Some wins at Stanton

Monday 15 April 

All geared up for the new week and it's back to sunny Stanton. With undue haste Michael (who is working Monday this week to confuse everyone) get started on Chamber 2 on the down side crest. His job is to modify the design to incorporate the second land drain.  

Chamber 2 

Then Roger and Dave set off south to chamber 3 and excavation 4. 

Stanton Satellite View 

Excavation 4 had filled with water since Saturday which meant a bale out before we could remove the rest of the spoil. 

Excavation 4 

Roger removes the plastic pipe 

Chamber 3 - water flowing from excavation 4 

With the pipe removed, some water drained into the cess via Chamber 3, the rest was baled out with a bucket. The stream was dammed with spoil and a diversion pipe run round into chamber 3 so that a concrete base could be poured. 

Diversion pipe 

Meanwhile the search for the missing cess chamber entered phase 2, the CCTV was set up to locate it from the inside 

CCTV set up 

Alastair called in today (he's still recuperating after a nasty bout of lurgy) to see who was using the mixer. Hopefully he will back in action soon. 

Roger mixing the concrete (Photo: Alastair) 

Base into excavation 4 

Now for one of the success stories. We may have solved the problem with the water pooling in the down cess from the spring in the cutting side. Dave dug down to the sub-base and we tested that water soaked away before filling the space with gabion stone. This should let the water drain into the cess and keep the trackbed dry.   

Spring water in the cess 

The bucket test - water flowed straight through the sub-base 

Gabion stone going into the hole 

Job done 

Over on the up side, the missing cess chamber was located using the CCTV. 

Laying the rods out on the surface shows that the chamber was where we had dug the trial hole last week. More digging required now to unearth the top. 

Camera rods reach the spot that was excavated last week! 

Michael spent the day in chamber 2 and managed to get the second drain diverted and all the walls up above the pipework. This should see the chamber topped off this week. 

Chamber 2, end of day 

Second success, the water has stopped flowing into the cess below chamber 2.  

Another dryer cutting slope 

While we had the camera out we nipped down to Bridge 11 to CCTV the suspect gully drain that runs parallel to Culvert 11A. 

Partial success here, we have found that there's a hole in the top of the pipe and it looks like a root growing through. So it's either another dig out or possibly a root removal with the rod saw. Watch this space...  

Late start at Stanton

Saturday 13 April 

Having only 2 in this morning limited our options, we had to cover the visit of an ecologist to look at the River Isbourne at 10:00 am, so we decided to pick off a small job first instead of wandering about annoying other volunteers. Thus we headed off south to the down side crest of Winchcombe cutting to retrieve some thick wire spotted a couple of weeks ago. Wire plays havoc with the vegetation clearance machinery hence we try collect it when it's spotted lineside. 

Roger assess the find 

The wire turned out to be the stump of a concrete fence post with all the reinforcing splayed out. It was safely returned to the scrap pile at Winchcombe.  

Then we headed along the crest to look at the chamber where the ditch from the field joins the crest drain. It needs raising and new lids, another task to go on the waiting list. 

Crest drain chamber, bridge rail lid 

Ditch across the field that drains into the crest 

inside the chamber, good flow from the field 

The ecologist's visit was to assess the site for some potential erosion control works on Culvert 21A, the River Isbourne, just to the east of Winchcombe Station. 

Looking at the plant life 

River Isbourne Culvert 21A east bank 

The river on the down side of the track has moved over so that standing on the east bank is now the original centre line. There is a danger now that flood water could wash behind the west wing wall and destabilise the embankment and carriage sidings.  

Just before lunch Andrew arrived from his morning course so it was off to Stanton to carry on along the down side crest. Roger backfilled chamber 1 while Andrew finished digging out the new land drain pipe.  

Backfilling round Chamber 1 

Chamber 2 - Digging round the extra pipe 

Home made lids on Chamber 1 

Not to be outdone by the Thursday gang, Andrew has to go and find yet another drain, this one is a perforated plastic pipe running under the 'Osma' land drain pipe, it has run in from the field and swings along the crest drain. 

Pipe 3 next to Chamber 2 

We assessed this as low risk, and probably the drain that was replaced by the pipe that ran above. So, a section was cut out to see if any water was running. Nothing has run trough it for a while as it was solid with clay. It will be abandoned when we backfill after re-routing the land drain. 

Section of perforated pipe surgically removed for analysis
Contents too solid for water 

Next move was to the south to excavate chamber 3 and prepare the ground at excavation 4. 

Chamber 3  

Excavation 4 site - stream joins the crest drain 

Chamber 3 brickwork was assessed as poor last week, Andrew found that he was able to lift the bricks out without resorting to a big hammer, the mortar has disintegrated 

Andrew lifts the chamber walls out 

.  

Roger digs in excavation 4 

By close of play, 4 courses of bricks had been removed and the footings for the walls at excavation 4 were ready for concreting next week. 

Chamber 3 (Photo: Andrew) 

Excavation 4 (Photo: Andrew) 

Back at Winchcombe we popped into Carriage & Wagon to see how the grille for Culvert 7A is progressing after we had seen James running across the yard armed with rebar this morning. One half is well on the way to completion now. 

Culvert 7A grille manufacture 

Back to Stanton on Monday all being well. 

Stanton Crest - The plot thickens...

Thursday 11 April 

Welcome to episode 8 of the saga of Stanton down side crest drain, as with all serials there's bound to be many plot twists and turns. This one is no exception. 

Water still pooling  in the cess 

Roger and Michael got off to a good start today laying bricks, both chambers are starting to take shape. 

Chamber 1 headers going on 

Chamber 2 with bricks all round 

Dave and Stuart headed for Culvert 11A to try and jet the gully drain pipe running parallel to the exit of the brick channel. Even though the water in the culvert was running well, a separate supply was brought in the bowser for the jet.   

Bowser set up on Bridge 11 

End of the gully drain 

Jet pump and rods being used 

By lunchtime the jetting seemed to have hit a hard obstacle; next thing is to stick the camera in to see what is going on. 

Back at the crest, chamber 2 was at the point where the land drain had to be cut so that the wall nearest the track could be built up. 

Michael saws the pipe 

Land drain cut to divert flow
into the new chamber 

This is where the plot twists, there was a dribble from the truncated drain, definitely not as much water as was anticipated...  

Drain outlet still flowing 

A quick check on the drain outlet showed that cutting the pipe hadn't stopped the flow, how can this be possible everyone shouted (or words to that effect 😉). First we applied logic, then we got the CCTV drain camera to have a look up the pipe. 

As we belatedly expected, there was a second pipe joining the first just beyond where the excavation had been dug. It look like there is a makeshift junction with the joints sealed with blue plastic. So there was nothing else for it but for Dave and Michael to start to extend the second excavation. 

Dave and Michael enlarge the excavation 

After some furious digging the second pipe was uncovered. The intention now is to chop this pipe and fit a 90 degree bend and pipe the flow into the chamber through the end wall. Luckily the mortar was still soft enough to take a couple of bricks out to get a section of pipe in. 

Second land drain :-( 

With the 'new' pipe discovered, it was decided that was enough excitement for one day so we packed up and headed back to base to reflect on the fact that nothing ever goes to plan with drains. 

It hasn't been decided yet whether we dig out the junction to see what is in there, it will probably just be abandoned as mystery for someone to find in 100 years time. 

All change - wet weather

Monday 8 April 

As the forecast was poor for today and there was a diversionary job scheduled we had decided on Saturday that the gang would stay at Winchcombe to do some other jobs and forgo the pleasures of Stanton in the rain. 

There was an early start at the south side of Hunting Butts tunnel as the last bit of the drain security was installed. 

Early deliveries, the kit and materials arrive together 

Who left this here, it should be at the tunnel! 

Some of the drainage jobs are just too big for volunteers, fitting a 1 tonne concrete ring plus cover is one of them. Hence, we have called in the professionals, Railway Drainage Ltd are locally based specialists who work on the main line, so who better to tackle this sort of job. 

The cavalry are already here 

While on site the team from RDL complete the final part of the CCTV survey of the tunnel drain using a remote control camera. 

Tractor mounted drain camera 

Working from the ground above the tunnel, the tractor is sent along the drain from north to south. 

It's all done by wires 

Mystery photo competition 

A surprise find, an inspection chamber was discovered 43.5m in to the tunnel, it's not the missing Stanton chamber but one that has laid buried and forgotten. It looks like there may be some more digging required, the bridge rail covering the chamber can just be made out in the picture. 

While some people have been swanning around in a wet field in Cheltenham, the Winchcombe team have been up to Greet tunnel and come back with a concrete ring and lids left there a while ago. While they had the track possession they picked up some waste concrete on the way. 

The haul from Greet Tunnel (Photo: Roger) 

Next job was tidying our store and sorting all the electrical equipment for PAT testing tomorrow. It's a good chance to update the inventory to remove the scrapped items. Then the concrete lid production line started up again. 

Andrew on the mixer 

Roger filling the moulds 

The next batch of materials for Stanton was loaded and dropped up there ready for Thursday. The lids for the first chamber, when it's finished, and some gabion stone for the down side cess pooling issue. 

Material loading 

We are planning to clear the gully drain pipe found under  Bridge 11 at Stanton so our micro-jetter has been brought out of store after a 2 year rest. It took a little bit of maintenance to get it started, but it seems to be ready for work now. 

Pump/Jetter engine unit 

Jetter head testing 

Then it was back to Hunting Butts just in time for another heavy shower and to see the progress with the drain ring. 

Backfilling around the installed ring 

Ring and cover installed 

South end of the centre drain secured 

Just a few clear up jobs left inside the tunnel and the scrap to bring back to Winchcombe then this phase is complete. The next phase is to determine what needs to be done after we see the CCTV reports on the tunnel drain and the south end cess drains.