Another mucky day

Thursday 5^th February

Another Mucky Day for the team, mainly working on the down side under Stowe Road Bridge at Toddington. Although the temperature was marginally up on last week, and the wind was not quite so keen and not funnelling under the bridge; this was a typical February day. Grey, cool and damp – verging on wet! Ideal for getting boots and gloves covered in mud.

Three of the team, Dave, Peter and Ian formed our regular winter road clearance team. The roads which pass under some of of underbridges are prone to flooding in very wet weather. In most cases the flood water recedes after a few hours; but occasionally a grill blocked by leaves or other debris or a pipe blocked with silt retains the deep water. Over the previous weekend we had heard that the water under Didbrook No2 bridge (16) was deep enough to prevent cars from driving through. One of our local members investigated; he determined that the grills were clear so the blockage must be in the drains which lead away. These are the responsibility of GCC Highways – so an incident was logged with them. Our Thursday three started at Little Buckland Bridge (5). Here there were puddles under the bridge because of the uneven road surface, and a pothole or two, but the drains were not blocked and were doing their job.

Little Buckland Bridge - no flood, just puddles. [Photo by Dave]

Then on to the next bridge down, Laverton Meadow Lane (6). Again the road was not flooded and the drains coping with the amount of rain falling. Surprisingly, there was very little material in the silt traps on either side of the road. These were cleared. One of the team drove home that way later in the day, reporting a substantial flow from the adjacent field on the down side high mileage of the bridge. However, this was all getting away.

Peter and Ian clearing the silt traps under Laverton Meadow Lane Bridge. [Photo by Dave]

Didbrook No1 Bridge (15) was all fine, just a very muddy road surface underneath. So the group of three proceeded to Didbrook No2 bridge.

After the flood, lots of mud under Didbrook No2 Bridge. [Photo by Dave]

The flood from the weekend had receded, leaving a tide mark on the depth gauge. The group swept the road and cleaned the grills. Whilst there, GCC Highways turned up with a gully suction vehicle. They sucked out the exit pipes on the up (Malvern) side; one of which was well blocked with silt. The group then headed to Toddington to join the Stowe Road group for lunch.

GCC Highways sucking out the drain under Didbrook No2 Bridge. [Photo by Jonathan] 

To assist finding the grills when under water, we have renewed the blue marks on the bridge wing walls. [Photo by Dave]

The group progressing the improvements to the drainage of the down side cutting on the low mileage side of Stowe Road bridge were Polly, Nigel, Jonathan, John and Andrew. We had planned on starting the excavation of the new crest chamber and ditch. However, a repair to the mini-digger was not complete, so we have delayed this. (Also with the wetting rain it would have not been a very comfortable day for the digger driver – our little machine does not have a cab). Polly and Nigel mixed some concrete to back fill the small training wall we built last week. Then after John and Andrew had cleaned around the existing cess chamber; a barrow load of mortar was mixed and a row of solid bricks added. This has some gaps in it, to allow the S&T cables to pass through and to allow the new pipe from the cutting side land drain to pass into the chamber.

Polly (l) and John determining where the field drain extension pipe will run.

The brick course raising the chamber to be clear of the S&T cables.

Andrew and Jonathan marked up the location for the excavations for the new chamber and ditch at the top of the cutting side. They also measured up for the replacement fence. One part will be removable to allow our clearance contractor access with the robot flail. A phone call with the contractor confirmed the minimum width this needs to be.

The two groups met up for lunch in the Toddington MPD mess room. A comfortable seat at a table with plenty of space in the warm and dry – luxury! [And of course hot running water in the wash room.] After lunch, both groups, tidied up the Stow Road bridge site, including temporarily placing the GRP catch pit ring on the new course of bricks. Finally, with some effort, we extracted the redundant fence post on the up side of the line. This was slightly easier than that on the down side (which we removed on 1^st January). It was rotten just below ground level, so we did not need to use a saw. However, it took quite bit pushing and shoving and levering with a jemmy bar. These two fence posts date back to the very early ‘preservation’ days. A fence across the (then) trackbed on the Broadway side of Stowe Road bridge helped secure the Toddington Station site.

Peter (l) and John take a breather during the post removal.

End of day - GRP ring and blue mesh cover temporarily in place on the down side cess chamber. Next time we will level the whole area using some spent ballast.

Up side with the redundant fence post removed. Now are we destroying heritage of the 1970s or are we restoring back to the 1950s?

Wildlife report: Not surprisingly for a dull, wet winter’s day we did not spot a great deal. A Red Kite was circling over the yard at Winchcombe, no doubt like the cat last week on the lookout for rodents. Also in the yard, we found a hibernating queen wasp in one of the holes of a perforated brick in our brick pile. Encouragingly the signs of spring are increasing. Snowdrops are probably at there best now (even better if we had sunshine) – the road clearing gang spotted a fine drift at Didbrook. Plus we noted the first daffodil in bloom, admittedly in the shelter by the front door of Churchward House.