Wet and dreary June

Most of the team were in attendance, with Roger on H&S duties - just a few away on holidays. The forecast was poor, with storms forecast and as most of our work is outside, this affects what we can do safely.

 

A certain faction within the team wanted to take advantage of the Boss (Team Leader) being away and some dodgy Engineer was standing in.  However, the latter managed for a short while to keep order and arrange for several strong Drainage Workers to manhandle bridge rail, which had been cleaned, painted and prepared to become mileposts.  These just needed four 10mm holes drilling and then the milepost heads can be fixed thereon.

 

A great piece of inter-Departmental assistance was demonstrated, with Stuart in Carriage and Wagon allowing the team to use his excellent facilities (a mag drill and steel support trestles) to make these holes.  Thanks, Sir.  The posts are now available for siting - the wooden post and yellow BR metal plate at 17 miles in Bishop's Cleeve will be one to be replaced, as it is ugly and broken.

The team then turned their attention to sorting through the donated scaffolding pipes and creating "goal-post" barriers for our headwall and chambers.  The idea is that these mark where headwall or chambers are located, so that when the robo-flail is being controlled by the remote operator, the latter can see where a structure is located and avoid it.  They also help hapless Drainage Workers (like this writer) and provide support when walking down steep embankments and prevent falls.  The donation of these almost-new lengths of steel handrail and connectors was through the good offices of David and we may be looking for more donations like this.  Some more lengths of tube were extracted from the yard and will be measured, cut and assembled into goal-posts.

A large part of the team then descended on the 11:27 to Broadway and planned to walk the trackbed north and inspect the chambers beyond the station, as these take the flow away from the station towards the bypass. They were thwarted by the security fencing (which is good) and were only able to peer through and see a couple of chambers.

Lunch was had as split teams and then two intrepid members mounted the head on MP 15/III, just south of Gotherington loop.

 

They then revisited the culvert at 37D, on the edge of the latest slip at Gotherington, to finish the wing wall by back-filling, removing the protective slop-board and trimming the land drain pipe. 

Barrier team

Stuart and Martin finishing the head for mp 15/III

Stuart checking the backfill at 37D.

 

All in all, an odd day dodging the rain, but many tasks ticked off, with proper teamwork.

Wildlife report An odd sighting was a goose, standing on the crown of the road in Gotherington as we tried to drive slowly by.  Many red kites were spotted, wheeling around in the sky and trying to avoid being mobbed by crows.  The rain had driven many creatures under cover.

 

[Guest blog writer Chief Engineer Ian]