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. 

Return to Stanton

Saturday 6 April 

Back to Stanton again to continue building the chamber walls in the 2 excavations on the down side cutting crest. These new chambers will provide access for ongoing maintenance of the crest drain and divert the flow from a land drain into the cess and stop the pooling next to the track.  

Michael and Roger set up camp for the day 

Start point on excavation 1 

Start point on excavation 2 

Once the first mortar mix was ready Roger and Michael got started on the bricks. As there wasn't much else to do for a while, Stuart and Alastair went up to the Aqueduct to check on the down side slope of the cutting following the heavy rain over the last couple of days. 

Michael starts on the back wall 

Aqueduct Inlet 

Inlet pipe on the right, crest drain stub in the wall at the top of picture  

The inlet grille on the aqueduct box section had partly blocked with vegetation washed down the stream, this had raised the level so that water was flowing back out of the channel into the northbound crest. Not really what we want to happen. 

Picture: Alastair 

A scrape with rake soon got the water flowing and the level dropped by about 75 mm. This will need monitoring for a while as it may and turn into an ongoing issue. One possible solution will be blocking off the crest drain stub. 

Water level reduced  

Meanwhile back at the work face progress had been made. 

Chamber 2 Crest/land drain 

Chamber 1 Crest/Cess 

The next diversion task was to replace a cracked lid on the up side cess where ballast had been tipped for loading into the Dogfish hoppers. The crack was so bad that the lid could have failed if somebody had stood on it.

Left hand lid cracked 

When the railway drainage was installed over 100 years ago the GWR seemed to follow a set pattern, in cuttings like at Stanton the cess drains had catchpits (chambers) every 30 yards on both the up and down sides. Since then maintenance work by the GWR and British Rail has introduced some anomalies, this and the lack of reliable drawings makes for a lot of investigatory work. For example, 2 cess drains run on each side from the aqueduct to Culvert 11A, a distance of 660 metres. In the middle of ballast tip site there should be chamber on the up side opposite one on the downside, as for the rest of the distance. But an exploratory dig on Monday and again today only unearthed what looks like drain blocks (hollow pre-cast concrete blocks that let the water pass through), no lids in sight.  

Drain blocks 400 mm down under the ballast 

Rather than continue digging in both directions to try and locate the chamber, it was decided to abandon the search and try again by running the drain camera through the cess pipe. While we were in the area another wet patch was spotted on the down side cutting slope, more investigation ensued.  

Looking for the source of the Nile (or the ground water) 

We found what seems to be a ground water spring towards the top of the slope, the water is pooling in the cess here so that will need to be dealt with before the rainy season gets under way in May, June and July 😊 

5 minutes flow filled a hole in the cess 

Last call for the day was Culvert 11A and B south of Stanton Yard, to see what 2 days of rain had done. Water was pooling at both sides of the embankment each side of 11B. We are looking to do some work to alleviate this in the near future, funding permitting. 

Standing water on the down side at Culvert 11B 

It's strange how we go out to do one job and come back with 2 extra, another mystery of the drainage world 


STOP PRESS - Terminology page added with some of the basics explained. More will be added as and when time permits 

Who spoke too soon!

Thursday 4th April 

Monday's blog entry was titled 'Stanton in early summer', well we should have known it was too good to be true, it was no surprise then to see the Cotswolds change colour this morning on the way in. 

Cotswolds in April  

 As the weather wasn't favourable for bricklaying the team were stood down for the duration, but some jobs can't be sidestepped. Consequently after drawing straws, one lucky volunteer was off to Stanway Viaduct with the Civil Engineer to mark out the line of the up side trackbed; not really a drain job but we are part of the civil's department so often help out on small tasks.  

Up side parapet south end, a bit bleak today

A new barrow was pressed into action to carry the marker pegs and tools. 

After scanning for the buried signal cable and a lot of measuring the pegs were hammered home at each end of the viaduct and we made a hasty retreat from the elements. You may think it was a short day, but the afternoon was spent discussing budgets for forthcoming projects. As with all budgets there's a balance to be made between the ideal solution and what's affordable. Plans are changing so we can make best use of our time and resources over the summer. 

2807 heading into Toddington in the rain 

Normal service will be restored on Saturday, if the weather forecast is anywhere near correct 😉

Stanton in the early summer

Monday 1st April 

With 3 new volunteers starting with the team since January, the drainage transport fleet has had to be expanded. Our latest additions come with puncture proof (foam filled) tyres and a sleek streamlined shape...   

Drain Gang Mobile 3, 4 and 5 ready for the start 

Today was not the day for April Fool pranks as we had a site visit by the Health and Safety team who are helping to develop our RAMS (Risk Assessments and Method Statements) so that our future projects fully meet the requirements of CDM2015 (Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015). If you are new to all this, you are not alone, for us as volunteers every day is a learning exercise, especially when you are working with 115 years old infrastructure. 

Excavation 1 brickwork taking shape 

While Stuart was off showing the consultants the site for the next project Roger, Dave and Andrew started the build on the chamber for excavation 1  on the Stanton crest drain and the concrete pour for the base on excavation 2. 

Excavation 2, dry mix in the base 

Excavation 2, concrete base levelled 

After lunch, Dave and Stuart went to find a missing up side cess chamber, this one is buried somewhere under the ballast loading area. The next chamber south had suffered a digger strike and the lids were swapped last week so our hopes for this one were not high.

Dave starts the search for the top of the buried chamber 

Outside corner of the chamber lid found 

After an hour searching we found the corner of the lids 300mm down under the ballast, they look to be intact as the ballast covering has protected them from the traffic. We will need to dig them out to make sure they are robust enough for the traffic passing over, but we need the breaker to cut through the compressed ballast 

Down side crest, twinwall pipe with hole to let the stream into the crest drain 

Next in line for attention, investigate the site on the down side crest where a small stream from the adjacent field comes into the crest drain. This is 75m south of the current excavations and will become excavation 4 when we start on the reconfiguration.  

Chamber on the Crest/Cess drain junction 

3m north is a chamber (more a stack of bricks at present) at the head of the pipe to the cess drain. 

Meanwhile Andrew and Roger had made good progress on the bricks laying, despite the very restricted space to work. 

Excavation 1, end of day  

Dave gave the site the once over before we left to make sure we have taken all the tools, then it's off back to Winchcombe to unload. 

Last check round 

We'll be back on Thursday if it isn't too wet.