Ring, ring

Thursday 19^th March

A last minute change of plan for us today, as C&W required the tail-lift fitted LWB Transit to collect a piece of machinery from Cheltenham. We also required it to deliver concrete catch pit rings to Stanton Yard. So our plans changed – no work on the steps above the River Isbourne to enable deployment of extra manpower at Stanton to enable offloading of the rings and returning the LWB Transit to Winchcombe for C&W use.

So Jonathan loaded the five concrete rings on the LWB Transit with the telehandler. Then he departed to Stanton with John driving the Transit. Also heading that way in two other vehicles were Martin (S), Martin (J), Peter, Dave and Nigel. [One downside of a larger team size is that we need several vehicles to get us all to site. The work at Stanton was to replace some broken rings on the cess chamber immediately on the high mileage up side of Stanton Bridge. As you can see from the photographs, this is very close to where fresh supplies of ballast are delivered and then collected. Hence this chamber is prone to damage from close encounters from vehicles. First task was to remove some of the ballast hep from around the chamber and then the two damaged rings. We inserted four new rings, thus making the chamber higher and more visible. The telehandler made this job as lot easier and safer – these concrete rings are very heavy. Moving them by hand needs four strong folk. We covered the chamber with a blue mesh lid, bolted down, and placed two blue painted marker posts in front of it. There is now no excuse for failing to spot that chamber now.

Martin (S) and Martin (J) removing some of the ballast pile around the chamber. [Photo by Dave]

Unloading the pallet of rings to enable the Transit to return to Winchcombe for use by C&W. [Photo by Dave]

Jonathan carefully reverses down the slope to the trackside with the first replacement ring. [Photo by Dave]

Martin (J) directing the placement of the third ring.[Photo by Dave]

The completed stack of rings with lid and markers. [Photo by Dave]

After the work at Stanton, Jonathan returned the telehandler to Winchcombe. His next task was to sort out a flat tyre on the Isuzu pickup. The next jobs for Martin (S), Martin (J), Peter, Dave and Nigel were further north. These were to install lengths of bridge rail for the posts of replacement mileposts 6 and 6¾. The bridge rail lengths for mileposts are 6 foot long; so these are quite heavy too. They require a two foot deep hole in the ground – another task requiring some muscle power.

Martin (S) and Peter inserting the new post for milepost 6¾. [Photo by Dave]

Final task for the group of five was to complete the checking of the distances between the mileposts up to Broadway. Martin (J) has repair our measuring wheel using plastic welding; whilst Martin (S) demonstrated some skilful balancing by running the wheel along a rail head to avoid irregularities caused by uneven ground.

Meanwhile back at Winchcombe Yard, John had joined Ian and Andrew working on two GRP catch pit rings that are destined for the new chamber on the crest at Stowe Road, Toddington. The task was to cut a 265mm diameter hole in the ends to take the inlet pipe of the new crest drain. Whilst these GRP rings are considerably lighter than the concrete rings, they are extremely hard. Hence the hole cutting took quite some time, using a variety of power and hand tools.

Ian preparing to cut the GRP rings. Fist drill a small hole in the middle of the cut out to enable marking a circle leaving equal amounts in each ring.

Completed set of rings and length of pipe test fitted. Excavating the ditch and fitting this at Toddington is next week's task.

 

After lunch, Jonathan and John make a quick visit to Pecked Lane at Bishops Cleeve. The job here was to install some additional warning signs by the footpath gates. Unfortunately, the fixings on the back of the signs proved incompatible with the tubular posts already in place. So a return visit will be needed with some different sized fixings.

Wildlife report: Spring had certainly sprung - this was the warmest and sunniest workday for us so far this year. Consequently we observed a noticeable increase in inset activity, spotting solitary and bumble bees and several species of butterfly. At Winchcombe we observed at leat six magpies which appear to be nesting towards the school. They were being mobbed by at leat three crows. The yard’s resident robins were also noted. The change to spring weather has certainly brought out the blossom on the blackthorn trees and bushes, and on a couple of cherry trees. Daffodils and narcissi are now just past their flowering peak, whilst in a sheltered spot near broadway we spotted primroses in full flower.

Primroses. [Photo by Dave]