The rebuild has started

Thursday 6 June

It was a case watching the sky today as a shower was threatened for lunchtime and it could have had a detrimental impact on the new brickwork. As luck would have it there was a few spots but a heavier shower came over Winchcombe just as the gang was packing up. 

The south side wall at Culvert 11A, on the up side at Stanton, is starting on the long road back to recovery - bricks are going back down; that's a major achievement. Since the track was levelled on Monday the whole area under the bridge is starting to look a lot more promising. The only cloud on the project horizon is the supply of AR1.1 taper bricks for arch construction, the manufacturer has quoted a 24 week lead time for these, we could do with them in 4 weeks time. If anyone out there knows where we can get hold of 80 blue taper engineering bricks please shout, reusable imperials would be brilliant, but we can work with new. 

First job for Michael was to concrete the gully drain top in position. This was easier to do with the level surface to work to. 

Michael doing the shuttering, Dave clearing the edges
(Photo: Alastair) 

Andrew on the brick cleaning station
(Photo: Alastair) 

Roger replacing the base layer at the outfall end
(Photo: Alastair) 

Once the shuttering was done, the concrete went in. 

Concrete fill
(Photo: Alastair) 

Smoothing the surface for a perfect finish 

The bricklaying started in earnest today, the backing wall is all new blue engineering bricks, the centre course will be recycled red bricks, and the face recycled blue tapers topped with blue imperial engineering bricks recovered from the area. 

Roger and Michael building the backing wall
(Photo: Alastair) 

Andrew got a break from brick cleaning by doing the landscaping around the new headwall on the up side cess. 

An essential finishing off job
(Photo: Alastair) 

By later in the afternoon the visible signs of progress were plain to see. 

Gully drain in position 

Dave's progress under the bridge 

The backing wall stretches out behind Michael 

Outfall end, all 3 rows in place 

Another load of mortar arrives 

Hopefully the mortar should have hardened before the forecast heavy rain for tomorrow arrives, the last thing we need is to find the new bricks washed away 😔

Thanks for nothing Dave

Monday 3 June

Busy day to start the week, back to Stanton to do more of preparatory work for the Culvert 11A channel rebuild. Steve and the digger were already on site when the gang arrived and the first delivery of hardcore for the welfare cabin and turnaround/parking area had already been dropped off. The main chore for today was cleaning bricks to reuse on the side wall for the culvert channel. The original AR1.1 taper bricks are in short supply so recovering every one will be important. 

It was also the first day for Nigel, so we needed to create a good impression in case he decided not to come back 😊 

Site meeting with Steve to run through the plan 

Second load of recycled 6F2 for the hard-standing base 

The base taking shape 

Hard-standing down 

As the grass never stops growing, the pathway and an area to store the bricks had to be cut again. We evidently don't trample it down enough. 

Taper brick store 

Dave had another go at removing the obstruction in the culvert, once you start on these jobs you can't let a few stones defeat you  

Dave with the rods again
(Photo: Alastair) 

The water level is about 4" higher behind the stones 

At this point another cunning plan was devised, this involved pumping the water into the brick arch to see if concentrating the flow in a smaller area would dislodge anything. First off the culvert needed to be dammed to get enough water to pump. 

Pump deployed on the down side 

Stuart feeds the outlet hose into the culvert 

Just as it looked like the pumping might be working, Steve arrived to level the roadway under the bridge. Deep ruts caused by tractors going through the bridge in wet weather has meant that rainwater pools under the bridge. The buried gully drain didn't help the situation either.  

This might be a bit of a squeeze
(Photo: Alastair) 

No problem for a professional 

The first scrape found the original surface 

While the roadway work was going on it was all hands to the brick cleaning 

Brick recycling 

The roadway sees daylight again 

The spoil dragged out 

The spoil from the roadway will go to backfill the down side cess extension pipe when it's installed. 

Stuart and Nigel had a quick visit to Hunting Butts in the afternoon to take some levels across the north abutment, all part of the security fencing enhancement project. 

Nigel with the level staff 

A bit of offensive graffiti covered up while in the area 

Last but not least, Dave's find of the day, a milepost Zero numeral, this one has been added to our stockpile for the replacement programme. 

Dave's found nothing 😂

It fell off in my hand

Saturday 1 June

Thanks to a tip-off, we did a bit of skip diving before we left the yard this morning so that a couple of lengths of bridge rail could be rescued for use in replacing mileposts.  

Bridge rail rescue operation 

Some GWR memorabilia at the other end 

Next it was full steam ahead up to Stanton, via a check-in at Toddington signal box, just in time to see the LNER B1 heading onto Train 1. It seems the B1 carries a spare set of springs on top of the tender.  

Spare springs, just in case 

Roger started on the down side cess headwall, filling the void between the old and new with concrete then adding the headers. 

Roger fills the void
(Photo: Alastair) 

Headers going on
(Photo: Alastair) 

Work in progress 

Build complete, some landscaping required to finish off 

Down under the bridge, work has started rebuilding the south side wall of Culvert 11A. Like many other jobs we tackle, what started as taking the headers off and adding 2 new courses has turned into a big rebuild. The usual issues have appeared, the mortar joints have broken down over the years with clay and soil getting in between the brick courses. 

First off, we dropped some concrete into the gully silt trap to form a base. 

New concrete floor 

Then Dave assembled the Mk 8 brick removal device, this was used to some effect between other jobs but it's still not getting rid of the small dam in the culvert. 

The ballast weight added to the Mk8 

Dave extracts the dislodged stones 

Internal view showing the obstructions and
some joints that need pointing 

Still more work required to break the dam 

Next more loose bricks needed to be extracted to eliminate any weak spots before rebuilding. 

Stuart removing a couple of bricks
(Photo: Alastair) 

The problem space, clay in the joints 

While the end of the arch was being dismantled, Roger started to replace the a few bricks in the lowest course, the rest seem to be stable. 

First steps in the reconstruction 

A small section of the south wall was left on Monday, it had been thought it would be stable enough to avoid rebuilding. The headers needed to come off to raise the height, but while removing the headers the whole section fell over, well that's the story voiced by the lump hammer operative. 'It just came off in my hand!'  

This last bit standing 

The last bit not quite standing 

Roger assess the next move, Dave removing spoil to the heap 

While all the deconstruction and rebuilding is happening, the bricks need to be cleaned ready for recycling back into the wall.

Alastair on brick cleaning 

Dave, beaten for today, dismantling the rods 

Back course is first in
(Photo: Alastair) 

The rebuild is going to be a complicated job, the curved base to the wall using wedge bricks will be the big challenge. The corner needs to be started from the back to support the curve as it is built. 

First stretch of the back course 

An unnamed operative admiring the expert header removal
(Photo: Alastair)  

The last bit of wall no longer standing 

By the end of the day, we had removed more bricks than we had put in. One step forward and two back still. At least we managed a consolation cuppa at the Coffee Pot Cafe on Winchcombe Station when we got back to unload. 

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