Wet and dry

Thursday 16^th July

Today’s score was not 2-1, but 29-11. Maximum temperature 29C with 11 team members in attendance.

Jonathan, Phil, Dee, and Martin [S] continued with vegetation clearance on the down (Cotswold) side of the River Isbourne, that is up stream of the bridge. Most of the vegetation removed was Himalayan balsam. Martin [J] initially helped with some brush cutting around the safety rails on the bridge parapet. He then joined Roger at Working Lane. The plan was to brush cut around the ‘No trespassing’ signs adjacent to the Royal Oak pub. However, the new pub garden fencing and height of vegetation is a better deterrent to the trespassers.

A clear passage for the low mileage down side ditch to flow into the river. [Photo by Martin (S)]

Dee clearing the foot of the wing wall safety rails. [Photo by Martin (S)]

Down side Isbourne access steps all cleared.  [Photo by Martin (S)]

On the 'to do' list is clearing the down side low mileage ditch - like a lot of places this year's growth is enormous. [Photo by Jonathan]

Nigel, Peter and John headed to Manor Lane with our drain rods to rod out cross drains 37A, 37B and 37E. They also took lifting straps to recover the ‘6-foot’ cess chamber lid at Bishops Cleeve.

All clear through 37F. [Photo by John]

Dave and Andrew travelled to Two Hedges Road. Taking advantage of the dry weather, they investigated the inside of the now famous Bonsai World inlet of cross drain 40B. With only an inch of water in the manhole and nothing flowing through it, they were able to identity cracks around the 2 foot diameter twin wall exit pipe. If the weather stays dry, we should be able to attempt a repair next week with some grout.

Crack around the exit pipe of the Bonsai World inlet.

Nothing flowing into the down cess at the Bonsai World inlet.

Next was a check on the water levels in the road inlet to syphon cross drain 39B, on the down side just on the low mileage side of Two Hedges Road bridge (40) – well actually adjacent to the footbridge 39Z. This chamber also has a leak. Despite the dry weather, there was a dribble of water flowing trough it.

39B roadside inlet manhole - some silt needs clearing and then we can plug the leak in the base.

The leak eventually runs into the down side cess; so Dave and Andrew checked that too. Surprisingly the cess was flowing well – but from where. Checking the upstream chambers (back towards Pecked Lane); they discovered a chamber almost full of water.

Dave investigates one of the filled down side cess chambers.

So hence a major obstruction in between. So Nigel, Peter and John came down with the drain rods, and with help from the Railway’s Chief Civil Engineer, Peter Brown, six of us attempted to remove the obstruction. This was only partially successful, we managed to get the water flowing better and the level in the chamber went down by several inches. But as it was then well past lunchtime, and the afternoon heat was increasing, we decided to leave the full unblocking to next week. So we are hoping that there is no rain in the next seven days, so we can undertake all three tasks.

The rodding team take a break as an up train hauled by 24081 (D5081) passes under Two Hedges Road Bridge.

Back at Winchcombe, we met with another new recruit to the team, Laurence. So the team size is now up to fifteen. One member jokingly suggested that we need a longer railway to look after!

Wildlife report: Very much an insect day. Inside the Bonsai World chamber we found many peacock butterflies sheltering from the sun – initially we thought they were moths. Lots of other butterflies and insects including hover flies flitting around, plus several water boatman (Corixidae) in the cess chambers. The group at the River Isbourne reported brown trout. Plus several of us found some ripe blackberries - ripe enough to eat!

Peacock butterfly. [Photo by Dave]

Heat waves two and three

The combination of the June heatwave and various team members holidays resulted in a significant drop in productivity of the team during June and the early part of July.

Thursday 18th June

Some of the team took the opportunity to visit the RAIL Live industry exhibition at Porterbrook’s Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre. Others attended a presentation by the team from Birmingham University who are trialling a bridge strike monitoring system on the B4632 Evesham Rd. Bridge at  Broadway (BU01). One very keen team member attended both.

Thursday 25th June

With the whole railway temporally closed (no passenger services running on 23rd, 24th or 25th June) due to the extreme heat, we cancelled our planned work. 

Thursday 2nd July

The day started off with Roger talking to the team about Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). One day in the autumn we will monitor the teams use of all toos which give rise to HAVS. This is when brushcutting and hedge trimming are in full swing, so we can determine how each operative’s usage time matches up against the maximum safe daily time.

Peter and Phil went up to inspect the trackbed north of Broadway Station. The drainage from the station runs northwards along both sides of the former trackbed before entering a stream north of the bypass.

One of the cess chambers on the disused trackbed - in surprisingly good condition. [Photo by Peter]

Dee and Jonathan went to the River Isbourne to clear along the banks, the recently reinstated ditch and other outlets into the river. 

Martin [J], Nigel, Polly and Dave headed to Manor Lane. While Martin and Dave prepared and painted the parapet railings at bridges 37 and 38; Nigel and Polly replaced the coping stone at bridge 37 and fitted the cross bar to the chamber marker uprights at culvert 37D up side.

Martin [J] preparing parapet railing at bridge 37. [Photo by Dave]

Replaced coping stone on bridge 37. [Photo by Dave]

Painted parapet railings on bridge 38. [Photo by Dave]

After lunch, the group planted the replacement bridge rail upright for mile post 17, this is at the site of the old Bishops Cleeve station. At the same location on the up side, they replaced the paving slab being used as a chamber lid with a metal grid cover. They discovered what had happened to the proper lid: it is in the bottom of the chamber! The chamber is quite small but also deep so retrieving the lid will be a bit of a challenge, but at a later date we will manage it with judicious use of a couple of straps.

Installing the bridge rail upright for mile post 17 at Bishops Cleeve. [Photo by Dave]

Thursday 9th July

Another heat wave, so another day when we  cancelled our planned work. (Strictly postponed it to next week - when the team leader is back from his annual expedition to undertake practical experiments in fluid dynamics on the canals of England and in some canal side establishments.)

From our Northern Correspondent 

The Millennium Walkway over the River Goyt at New Mills. The large retaining wall top left is for the Hope Valley Railway line just east of New Mill Central Station.

Along side the trackbed of the former Peak Forest tramway was this fine specimen of a Common Spotted Orchid, (Dactylorhiza fuchsii).