Flaming June (mainly)

 Continuing the catch up of the team's activities over the summer of 2021, we first have June.

Tuesday 1st June

Four team members in today for the hottest working day so far this year. Progressed the building on the new culvert 25A headwall at Working Lane, by the end of the day there were only two brick courses to complete.

Almost complete, the headwall for 25A inlet to the junction pipes. Built using reclaimed imperial size bricks to match the invert.

 

Cutting bricks to fit an creates a lot of dust - Roger models the essential FFP3 mask.

 

High mileage up side wing wall of bridge 25 repointed up to head height and another row of bricks relaid on the end of the wall. 

 

Andrew and Nigel repointing the up side high mileage wing wall of Working Lane bridge, well at least the courses within reach. [Photo by Roger].

Despite the heat, there was no brick laying on culvert 25B ditch headwall, still too much water coming down. There is more flow in this than there is in culvert 25A. We built a temporary dam and pipes in the 25B ditch so it should dry out in time for next week.   

Temporary arrangement to keep the working area on the 25B junction inlet dry.

 

 

Evidence of previous navvies - Dave holds a well rusted spade head found in the undergrowth.

The wet weather in the proceeding week also has contributed to some standing water alongside the haul road up to Royal Oak. Most probably when the haul road was put in it stopped water draining into the ditch by the up side fence line. We have a task on the list to insert some pipes under the haul road at strategic spots.

Today's wildlife spot - a dove sunning herself on the aggregate pile. Great camouflage!

 

Thursday 3rd June

Not so hot and not so sunny. Two members of the team on duty today to progress the internal visual examinations of the smaller culverts. The very small ones are officially classified as cross drains.

35006 P&O passing the truck north of Hayles Abbey

 

Culvert 15A down side (Cotswold side), this is the inlet. A good example of original arch with very slightly tapered bricks.

Similar arch on the down side of culvert 14B. Note the original bricks are not 'true blues', some have a reddish tint to them.

Tuesday 8th June

Five team members present today. Continued with work at Working Lane, Gretton. We finished the brickwork on the new culvert 25A junction inlet headwall. Also added concrete infill for the hollow blocks - this makes for a really strong construction. We started the infill behind the headwall. Some of the material for this came by levelling the ground by the wing wall of the bridge. Other infill was brought by truck from a surplus pile at Manor Lane, Gotherington.

Choosing shady spots, Nigel repointing the wing wall and Roger finishing off the headwall for culvert 25A.

 

Job almost done - culvert 25A headwall, just needs some more infilling.

The lack of rain in the past week finally enabled us to start the construction of the new headwall on the inlet to the junction pipes from culvert 25B. Even so we needed to fix the temporary pipes and bale out the working area before starting. 

Out in the hot sun, Michael gets the first row of blocks for culvert 25B inlet headwall into place.

 

At least from 25B you can see the trains - just! 7903 Foremarke Hall passes tender first to Cheltenham.

Also completed was the repointing of all the easily reachable parts of bridge 25 up side high mileage wing wall. The higher courses will require suitable 'working at heights' platforms (not ladders!).

Sitting down on the job!Andrew undertakes ground level wing wall pointing. [Photo by Roger]

 

Working spots in the shade of the bridge and embankment were in demand!

Tuesday 15th June

Six team members in today to progress the work at Working Lane.

We put some more backfill against the culvert 25A new headwall - it is going to take a lot more.

Infill collected from Gotherington is offloaded through the fence to the new 25A junction inlet headwall.

 

We repointed most of the walls and invert of the original brick channel of culvert 25A under Working Lane bridge, after clearing the invert of silt and debris.

 

Andrew and Martin repointing the brick invert of culvert 25A under Working Lane bridge. Probably the coolest spot for working today! [Photo by Roger]

We completed the rebuild of the up side high mileage wing wall - using a recovered coping stone from the Winchcombe yard supply; so a slightly different size. 

Roger measuring up prior to fitting the last of the replacement coping stones on the up side high mileage wing wall of bridge 25.

 

Out in the sun, we progressed the new culvert 25B headwall on the junction pipe to the top level of the pipe. Hot working in the sun - so the choice spot was under the bridge working in the invert! Usually that requires wellies or waders.

Today's progress on the culvert 25B junction inlet headwall. Now well above water level.

Thursday 24th June

Five team members present today, continuing with the work at Working Lane, Gretton.

We progressed the build of the new headwall for culvert 25B entering the junction pipes on the up side.

Michael continues brick laying on culvert 25B junction inlet headwall. Note how the width of the wall is exactly 4 bricks - we have a precision designer!

 

We continued backfilling the new culvert 25A headwall using more material from Manor Lane, Gotherington. Amazing just how much backfill these headwalls require! Also we mixed some concrete to form a smooth base between the end of the old brick invert and the new wall below the plastic pipe.

Culvert 25A new headwall backfill almost complete.

A frog's eye view from within the brick invert of culvert 25A - with the concrete infill under the plastic pipe just showing.

 

Whilst loading infill at Manor Lane, Gotherington, the first up (northbound) train of the day behind 7903 Foremarke Hall passes.

We erected first (lowest) post for fence on the high mileage up side wing wall. The others will require some working at height safety measures to proceed.

Nigel fixing the lowest replacement wing wall fence post, up side, high mileage. Note the repointing and rebuilt copings.

 

Pointing of the 25A brick invert channel under the bridge was completed. Diagonally across the bridge, so down side low mileage, we started - and almost completed - the replacement of broken/damaged bricks on the wing wall. A job that has been on our task list for quite a while.

Down side low mileage wing wall, lower courses replaced with recovered imperial engineering bricks. Upper courses to be dealt with next time.

 

Additionally two of the team visited Hunting Butts south portal and replaced the metal cover on the manhole in the six foot. Will return later with a battery drill to fix down properly with some bolts.

Tuesday 29th June 

Six members of the team working today, once again at Working Lane.

We completed the spalling and pointing repairs to down side low mileage wing wall of bridge 25. At least the area that can be reached from the ground. We also removed some ivy and other greenery growing on the up side wing walls - but left the buddleia which is out of reach. 

Bridge 25 down side low mileage wing wall - almost as good a new.

 

Yet more backfill added to behind the new headwall of culvert 25A - probably another load or two will finish that and clear the pile from Manor Lane. (I think we thought that last week too!).

That must be the last of the infill for culvert 25A junction inlet headwall. It looks level enough!

 

We progressed the build of the culvert 25B junction inlet headwall - all concrete blocks in place and just two rows of bricks and copings to go. 

Culvert 25B junction inlet headwall, concrete blocks at final level. Just two more row of bricks to go. These are new metric blues, as this is well clear of existing structures.

 And so we ended a productive month.  Working Lane is an agreeable place to be in the summer!

Drainage team is still active!

Yes the drainage team is still very much alive and active, despite lack of blog activity!

Since the last posting on this blog, the team has undergone a few changes. Stu, who was the Head of Department prior to the merger to form the Estates Management Department, has moved to C&W Carriage Cleaning (and helping restore the Thames & Severn Canal). Dieh and Michael have both unfortunately retired on medical grounds, hopefully temporarily. New recruit Polly has joined the team, as a professional brick layer he has substantially increased the rate of construction. The other five team members are Roger, Nigel, Dave, Martin and Andrew.

Here is the first blog post to catch up with the activities since the second week of May.

Tuesday 11 May

Main job was to start filling in the new toe drain ditch at Culvert 27B up side at Gretton. We spoke with the owner of the adjoining land and agreed the path for the barrow run. We put planks down near the gate to minimise damage from barrow wheels. The land owner thought the wet area near his fence was slowly drying out - it was hard to tell as there had just been quite a heavy shower and thus rainwater puddles. Water was flowing well down the new ditch.

Water flowing into the culvert 27B exit ditch from both the new toe drain pipes.

We installed bricks and slabs at the point where the side ditches are collecting water from the embankment and the garden. Most flow is from the garden - quite possibly this is a groundwater spring which previously had flowed into the blocked green plastic land drain. We collected two loads of pea gravel (about 1 and quarter dumpy bags) and some bigger chippings from Gotherington yard, then filled the ditch above the new pipes with this. Placed the bigger chippings and assorted half bricks and other hardcore at the ends of the pipe - and reused some of the old clay pipes. Then roughly infilled with the excavated earth/clay. 

Pea gravel covering the plastic pipes in the new ditch, area under gate where on pipe connects to land drain on neighbours property

On first visit to Gotherington yard we spotted two sheep and five lambs on the track. Reported to Winchcombe signalbox, however the first down train has just departed there. Cajoled the sheep over to the up side and they scampered back to the field through a gap in the fence by culvert 33A.We checked no other animals present before train arrived, then make temporary repair to the fence using a length of green rope we had on our truck.

Very temporary repair to a hole in the lineside fence at Gotherington, at least it keeps the sheep out.

After passing of last up train we inspected the area of the embankment at Far Stanley where movement had been detected. This area approximately coincides with the highest point of the surrounding land on both sides. The land on the down side has pronounced medieval ridge and furrow farming patterns which are almost at right angles to the embankment. On the down side there is a toe drain running for the whole of this length, this is post BR construction. On the up side there is no drain, and the area is historically known to be damp.

 

Tuesday 18 May

Four team members in today. Two first went to Toddington to investigate reports of soil being washed down the cutting side under the down side of the Stow Road bridge. Looks like this has been ongoing for a while. The source is the road above, which may be worse now it has been resurfaced. The runoff goes under the side arch of the bridge where there is no vegetation and thus is carving gullies in the soft soil. We cleared the muck of the top of the S&T cable concrete ducts. The cess is damp under the bridge. We discovered a Salt Glazed pipe further back (low mileage) on the cutting side, about half way up and directly in line with the S&T junction cabinets. This maybe a land drain from the adjoining field.  Further investigations and formulating a plan to get this run off into the down side cess drain are required. Looks like not a straight forward job.

Stow Road Toddington, down side arch. Water run off from the road above is gradually eroding the soft soil here.

Main event was the start of construction of the new headwalls at Working Lane. There was too much water flowing in the 25B outlet ditch to start that one. Will need to wait for drier conditions or build a more substantial temporary dam and bypass.

 

Working Lane up side where culvert 25B exit channel is now piped to join 25A. We will construct a new headwall here, but too much water flowing today to make a start.

 For culvert 25A, which is the brick channel under the bridge, we laid the first few courses, using recycled concrete blocks from Royal Oak (down side) and blue imperial bricks. Not the easiest of sites to work on - particularly with having to cut many of the blocks to fit.

Picture by Roger. First new bricks laid for over 14 months by the team. This is the start of the new headwall where culvert 25A is now piped beside the lane to the junction with 25B outlet.

 

 

End of day one on the 25A junction inlet headwall construction.

 Tuesday 25 May

Seven team members attending - making this the largest attendance since start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of us met with the Bridges Engineer and Structures Chief to agree the logistics of the visual inspections to be undertaken by the drainage team this year. Basically this covers the structures classified as cross drains and culverts apart from those that will be subject to external detailed inspection.

Then Andrew joined Estates Management HoD Mike visiting Hunting Butts where the fencing contractors are now working on the down side crest. The crest drain ditch is coping reasonably well with the run off from the field. The contractors reported that towards the tunnel the ditch had almost emptied overnight after rain had stopped. Towards the station the ditch contained more water, agreed that the contractors would use their digger to deepen this slightly and remove tree roots. 

Down side crest ditch at Hunting Butts, new fence in background. This was flowing slowly!

Back at Working Lane, the other team members continued work on culvert 25A headwall at Working Lane and started repairs to the high mileage up side wing wall on bridge 25. It was still impossible to start work on the new headwall of the 25B to 25A junction, as too much water flowing there. Not surprising after almost two weeks of rain every day.  First load of infill collected from Manor Lane Gotherington and placed behind the new brick/block courses.

 

25A junction inlet headwall, brick and block courses now well above the water level. Working here you hear trains but don't see them.

The wing wall repairs involved removing the lower two rotten wing wall fence posts. Once the coping stones are back in, we can fit new posts and horizontals. 

Roger attends to Working Lane bridge up side high mileage wing wall.

 

 

Our wildlife find today - slow worms. One scuttled off quickly, but the other stayed for a photo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still lots going on

Three sessions to report in this edition, first was on Friday 23 April with a visit to Toddington Cutting to fill in the hole on the end of the up side crest drain. It took a few barrow loads of aggregate that had to be pushed up the cutting slope. 

Dave finishes off the backfilled hole on the 
Toddington crest drain while Martin and Michael supervise  

Next task was clearing the gully drains and settlement traps under Bridge 6 at Laverton. Another 5 man job with three barrows and temporary traffic management. The silt was dryer than a couple of months ago which made the job a bit easier. On the way out they included a detour to Bridge 5, Little Buckland to check the situation there. Very little silt under the bridge, just removal of minor debris from the drain covers.

Bridge 6 cleared gully drain 

Bridge 6 low mileage abutment 
settlement trap 

 

Tuesday 27 April 

Another milestone on the road to normality with a team of six in for the first time for well over a year. The focus of attention was on Bridge 25 at Working Lane, Gretton. Contractors have been working on rerouting the outflow of Culvert 25A which runs under the bridge. The contractor did all the groundworks and pipe laying, but left the headwalls on the ends of the new piped drains to be built by the team. This was decided as a cost control measure. The culvert had to be rerouted as the deep ditch ran next to the lane and was being eroded. The lane is used by farm traffic which can be as heavy as 20 tonnes, this ditch was an accident waiting to happen. Funding for the work was included in the Heritage Lottery Funding Grant, which means that it should be cost neutral to the Railway. 

Downstream Culvert 25A the backfilled ditch 

Culvert 25B outlet stream catcher pipe 

A BoM (Bill of Materials) was compiled so that the stores at Winchcombe and Stanton could be raided to get the headwalls up as soon as a stock of cement can be bought in. While doing the builds, some cosmetic repairs to the wing walls of the bridge will be carried out. 

The ongoing clearance of Culvert 24C up side exit was next on the agenda, more silt removed down to the concrete apron under the grille. Hopefully, this will reduce the tendency for the grille to block and increase the time it takes for the water level to build up. The only real answer here is for a trash screen to be installed when funding permits. 

New 1800mm lids that were cast last autumn were installed on the down side of Culvert 24A next to the pub fence, another heavy 4 man lift job.  

Culvert 24A down, 1800mm cast concrete lids in place 

Then it was off to Culvert 27B to carry on with the drainage improvements along the toe of the embankment on the up side. This involved rodding the exit pipe under the gate which was solid with silt; once cleared it started flowing well. 

New ditch at Culvert 27B up side 

Culvert 27B up side toe drain works 

Tuesday 4 May 

The first job of the morning was to collect some milepost numerals from Toddington which Greg Wigg has kindly cast. These will be finished and painted then attached to the heads already in stock at Winchombe before being sited along the line at appropriate points. 

The rest of the day was spent collecting materials and delivering them to Working Lane for the headwall builds on Culverts 25A and 25B. 

On the way back, there was a quick check on the ditch at Culvert 27B, Gretton to make sure all was working as planned, no problems identified.  

Actual bricklaying to resume next week, providing the weather holds out.

Top row cast numerals 
bottom row the wooden patterns for the moulds 

The redesigned Culvert 25A outflow 
The ditch alongside the lane has been backfilled 

All the reports and pictures have been supplied by Andrew 

Moving stone

Weekending 10 April 

Split team for the morning, with two team going to check reports of standing water near MP 17½, south of Two Hedges Road, Bishops Cleeve. Nothing was found, but this is probably down to the fact it hasn't rained for over a week. 

Report and photos from Andrew. 

Foggy start at Bridge 33 over Dixton Cutting 

The main task for the day was to backfill the down side counterfort drain pipe on the low mileage side of the Three Arch Bridge at Dixton (Bridge 33). Stone and hardcore was carted from Manor Lane at Gotherington. The estimate was for 8 loads, but it actually took 10😫 It turned out to be a merry go round operation with the 2 Transit trucks. Fortunately the barrow run at Dixton Road was short and it was empty barrows to be pushed uphill.  

Back filled drain at Dixton 

Backfilled drain at Dixton from the top 

Week ending 17 April 

Another mob handed week, with 5 present. Two went to remove silt from the manhole on the up side at Culvert 28A, Stanley Pontlarge. This is a regular occurrence, it dried up for a while but it looks like the upstream blockage has been rectified. Chamber was half full of slit, with evidence it had overtopped.

Next 4 photos from Dave.  

Slurry coming out of the chamber on Culvert 28A 

Slurry trail 😏

All left clear and tidy 

Here's a reminder of what it's all about, trains are back running again after a very disrupted year. 

GWR 2-8-0 4270 running bunker first 

The rest of the team went Culvert 27A  and 27B, on the up side to sort out an area of boggy ground by the new fence and gate. The boggy area was most pronounced from the new gate for about 10 yards towards Cheltenham. A ditch was dug out to investigate and a twin land drain was uncovered. The clay pipes between the gate and the culvert had been displaced at some time with gaps in the joins causing the leak. 

Next batch of pics from Andrew. 

Culvert 27A Boggy gate area 

Ditch between 27A and 27B up side 

Misaligned clay pipes 

An exploratory hole was dug under the gate and a green plastic pipe appears to be be connected to one of clay pipes. This seems to have been disturbed by the fencing contractor when the gate was installed. 

Plastic pipe under gate 

It was decided that leaving the temporary ditch draining the boggy area was best for today, a return visit will be made to finish the job off. 

End of day

 

The run up to Easter

Saturday 27th March 

Headline news; all culverts along the running line have been checked this month and there are no major items to deal with before resumption of train services on 13th April. 

Back to the reporting, the first job of the day was to check out a report of a failure on the up side crest drain between Toddington Station and Stanway Viaduct. The hole with the broken pipe was located and broken bits of pipe dug out. It looked like it is the start of the crest drain, running north. All very dry, nothing has flowed here for a long while. Another visit has been planned to fill the hole with free draining stone. 

Photos and report from Andrew. 

Up side crest drain excavated 

Crest drain joins the cess drain and
runs down the up side of the viaduct 

On the down side of Culvert 14B at Didbrook 1 there are 2 large baulks which used to be part of the farmers bridge upstream. these have washed down into the mouth of the culvert. Removal will be another job for when more hands are available to lift them back out of the stream. 

Culvert 14B down side inlet 

A couple of slabs needed to be replaced at Culvert 15A down side channel and Culvert 16C stonework on the inlet from the field (just on the boundary fence) needs some sorting out. 

Culvert 16C down side fence 

Culvert 21A River Isbourne is still a work in progress, works temporarily halted in Jan 2020 so the contractor could deal with the slip at Winchcombe. Since then pandemic funding issues have prevented a restart. It's probably going to be a long wait until this gets funded again. 

 

Michael and Martin survey the abandoned works
 on Culvert 21A up side 

Tuesday 30 March 

Nigel and Dave were in today to do a couple of jobs, firstly, off loading the stone from the Transit at Gotherington Yard. Then filling up the tipper to take stone down to Bishops Cleeve to do the repairs to the disused trackbed that was washed out by flash flooding at Christmas. 

Pictures and report from Dave... 

Loading more stone at Manor Lane 

Filling the washed out section of trackbed 

The stone, like ballast, is seemingly designed to resist shovelling, and to avoid wilting too much in the heat from lengthy shovelling sessions, they made three trips back and forth to fill the holes.  

The size of the washout can be seen by 
the depth of fill required 

Disused trackbed repaired at Bishops Cleeve

That's all for now.