Thursday 3rd September
Even with several members of the team absent for various reasons, we were able to form two groups working at locations over nine miles apart.
John,
Polly
and Peter formed the construction group. Their location was cross
drain 31A at
14m 30c. They commenced the rebuild of the outlet headwall on the up
(Malvern) side of the line. As the level of the water in the outlet
ditch had dropped since last week, they were able to complete the
excavation for the concrete footings and cast them. The chosen option
for the rebuild is to use brick, a mixture of reused solid imperials
reclaimed from the old headwall and new metric perforated blues. This
choice considerably eases the delivery of materials to the site,
which is at the bottom of a steep embankment. Additionally the width
of the vacant up side trackbed at this location precludes parking the
road vehicles above the cross drain; unless we have a line block or a
possession.The first few courses of the rebuild headwall for 31A outlet. [Photo by Peter]
The
other group headed in the opposite direction, initially to Peasebrook
Fram, cross drain 3A at 5m 50c. Nigel, Dave, Stuart, Martin (J) and
Andrew formed this group; later joined by Jonathan after he completed
some vehicle maintenance which involved a trip to Cheltenham. The
group cleared and inspected cross drain 3A and culverts 3B and 4A.
They also cleared overhanging brambles, rose, elder and hawthorn from
the vehicle access at Little Buckland bridge and the old farm gate near Peasebrook Bridge. This allows turning of vehicles, thus avoiding a ¾mile reverse. Also undertaken was
some clearance of the up (Malvern) side toe ditch alongside the
Severn Trent works at Pry Lane. And finally near the Peasbrook Farm
accommodation bridge they filled in a hole in the vacant trackbed,
probably caused by badger activity. The Peasbrook area is well known
for badger activity; the group spotted evidence of their activity at
3A and in the down
(Cotswold) side cess drain north of 4A.Dave, Stuart and Martin [J] (at foot of ladder) completing the clearance of the outlet headwall of 3B.
The
effect of the comparatively wet past
week following the very dry summer is
very interesting. None
of the
cess drains are yet running; the input to 3A was just damp, but 200 yards
away
the
stream flowing through 3B was
running
well.
The big surprise
was at 4A, this was bone dry.
Looking
at the inlet stream, we noticed a void in the adjoining land, but
even upstream of that there was
no
trace
of water.3A input - just damp
 |
| 3B inlet - flowing |
 |
| 4A inlet - bone dry |
Wildlife report: The construction group at 31A spotted two muntjac deer. Whilst at Peasebrook the calls and antics of several buzzards were most noticeable. Also a sizeable flock of wood pigeons, no doubt interested in pickings from the adjoining farm fields. Being nocturnal animals, we did not spot any live badgers. Plenty of ripening blackberries, sloes and rose hips in the hedges. The consensus of the clearance group was that the blackberries at Little Buckland Bridge were the sweetest.
