Just half a dozen

Thursday 10^th September

Another week with more team members away than attending, but a different set and for different reasons. However, we were able to progress both the rebuilding at 31A and the programme of clearance and inspections.

Polly and Peter continued with the rebuild of the up side exit headwall of cross drain 31A. This is almost complete – just one more course of coping bricks to finish.

The new headwall of 31A outlet almost complete. Note the use of steel bar to support the final courses. [Photo by Peter]

Jonathan, Martin (J) and Andrew headed to Little Buckland to continue this year’s round of culvert and cross drain clearance and inspection. After attending to some H&S issues, Roger joined them later.

The first tasks at Little Buckland were to clear a space on the embankment to enable us to park vehicles on the vacant trackbed (the former down line here) at least 3m away from the nearest rail of the running line. Also attended to were the roadside gullies underneath the bridge – this was mainly removal of grass rather than silt as the dry summer has meant very little run off from the road in the past three months.

One of the roadside gullies under bridge 5 (Little Buckland) prior to removals of the vegetation. [Photo by Jonathan]

The group then cleared and inspected cross drains 5A, 5B and 5D. Not surprisingly because of the dry summer, none of these were flowing. However, there was considerable growth, particularly in the exit ditch of 5A and in the toe ditch on the down side of the line by Archer Farm.

The 5A exit ditch on the up side high mileage of bridge 5 forms the boundary of the railway land but is outside of the fence line. All cleared after sterling work by Martin(J). [Photo by Jonathan]

Roger and Martin(J) pause work as 2807 passes over bridge 5 with the 11.35 down train from Broadway.

Bone dry - the inlet end of the bore of 5B.

The final task of the day was the clearing of the access at Laverton Meadow Lane bridge (6). We omitted tackling culvert 5C as there is nowhere safe to park a vehicle near it. Hopefully with a larger group we will include that next week.

Wildlife report: A sign that the summer is definitely over was a group of swallows congregating on electric wires at Little Buckland prior to starting their migration south. Still lots of ripe blackberries in the hedges. The dry summer seems to have had not effect on the growth of brambles, nettles and old-man’s beard.

Nine miles apart

Thursday 3^rd 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.