolds, we are certainly in a dry spell. So time to attend to some of those tasks.

Thursday 15^th May

The Toddington to Winchcombe section was the main target of our dry spell work. However, first of all Nigel, Roger and Andrew went to Two Hedges Road at Bishops Cleeve to place the concrete lids on the rebuilt syphon inlet chamber of cross drain 39B. A straightforward task, apart from carrying the lids up the cutting side, definitely a three man operation.

39B syphon inlet chamber complete with concrete lids. Just some infill to add and that job is done - that will have to wait until after some rain has softened the ground!

Martin and Peter were first in at Toddington. Their main task was to measure all the structures between Toddington and Winchcombe which require fitting of safety markers or handrails. This included the long filled in underbridge located a 9m 70c. Formerly this was bridge 14, but is now known as 14X as Toddington Station footbridge is now number 14. Whilst measuring the up side (Malvern) of culvert 14B, they removed two old sleepers from the outfall pond. These were once part of a farmers bridge upstream, washed away in one of the winter storms.

The first two old sleepers removed from the outlet pool of 14B. Third one resting against the outlet pipe - waiting for a five man team to remove. [Photo by Jonathan]

Another ‘dry day’ tasks they completed was the removal of silt and vegetation from the inlet apron of cross drain 20C on the down (Cotswold) side at Chicken Curve.

Once Jonathan had completed the weekly vehicle checks, and made some minor repairs; he and Polly also made their way to Toddington South. They tacked the three old sleepers in the inlet channel on down side of culvert 14B.

Two of the old sleepers removed from 14B inlet. [Photo by Jonathan]

 

Taking advantage of the low water levels, Andrew takes a photo of the inside of the 14B bore. [Photo by Jonathan]

Looking inside the 14B bore.

When Nigel, Roger and Andrew joined, the final old sleeper in the up side outlet pond was removed. This was up against the outlet pipe; so once removed the water level dropped a bit more. The low water level revealed the extend of the undercutting of the up side high mileage wing wall. Repairing this will needs a much lower water level.

14B outlet pond - low water level obvious. End coping stone of the high mileage wing wall visible under the vegetation.

The group of five next moved south to the down side inlet of culvert 15A. The winter storms had dislodged three of the concrete slabs which form the bank protection here. Despite the dry spell, this stream still had a very slight flow running; plus some deep pools in the inlet channel meant careful placement of feet to avoid wet boots.

All slabs on 15A inlet now upright, looking up stream ... [Photo by Jonathan]

... and downstream to the down side headwall. [Photo by Jonathan]

Having completed the measuring tasks, Martin and Peter joined the rest of the team for lunch at Didbrook. Then for all the afternoon task was digging out around breaks in a SGP pipe which carries excess water from the down side inlet of cross drain 16A to the road under Didbrook No2 bridge. This pipe is very old 9inch internal diameter SGP, probably dating from the building of the line. One break is going to be simple to repair with a concrete patch. The other beak which is around 6 foot long will be more challenging. We no longer have sufficient 9 inch SGP spare, and standard sizes of modern plastic pipe is either too big or too small.

The small break, essentially where the collar of the downstream section has broken off. Easily fixed!

The big break - two completely broken sections of 9" SGP pipe removed.

Upstream end of the break, this section of SGP is cracked.

Downstream end of the break, slightly damaged collar on this section of pipe.

We were delighted to note that Gloucestershire County Council highways have repaired the roadside headwall up side high mileage of Didbrook No2 bridge. This is the exit from the pipe from the 16A inlet - interestingly there was a small flow here, where as it is completely dry higher up where the breaks are.

GCC repaired roadside headwall - and verge markers installed to make it more visible to vehicles. [Photo by Jonathan]

Wildlife report: As now usual when at Bishops Cleeve, the larger flock of gulls was noted, audibly first then visually. Otherwise the main items to note were some Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) plants at Didbrook. This can cause skin iterations, but is not so dangerous as Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). Fortunately we have not encountered any Giant Hogweed - so far! An interesting insect spotted was a green lacewing – not surprisingly as there are over 1,300 known species we did not make a positive identification. No fish spotted in any watercourse today - and still no sign of hedgehogs.