GWSR Infrastructure

Friday, 31 July 2020

Catch-up time

Sorry that there has been a gap in transmission, but sometimes life get's in the way of volunteering. Well, that and the blogger's other Social Media job. So what's been going on since the last issue, here's a synopsis:

Since the last blog on 12th June, Dave and Nigel have been working one day each week. Similarly, Andrew and Martin have been in on a different day each week. Then over the last 3 weeks more operatives have been skulking around on odd days.

The plan was to work north to south inspecting the culverts and cross drains, with some vegetation clearance where there was no bird nesting implications. We can't touch anything like ash, bramble, thorn or the like without doing a nesting survey, at least until the end of the season on 31st August. I'm not sure who tells the birds they have to vacate by a set date, presumably it must be in the lease document when they set up home in the bushes.

There must be around 100 photo's from the inspections, far too many to show here without it taking a week to load them all. Here's a few.

Culvert 24C down side, the water has gone missing
(Photo: Andrew)

Culvert 28A up side, chamber in the field nice and clear
(Photo: Andrew)

Culvert 28A chamber was vacuumed out in November and there's a rumour the someone working up in Stanley Pontlarge village may have crushed the drain before it reaches the railway. If so this is a good move, it saves us having to clear the chamber and diverts the flow onto the road.

Culvert 30A Middle Stanley up side, the headwall has had a bump
(Photo: Andrew)

Culvert 31B Prescott Road, Martin goes in search of the lost end
(Photo: Andrew)

A ghostly quiet Toddington Shed
(Photo: Dave)

Culvert 14B up side outflow
(Photo: Dave)

Culvert 17B down side, Nigel just finishing the headwall clearance
(Photo: Dave)

The elusive Culvert 16A down side uncovered
(Photo: Dave)

Culvert 25A up side Working Lane
looking dry
(Photo: Dave)

Culvert 25C up side in need of sorting
(Photo: Dave)

Culvert 32A Tirle Brook in Dixton Cutting
(Photo: Dave)

Progressing towards Gotherington at a cracking pace

Nigel keeping his feet dry in Culvert 33A down side
(Photo: Dave)

Culvert 33B is an inside job
(Photo: Dave)

Gotherington, Culvert 35B down side
(Photo: Dave)

Back to Middle Stanley now as we had been tasked with clearing some of the bridges so that engineers can do a detailed inspection, they are on a 6 year inspection cycle.

Culvert 30A down side
(Photo: Andrew)

Bridge 30 up side
(Photo: Andrew)

Culvert 35C down side
(Photo: Andrew)

Culvert 35D down side
(Photo: Andrew)

Manor Lane, Culvert 36B up side
(Photo: Andrew)

Culvert 36B Down side, flowing

With the focus on the bridges, Dave and Nigel headed back into Worcestershire, it sound further than it is 😉

Bridge 2 Childswickham Road
(Photo: Dave)

Bridge 3 Pry Lane
(Photo: Dave)

Bridge 4 Peasebrook Farm
(Photo: Dave)

Bridge 5 Little Buckland
(Photo: Dave)

At this point we got diverted again onto a new job, more of that in the next episode:

The Perils of Peasebrook Farm

Arriving on device near you soon

Friday, 12 June 2020

More Inspections and Gotherington Wrap Up

Friday 5 June 2020

First round of culvert inspections saw Andrew and Martin head off up the north end of the line. Starting with Culvert 3A at Peasebrook Farm and working south towards the viaduct at Stanway. It was a very productive day with only a couple of issues picked up and the bonus of some clearance work completed.

Separate vehicles were used and all work was completed under the COVID-19 social distancing with the necessary Risk Assessments in place.

All the next batch of photos were by Andrew, unless noted otherwise

Martin clearing debris from Culvert 5B up side

Culvert 5B down side

Culvert 5C down side

Culvert 6B down side

Culvert 6B up side
(Photo: Martin)

Culvert 7A down side inlet under the B4632
(Photo: Martin)

Culvert 7A up side

We have been watching the siphon culvert (7A) near Bridge 8 on the B4632, the up side headwall has been leaking for several years. Part of the problem is the landowner downstream can't clear the stream and water backs up in the outlet looking for a way to escape. It has come though the wall and down under the trackbed to the up side cess drain. It was on the cards for attention this summer, but with the team still hobbled by lockdown it'll have to wait. Lack of funding will probably further hamper repairs.

Culvert 7A up side leaking headwall

The famous Culvert 11A, star of the 2019 rebuild, is very subdued, just a trickle, but the vegetation is growing again on the plot Dave carefully landscaped.

Culvert 11A up side

Culvert 11C down side

Culvert 11C up side
(Photo: Martin)

Back at Winchcombe the haul road for the River Isbourne works is still holding water, this seems strange after so long without rain. More investigation is needed.

Haul road to Culvert 21A River Isbourne

Tuesday 9 June

Dave was back out today escorting John the Bridge Inspector and did some culvert spotting in the process.

All the following are from Dave.

John peering over the footbridge at Toddington
while inspecting it

Culvert 14B is another on our watch list, we are waiting for some remedial work on the outlet since it was revised by the landowner.

Culvert 14B up side outlet stream

Culvert 14B up side

Culvert 16A overflow

Bridge 16 Didbrook 2

Bridge 16 gully drain cleared

Bridge 43 Evesham Road Cheltenham

Back at Winchcombe, a trip in the other direction to look at the slip.

Winchcombe Cutting up side
Grass growing back, looks to have dried a bit

Gotherington Slip Winding Up

Work has finished on the slip at Bridge 37 up side, south of Gotherington. The phase 2A and 2B soil nails have been installed and the land around the steel pile landscaped. This was only possible because 1,357 donations were received following the GWR Trust's Landslip Appeal. These donations included 456 from people who aren't members of the trust or shareholders, it clearly shows the great affection with which so many people hold the railway.

The next batch of photos are from Peter Muir.