Handbags and glad-rags

Thursday 23^rd July

We took advantage of the day before the Diesel Gala having no scheduled passenger trains to obtain a line block to enable us to work safely and easily with equipment near the line at Bishops Cleeve. As there was some shunting movements in the afternoon, we had to return the long section Toddington to Cheltenham annets key just after lunch. Many thanks to the operations team and to the signalers for arranging this at short notice.

Triple safety - stop boards at Pecked Lane crossing in addition to signal WE33 (Winchcombe Down Starting) having a collar and we were in possession of the Toddington to Cheltenham annets key (the single line token).

The main reason for the line block was to setup our 110v submersible pump in one of the flooded down (Cotswold) side cess chambers between Pecked Lane crossing and Two Hedges Road. Both the cables from generator (on the LWB Transit truck) and the outlet hose crossed the line – something not possible when trains are running. Once the blocked chamber was pumped out, Nigel, Martin (J), Martin (S), Peter (D) and Peter (Chief Civil Engineer) used a variety of techniques and tools to unblock the cess drain. The blockage was a schoolbag and a pair of shoes – probably illicitly obtained from a local school student, valuables removed and then evidence hidden. The down side cess is flowing steadily here; initial investigations seem to indicate a leak from culvert 39A.

Sorting out the pump for the full cess chamber.

Using a small usb camera attached to a phone to see what is in the pipe.

School bag and shoes removed from the cess drain. [Photo by Dave]

Andrew, Stuart, and Martin (S) worked on the roadside inlet manhole of syphon culvert 39B adjacent to Two Hedges Road bridge. The task here was to use grout and mortar to seal the joins in the bottom block course of the manhole. During wet weather (remember that!) this manhole was leaking into the cutting side by the wing wall of the bridge. There was just a trickle of water flowing through today. The bottom of the manhole was probably one of the coolest places to work.

Some of the joins in the bottom of the 39B inlet before grouting/pointing...

... and after.

Another ‘need a dry day’ task was at the famous Bonsai World inlet stream manhole on the down side crest – this runs to cross drain 40B. Roger, Dave, and Phil were the team hear. This also involved working in the manhole, but there was no flowing water here. The task was to grout around the 600mm diameter twinwall exit pipe. Hopefully this will cure the leaks that run down the cutting side to the cess here. We will have to wait for some significant rain to test it.
Dave enters the Bonsai World inlet manhole. (We filed in three confined spaces work forms today!)

Grouting around the exit pipe of the Bonsai World inlet manhole. [Photo by Dave]

After lunch Roger spoke to some of the team members who missed his session on Hand-Arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) earlier in the month. The rest of the team undertook some vegetation clearance of railway land roadside on Two Hedges Road. This was made possible by temporary traffic lights reducing the carriage to single alternative direction; and by agreement with the road works foreman.
Roadside verge cleared at Two Hedges Road. [Photo by Dave]

In his role as company road vehicle mechanic, Jonathan spent most of the day at Winchcombe. The main task was to coordinate a replacement tyre for the while Ford Ranger, as this had suffered a major puncher the day before.

Wildlife report: Again lots of insects. The most interesting was a blue butterfly, probably a Common Blue, but its very small size led us to wonder whether it was the much rarer Small Blue (Cupido minimus).

Common Blue or Small Blue? [Photo by Dave]

Friday 24^th July

Drainage team member Ian helped man the Railway Trust stand at the Welland Steam and Country Rally. A spectacular event, with
137 traction engines, steam rollers, showman’s engines, crane engines, steam wagons and steam cars
40 miniature steam engines
4 fairground organs
1 rail mounted steam crane
1 standard gauge steam loco (Kerr, Stuart 4388 of 1926 from the Foxfield Railway)
100 vintage tractors
191 Field Marshall tractors (and derivatives)
208 veteran, vintage and classic cars
191 historic commercial vehicles
110 stationary engines
133 classic motor cycles
45 historic pedal cycles
146 historic military vehicles including 4 tanks