Signs of Spring

After our very wet, but short day, last week we did not have high expectations for this week. However, the weather was slightly better than forecast, just damp rather than wet, not too cold and even a few patches of blue sky and some brief sunny periods. Plus, we noted the first signs of spring.

Thursday 22^nd January

Eleven of the team reported for work today. The large number enabled a split into two teams heading for two completely separate work sites.

Jonathan, Dave, Roger, John and Martin headed south to Bishops Cleeve. The first task quickly undertaken was to check for any build-up of silt at the down side entry of culvert 39A. This is the one close to Pecked Lane foot crossing. It was flowing well, so no work was necessary here. When the flow eases off, we sometimes get a build up of silt in the entrance.

Next task for the team was to use the heavy duty brushcutters to shred the remaining cut vegetation on the up (Malvern) side cutting. There were three spots, one just before Two Hedges Road and two after. We are looking forward to seeing grass, rather than bramble or scrub, growing on this cutting.

Up side cutting south of Two Hedges Road looking towards Cheltenham. Much neater with the removal of cut vegetation. [Photo by Dave]

Further along, where the cutting transitions into an embankment, the group removed some damaged and redundant post and wire fencing. This is where the houses on Paget Road back onto the line, they now have their own fences. The wire became scrap; but some of the posts were recovered back to Winchcombe Yard as we can reuse them elsewhere.

The big task for the team was to full clear the silt from the down (Cotswold) side inlet of syphon cross drain 40A. This was an interesting task. After moving aside one of the concrete sleepers which covers the inlet channel, they removed some rather smelly silt. This revealed quite a good flow coming from under the adjacent farm track and footpath. In the base of the chamber is a circular hole full of silt and debris. The water flows over this, then into a pipe which heads down cutting side. As we have never found the outlet of the syphon, the exact arrangement here is a bit of a mystery. Now with the silt cleared from the inlet, we will return to undertake a further flow test with dye. That will have to wait for a few week though, as the vacant up side track bed is not accessible until the completion of the laying of a replacement S&T cable from Gotherington to Cheltenham.

40A inlet with one covering sleeper removed. [Photo by Dave]

40A pipe coming from under the farm track & footpath. [Photo by Dave]

40A exit to the syphon. [Photo by Dave]

The other group, Dee, Andrew, Ian, Nigel, Peter and Stuart, headed north to Toddington. Their task was to commence the construction work to alleviate the field and road run off which has afflicted the down side low mileage of Stowe Road Bridge (13) for many years. The first task was to complete the excavation between the bridge and the existing cess chamber. Then Nigel and Peter mixed three barrow loads of concrete; for careful insertion. Stuart and Andrew inserted steel reinforcing bars, and then carefully levelled out the concrete. This will form the base for a small retaining wall to keep silt away from the cess; and for the extra course of bricks to raise the chamber.

Stuart tamping and levelling the concrete for the wall base.

Close up showing some shuttering to avoid cementing in the S&T point cable which runs below the cable trough.

Peter and Stuart start clearing up after finishing the concrete laying. Having no rakes of stabled carriages in the platforms at Toddington makes working here a lot easier.

Meanwhile, Dee and Ian surveyed the cutting side. We suspected there was an existing land drain – this was easy to find today as it was running well. Unfortunately it emerges some way up the cutting side; water then running down the cutting side into the cess almost underneath the S&T cabinet. Not an ideal situation. This field drain probably extends beyond the railway boundary. The probable line of this drain was marked with blue marker paint. We then decided to modify our plan for the improvements here. We marked out the line of a new crest drain from the boundary corner by the road to site of a new chamber above the existing field drain. This will save the effort of constructing a new French drain or pipe run down the side of the cutting. We measured up and test fitted a length of flexible pipe to extend the field drain to the cess chamber. The diameter of the flexible pipe was perfect – but it was not long enough. So something for the shopping list this week.

Ian removes a tree stump just below where the field drain exits.

The crest of the cutting - just visible marking for the suspected run of the field drain and the location of the new chamber (to left of help of vegetation).

Test fitting of flexible pipe to extend the field drain to the cess chamber.

After lunch, Stuart and Ian undertook some flow tests with the marker dye. This showed that both the up and down side cess drains flow north from Stowe Road towards Stanway viaduct. The connection under the tracks to the cess drain in the six foot between the platforms at Toddington was not flowing. The other four used the laser level to take readings of the levels of the land on the crest of the cutting. The important item to determine from that data is the depth of the new junction chamber; and consequently the number of chamber rings we will need.

Ian and Stuart returning from the dye testing. Note the sunshine!

End of day - ply covering the curing concrete and blue mesh lids to cover the holes.

Wildlife report: We spotted some welcome signs of spring approaching. By the fence line alongside Stowe Road bridge was a patch of snowdrops. At Bishops Cleeve, the group there noted increased activity by long tailed tits – the down side cutting by Two Hedges Road has some ideal nest sites. Whilst at Toddington, two robins serenaded us whilst taking lunch on the platform. They certainly were having a singing competition; maybe two males at the edges of their territories, or a maybe a courting couple. Not quite wildlife, but the team members driving home towards Broadway reported a spectacular rainbow, a full 180 degrees arc across the sky.

Sign of spring 1 - snowdrops at Toddington. [Photo by Dee]

Sign of spring 2 - bulbs at Bishops Cleeve. [Photo by Dave]

 

A very wet (half) day

Thursday 15^th January

We were not so lucky with the weather today. The Met Office forecast predicted rain from 10am, becoming heavy around lunchtime. Almost spot on. Rain at Bishops Cleeve started at 10.30, and by noon was heavy enough to penetrate ‘waterproof’ PPE and make working on embankment and cutting slopes unsafe. So we called it a short day, retreating to the Churchward House mess at Winchcombe for lunch. A very brief period of less heavy rain allowed us to unload the vehicles with out getting drenched.

However, we did manage to achieve some of the planned tasks during the morning. John and Jonathan took a trip to Tewkesbury to collect the Isuzu truck from the main dealer, complete now with two sets of fully working keys. Unfortunately on the way back the Engine Management warning light came on; so Jonathan spent the afternoon diagnosing that problem.

Dave, Roger, Martin and Peter managed to finish the clearance of the low mileage down side toe ditch that runs to cross drain 40B south of Two Hedges Road. So now we have the complete length of the this ditch cleared from the entry by ‘Bonsai World’ along the cutting crest and then by the embankment toe. This has revealed several spots where undercutting is occurring. Bringing in infill is not going to be an easy job.

Peter (l) and Roger under take some final pruning at the 40B inlet. [Photo by Dave]

Dee, Polly and Andrew’s first task was to check on the slip monitoring equipment on the up (Malvern) side at Far Stanley. Most likely the low temperatures, ice and snow has played up with the remote sending of data. Without the special star allen key to open up the transmitter, the group decided the best plan was to bring the unit back to Winchcombe for attention. However, a visual check of the slip and the marker posts did not show any recent movement.

All slip marker posts still upright at Far Stanley.

Next stop was just down the line at cross drain 31A. The new owner of the adjacent property on the down (Cotswold) side of the line is very pro-Railway. He has cleared along his boundary line at the toe of the embankment, including the removal of a tree over the inlet of 31A. He has offered us access to enable the rebuilt of the inlet chamber; which will stabilise the bank on his side of the boundary.

Cleared boundary, so the silhouette racehorse and cross drain 31A inlet are easy to spot from the line.

So today’s task was to measure up the existing chamber; and to formulate the rebuild plans. One decision we made today was to wait until some drier weather before starting work here. Primarily this is to avoid churning up the landowners grassed area.

Dee and Polly consider options for the 31A inlet chamber rebuild.

We also measured up the outlet on the up side. Whilst we are there we might as well tend to that. This will be a simpler job, the existing headwall is in reasonable condition. So the plan is to add some solid wing walls to prevent the pressure of the embankment causing the headwall to lean.

31A outlet - the small headwall needs to be shored up with some sturdy wingwalls.

On the way to exiting the lineside at Gotherington Yard, they stopped for a chat with the operator of our clearance contractor’s robot flail. He had cleared all the up side cutting between Dixton Road bridge and The Tirle Brook flume (culvert 32A). Like us, he was anxious to get some more work completed before the heavy rain.

After a quick coffee break, the whole team were able to progress the clearance of the up side cess and cutting side at Two Hedges Road. This included removal of the discarded downpipes (see last weeks report); the large tree branches after chain sawing into manageable lengths; and various items of garden debris. Plus, as usual for Bishops Cleeve, lots of balls – golf, football, rugby, tennis, table tennis. A pleasant surprise was the pile of debris on the low mileage side of Two Hedges Road did not contain any nasty big items; just branches tangled up with brambles. We removed the bigger branches – but, like with the sites on the other side of the bridge, decided to postpone the shredding of the smaller vegetation with our larger brush cutters until a drier day.

Roger prunes the brambles away with a hedge trimmer.

Then Dave follows up with a brush cutter fitted with a shredder blade.

So the team departed Winchcombe at the very early hour of 2pm – in torrential rain. It would not have been pleasant, productive or safe to have continued working in such conditions.

Wildlife report: Not surprisingly for a cool, dull, grey and wet day our list of sighting was short. A muntjac deer at Far Stanley, several pheasants at Gotherington were the highlights. On the way back one vehicle nearly had a strike with a low flying wood pigeon; and we noted a very bedraggled kestrel perched on a telegraph post. Like us, most wildlife had decided to stay our of the rain.

Another GWSR blog: At long last our colleagues in the Lineside Clearance teams are documenting the important work they undertake on a blog. The URL is https://linesidegang.blogspot.com/ 

Lull before Goretti

Thursday 8^th January

We were fortunate with a window of reasonable weather for today’s work. The overnight drizzle, mist and low cloud cleared as we assembled at Winchcombe, and the first pulse of rain that storm Goretti brought arrived as we were packing away. At one point we even saw a bright patch in the sky!

Ten of the team attending. A new excuse from one who didn’t; he was trapped by heavy snow in Aberdeenshire.

Dave, Nigel and John took one of the Transits and headed to Swindon Lane bridge, on the northern edge of Cheltenham Racecourse. They trimmed the vegetation around all the cess chambers and lineside signs between the RDA crossing and Kayte Lane crossing. Plus a little bit more serious clearance on the down (Cotswold) side cutting just south of the bridge – probably a section we missed last winter.

It is not only vegetation that we clear from drain grills - here are several empty drink cans on the down side high mileage of Southam Lane bridge. [Photo by Dave]

Nigel tackles at least two years of bramble growth near Southam Lane. [Photo by Dave]

John on raking duty with Southam Lane bridge in the background. [Photo by Dave]

Ian, Peter and Stuart also undertook clearance, but this was a bit more serious. This was the ‘Bonsai World’ stream where is becomes a toe ditch on the down side running towards cross drain 40B. We are not sure when this section of ditch was last cleared – hence the initial attack was with loopers and a hedge trimmer. Only once overhanging branches were out of the way could they deploy brush cutters. They managed to clear almost the whole length, frustratingly leaving just a few yards for next time. Some interesting discoveries included an abandoned pipe from the down side cess to this ditch; and three field drains from the adjoining field.

Abandoned SGP pipe that once linked the down side cess to the toe ditch low mileage of 40B. There is a newer connection with a proper headwall a little further along, see below. 

Beyond the new cess connection, Peter uses the loopers to make access possible.

Ian almost totally hidden by vegetation - almost but not quite at the 40B inlet.

Dee and Andrew’s first tasks were to use the coloured dye tracer to establish some flows and leaks. First was the down side manhole on the low mileage of footbridge 39Z (alongside Two Hedges Road); this should flow into syphon cross drain 39B. The tracer dye established that the base of the manhole leaks ending up in the twinwall pipe running from the wingwall of bridge 40 to the down side cess. That will be a relatively easy one to fix – once we have some dry weather. Next was syphon 40A on the high mileage side of Two Hedges Road, where there is a small flow of water emerging from the up (Malvern) side cutting near the syphon washout cover. They put a bucket of dye into the 40A inlet on the top of the down side cutting; but even after an hour no coloured water emerged from the up side leak. This eliminates a broken syphon pipe as the source of this leak. Then the third dye test, as the now infamous Bonsai World stream. With the wetter weather over the past couple of months, we have noticed water flowing through the two twinwall pipes which lead directly to the cess chamber by the stream entry point. The dye test showed that this comes from the joint between the entry manhole and the length of 600mm diameter pipe in the crest ditch. This will be a bit more complex to fix, probably using mastic from the inside. So another job that has to wait for dry weather.

Green dyed water enters the down cess from the wingwall drain pipe of bridge 40. 

But only clear water flowed from the leak by the syphon washout cover of 40A.

The down side cess by the Bonsai World entry soon turned green when the dye was added to the man hole - the two plastic pipes here are those running direct from the crest.

Polly and Jonathan had a trip to Tewkesbury to take the Isuzu truck to a main dealer there. This is to fix a problem with the second set of keys which would open the vehicle but not start the engine. One the way back from Tewkesbury, they called in at Norths Bakery in Bishops Cleeve to obtain some hot Cornish pasties for all the team. They then joined Andrew and Dee clearing bulky items of debris from the up side cutting at the rear of the houses on Pagets Road. This has prevented the clearance contractor from fully clearing the cutting side with the robot flail. A lot of the debris was garden waste, including some large tree branches. Also some old drain pipes, concrete slabs, bricks and other rubble; plus numerous balls (football, rugby and golf).

Dee and Polly dealing with some of the larger branches on the cutting side.

The two lengths of soil downpipe which have probably been on the cutting side for many years.

After a short lunch break, with the help of the group who had completed the Southam Lane work, we brush cut two of these problem lengths of the cutting side. A third length and dealing with larger branches will be on the task list for next week. Then back to Winchcombe before the arrival of storm Goretti – one groups diverting via Working Lane to offload the wood debris there.

Neat and tidy - with just some larger branches and few lumps of concrete to collect next time.

Wildlife report: The most numerous birds we spotted today were sparrows – as the urban section at Bishops Cleeve is one of the few lengths of the railway providing their favoured habitat. Several magpies noted too, and, as usual for Cleeve, quite a few gulls. At lunch time we noted a heron perched on the ridge of a house; maybe eyeing up a garden fish pond. It was soon chased off by two of the gulls and then mobbed by a crow. Finally we noted two different robins whilst working on the 40B toe ditch – maybe partners or maybe the ditch extends into two territories. The only mammal spotted was a grey squirrel.

First Footing

With both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day this winter falling on Thursdays; to avoid loosing two working days, by a majority democratic decision, the team decided on a Friday workday for one week. Maybe this was a desire to work off some the excesses of Christmas!

Thursday 1^st January

However, for one of our team, Friday is a paid work day. So, in his role as vehicle and plant maintenance, Jonathan attended on New Year’s Day. With all the vehicles in the yard, this was an ideal opportunity to give them all a good external wash and for some an internal clean.

The white Ranger gets a foam snow wash. Overnight there was some real snow. [Photo by Jonathan]

Four clean vehicles - a rare sight! [Photo by Jonathan]

Friday 2^nd January

So to break the ice on 2026 (literarily!) seven of the team put in a full day, with help for two others who had other commitments in the afternoon.

We tried our best to keep the three vehicles we used clean – participially be not going tack side and cleaning boots before climbing board. However, the muddy puddles in Winchcombe yard and on on the roads can not be avoided.

All the team headed for Toddington to park in the station car park. Usually we started with a tea/coffee break to warm up – and consume some festive edibles. Then down to work.

Nigel and Peter cleared the vegetation on the top of the down (Cotswold) side cutting on the low mileage of Stowe Road Bridge. This was to enable a survey to determine where to cut a new drainage ditch. This is to catch the field and road run off; routing this to new French drain (or maybe a pipe) to take the water to the down side cess well away from the bridge. Currently in very wet periods, water cascades under the side arch of the bridge, washing down large amounts of silt. A lot of this ends up on the cess, exactly where locos are coupled or uncoupled and in the cess drains. And sometime the water flows across Stowe Road and flooding into Station Cottages.

Dave, Martin, John and Phil set to work clearing the entrance on the up (Malvern) side cutting crest and then continued along the crest fence line all the way to Stanway Viaduct. There is a crest drain pipe for half of this length; with some new(ish) chambers towards the viaduct. Nigel joined the Stanway bound group, clearing around the cess chambers on both sides of the line.  

The 'new' crest drain pipe was flowing slowly so showing why crest drains are so important in keeping cutting sides dry and stable. [Photo by Dave]

The north end of Toddington North cutting where it falls away to the embankment leading to Stanway viaduct is a very photogenic spot. Even with just a stationary line of goods wagons on the siding. One of the 'new' crest drain chambers in the foreground. [Photo by Dave]

The Stanway vegetation cutting group are just visible in the distance. The frost on the sleepers in the shadow of the bridge lasted all day. 

Meanwhile Dee and Andrew began excavating the deposited silt from around the first down side cess chamber by the bridge pier. A tricky job here as there are four S&T cables which run either over the top of the chamber or actually through it. Peter and Phil later joined; enabling the removal of the metal mesh chamber lid and thus use of a grab to remove the accumulated silt from the chamber. Also the lid removed, we were able to finalise a plan for the improvements. This will be to raise the chamber by one brick course, either side of the cable, then to install a GRP chamber ring and blue mesh lid to raise the height of the chamber. Also the plan is to construct a small retaining wall behind the chamber – both of these measures should reduce the amount of silt entering the cess drain. And make for a less muddy path under the bridge to the end of the platform for the train crews.

The cess chamber cleared of silt and the inverted U channels over the top of the S&T cables.

Checking for size and height of the planned rebuilt.

Metal grid lid removed.

Phil, Peter, Dee and John on the chain gang using the grab to remove silt from the chamber and to dispose where it will not flow back in.

Whilst we were there, we removed a long redundant fence post adjacent to the bridge pier. It obviously dates from the time when a fence extended across the track bed under the bridge when operations were only to the south of Toddington. Whoever installed that post intended it to last – no amount of digging or hammering would shift it. So when Ian arrived (see below), he was promptly dispatched to fetch a chain saw to cut the post off. There is a similar post on the up side of the line – we shall remove another day!

John, Dee and Peter attempt excavation of the fence post. Note the deployed red flags, however, no stock movements took place. 

The sawn off fence post stump - well ensconced in a lump of solid concrete.

Temporary covers in place.

Wildlife report: On his way into Winchcombe, Ian cam across an injured tawny owl sitting in the middle of the road. He stopped to investigate, and as the bird was too injured to resist, he put it in the bot of his car. At Winchcombe we found a cardboard box and some paper towels to make a more comfortable bed/nest; and then set about finding a suitable rescue centre to take the casualty to. This turned out to be almost back to Worcester – so a bit of a journey, hence Ian’s later arrival at Toddington. We did save him an iced bun (Ian that is, not the owl).

The injured tawny owl.

Other more mundane observations at Winchcombe were our resident robin in the wooden shed and a very low flying male pheasant who came to investigate the owl. Observations from the top of the cutting sides at Toddington included grey wagtails, Red Kites and buzzards. No sign of any mammals, not surprisingly since the daytime maximum temperature was only 3C (or 37.4 °F on the heritages scale).