Cuckoo

Working outside makes you very aware of the change of seasons; particularity the rapid changes of spring. One event we eagerly anticipate is hearing the first cuckoo of the year. This year it was a little later than previously, in early May. But in compensation, we heard two, one at Far Stanley and one at Gretton.

Thursday 5^th May

Six of the team in today - the one absence due to Covid.

Construction gang of three worked on culvert 24C at Working Lane, haul road exit headwall. Laid the last three courses of normal bricks and some of the top course of bull nose. Also they started building the small headwall on the entry from the boundary hedge ditch pipe.

Almost complete - the coping layer of bull nose bricks on the big 24C outlet headwall.

The first few bricks on the little headwall where the pipe from the boundary hedge ditch starts.

Also at Working Lane they removed some of the metal rubbish from the garden centre junk on the hard standing to the metals skip at Winchcombe yard. Plus sorted out some of the burnable wood and non-burnable plastic waste.

Meanwhile, the odd job gang of two first investigated culvert 35C at Gotherington as this was reported to have standing water. Up side outflow check running fine; down side inlet checked, minor vegetation clearance needed in the silt trap. Water flowing normally. (Actually the water level was low as nothing flowing from the embankment toe drain south of the stream inlet). Next job was the installation of a new bridge rail post for mile post 14 at Stanley Pontlarge.

The new (well refurbished) length of bridge rail for mile post 14.

Whilst there they noted several ash trees in the area which are suffering from ash die back. On the way on to Working Lane, they pruned the sycamore sapling that is growing from the high mileage up side wing wall of Gretton Village Bridge (26). It is impossible to remove entirely from above! The final job of the day was to test fit the Michael Beveridge memorial plaque to the culvert 25B junction inlet headwall at Working Lane.

GWR 2-8-0T 4270 passes with an up train.

Finally our plant operative (gang of one!?) spent the day at Winchcombe yard using the telehandler to move spoil material from the Churchward House boundary fence to the up side near the Usk building.

Careful operation of the telehandler required - we don't want Churchward House fence demolished.

Thursday 12^th May

With all seven team members attending we adopted a 3-3-1 formation.

The construction gang of 3 progressed the culvert 24C haul road exit headwall build at Working Lane. This is now structurally complete, the last brick was laid. The last brick was actually on the small headwall from the boundary ditch, which actually turned out to be not that small as it used over 60 bricks.

A big smile from master bricklayer Polly as the last bricks go in on culvert 24C (well the last on the up side, we will return to down side in the future!)

The height of the main exit headwall of 24C is apparent here. Certainly needs the safety fences and back fill added.

Yet more metal and other other rubbish was sorted out from the former garden centre rubbish on the hard standing.

The odd job gang of 3 first went to Toddington to collect a refreshed first aid kit for our main Transit truck. Then on to Broadway to install new milepost 4 and three quarters. This is a new hollow head so is mounted on a wooden post. As it is located by the run round points north of the platforms, very few passengers will see it.

The new 4¾ mile post.

Next it was investigation of the up side embankment by Station Road bridge in connection with the platform 2 building construction. The Wednesday clearance team had cut the vegetation on the embankment side, which has exposed evidence of a small slip near the road, classic dish shaped slope. Also exposed are two drains leading into the ditch at the foot of the embankment which is then piped under the road. One drain enters the ditch close to the road boundary; this appears to run from behind the bridge abutment. The second drain is 12" SGP which exits in a 5 course headwall about 12 feet up from the ditch. This drain is inline with the last track drain manhole in the 6 foot. However there is no evidence of a connection with that - the track drains at Broadway are in the 6 foot and run from the summit by the Station Road bridge north. So this drain down the embankment would carry very little from water from the track drains. We will have to return with the CCTV probe to investigate further.

Where is the other end of this cross drain?

Then the odd job team proceeded to Stanley Pontlarge to install the new head of milepost 14 on the length of bridge rail planted last week.

The second milepost finished today - mp 14 at Stanley Pontlarge.

Finally back to Working Lane to properly fix the Michael Beveridge memorial plaque to the inlet headwall of the culvert 25B entry to the 25A/25B junction.

To the memory of
MICHAEL BEVERIDGE
25 July 1946 - 11 December 2021
Member of the Drainage team,
builder of this and many other structures

The plant operative gang of 1 spent another day at Winchcombe yard. First using the telehandler to clear more of the area where the new shipping containers are going.

Jonathan touching up the paint work on the new (to us) mini dumper.

Then taking delivery of small dumper from Halls. Some minor cosmetic was undertaken on this, particularly the paintwork on the floor.

Thursday 19^th May

Another day with full attendance – this can’t last!

The odd job team today was three strong. First they installed a second set of slip marker posts at Toddington North cutting up side - mile 9 & quarter. All of these are 8m down from the first row; so now any movement above and below the slip face can be monitored. The tops of these were painted yellow to make them easier to spot once the vegetation has grown. The tops of the existing row of markers at the top of the bank similarly treated. The top row are still all vertical and inline - so no recent movement on the slip.

Second set of slip marker posts on the up side at Toddington North; yellow tops for easier observation.

Then proceed to Working Lane to meet the plant operative operator who had taken the telehandler there after waiting for Winchcombe school traffic to finish. The telehandler was used to fill around the headwalls on the haul road exit of culvert 24C. Infill was a mixture of garden centre rubbish (with anything metal or wooden removed) and soil.

More careful operation of the telehandler to get infill as level as possible.

Even with the mechanical aid, there was a fair bit of manual shovelling and raking. The final job was fitting three lengths of two rail safety fences on substantial posts well clear of the headwalls. That essentially completes that bit of 24C, at 22 courses high it is one the tallest headwalls we have built. Just a bit more top soil required, when we find a convenient source.

The final rail of the safety fence for 24C haul road outlet headwall get nailed in. (L to R: Jonathan, Nigel, Polly).

24C up side - job done!

The (re-)construction team of three headed for a new location – Gotherington Yard. All the cess drain manholes from here through Dixton cutting back to Prestcott Road bridge require attention. When rebuilt (probably 20 years ago), the final course or two of bricks were normal house bricks. These have deteriorated; so need removing. With 20 manholes on each side of the line between Prescott Road bridge and Gotherington Yard this job will keep us occupied for quite a few weeks. Today the team completed three on the down side, those nearest the yard, just on the low mileage side of culvert 33B today. A fortunate discovery is that the oblong concrete rings we have in stock at Winchcombe fit well; so this will reduce the amount of new bricks needed. One manhole required two rings; the other two one each.

Before rebuild ... [Photo by Dave]

... rebuild in progress (Roger laying mortar) ... [Photo by Dave]

... after rebuild. Only 39 more to do! [Photo by Dave]

Back at Winchcombe we took delivery of a 360 mini digger from Halls. Together with the small dumper, these two pieces of plant will significantly increase the scope of work that we can undertake, thus reducing the need to call in contractors. Initially they are restricted to Winchcombe, as they require a suitable trailer to be moved from site to site. That should hopefully arrive in the summer.

The new plant awaiting first use in Churchward House yard.

Concrete & Clay

Concrete and Clay is the title of a record by the group Unit 4 Plus Two which topped the UK singles chart for one week in April 1965. Also Concrete and Clay are the two substances that the Drainage team spend a lot of time shovelling. Clay comes out of the excavations for new structures and concrete goes back in!

Thursday 21st April

Five team members in today, one away on holiday and one with family commitments.

The construction gang of three continued with the build of the haul road exit headwall of culvert 24C at Working Lane. They laid 8 courses of bricks and three courses of blocks. That used up our supply of small solid concrete blocks, so the final course contained a couple of the large heavy hollow BR blocks we recovered from the down side cess at Royal Oak. Some more of these were added as back fill. The block courses are now complete, there will be two or three more courses of bricks. This headwall is turning out to be one the larger builds we have undertaken. The temporary extension pipe was removed, so the bore is back to full diameter throughout.

Master brickie Polly in action. Note the two big hollow BR concrete blocks on the left top row.

Dave and Nigel on the mortar mixing.

End of day on 24C - next up is to fill the big void behind the headwall.

The odd job team of two first headed to Prescott Road Bridge (32) to under take an internal visual examination of culvert 31B. This flows under the bridge, adjacent to the low mileage abutment and right by the road. The main issues here are the upstream inlet pipe and the downstream outlet ditch – both of which are outside of railway land.

Inlet (down side) chamber of culvert 31B along side Prescott Road. The covers here are heavy kerb stones.

Next they checked the slip markers at Far Stanley (mile post 14¼). There was no obvious signs of recent movement.

Slip marker posts at Far Stanley, still all in line.

Then on to milepost 14 where the old rotten head was removed. Also removed the bridge rail back to workshop for de-rusting and painting. Quarter mile back they touched up the paint on the head of milepost 13¾.

Second coat of paint on the screw heads finishes milepost 13¾.

Along the way they trimmed various bits of vegetation and removed some saplings between Stanley Pontlarge and Royal Oak. After lunch it was off to Manor Lane to milepost 16¼ to paint the bridge rail and install the new head.

Sometimes it is easier to brush down and repaint the existing bridge rail posts in-situ. Martin applies the Hammerite to milepost 16¼.

Another one complete!

Finally back at Winchcombe they completed the painting of two more lengths of bridge rail and all the remaining new cast numerals that we have in stock. 

Thursday 28th April

A much reduced team of four in today - holiday, sickness and other commitments kept the other three away.

So no splitting into gangs – all proceeded to Working Lane. The telehandler was used to move some of the garden centre rubbish from around the willow tree stump on the hardstanding. This infill was moved to the uphill area where the hardstanding is to be extended. It was not possible to level it out as (a) it contains too many big items and (b) the land there is too soft to drive the telehandler off the haul road.

The telehandler was also used to add final layers of top soil to the infill of the new headwalls of culvert 24B.

Jonathan is distracted from telehandler operations by the passing of a train.

And this was the train, unusually a morning down train hauled by Peak class diesel 45149. This had replaced 2-8-0T 4270 due to steaming problems.

 

Concreting was the main task of the day at culvert 24C. A vast amount of it! Ten bags of cement and around 3 tonnes of aggregate were mixed and poured into the void behind the new headwall. This required a trip back to Winchcombe to bring over additional supplies of cement and aggregate. Yet more of the large hollow BR concrete blocks and some of the concrete lumps from the garden centre rubbish were also inserted into the void to reduce the required quantity of concrete.

Ten bags of cement, 3 tonnes of aggregate and several concrete blocks...

... results in a very solid back fill for the large up side haul road exit headwall on culvert 24C.

A small amount of concrete (well three barrow loads) were used to form an apron for a small headwall by the entrance to the pipe which will take water from the ditch by the boundary hedge.

Andrew levels off the small concrete apron at the entrance to the pipe from the boundary ditch. (Photo by Roger).

 

Finally, another quick visit to culvert 31B at Prescott Road Bridge (32). This was to take some more pictures of the inlet and outlet and to investigate water that is running across the road. This looks like it is a leak from a mains water pipe well uphill of the entry to our culvert.

Was It Bill or Was It Ben?

Note for younger readers: The title of this entry is a catch phrase from a popular BBC Children’s TV programme of the 1950s, back in those days the brand was ‘Watch With Mother’. Bill and Ben were The Flowerpot men; they lived in some large flower pots. One of the items we cleared from the former Garden Centre rubbish pile at Toddington was a large flower pot. So was it Bill’s or was it Ben’s? Or maybe neither, since it was plastic!

Thursday 31^st March

Six of the team in today; one last minute no-show because of COVID-19 positive test and thus isolation.

Construction of culvert 24C haul road exit headwall at Working Lane progressed. Today the concrete backfill was added up to to the level of the blocks laid last week.

First backfill concrete mix for 24C haul road exit. That kept the mixer and the mixer operator busy all morning!

Today the first loads of material from the Garden Centre rubbish site at Toddington arrived at Working Lane. The contractor was using a tractor/trailer and a 42-tonne tipper wagon. We moved the piles of logs, recycled red bricks, and reusable paving slabs to allow better access for these vehicles. The material is very mixed, unfortunately removal of the large concrete rubble, metal items and tree stumps did not take place when loading at Toddington. Also the area where the hardstanding is being extended was too wet for the lorry and tractor to get on to. We are going to need either a bulldozer or a large 360 excavator to level this out. The contractor finished moving the material from Toddington on Friday. The area at Toddington will become the C&M material store.

One of the first loads of the very mixed 'infill' from the old garden centre site at Toddington is tipped at Working Lane.

A small amount of brush cutting was undertaken on the up side of the embankment at Working Lane to enable the Saturday Lineside Clearance team safe access to some trees to be felled.

Area cleared around the two trees to be felled on Working Lane embankment - Winchcombe up fixed distant visible at the top of the slope. We think this is the highest embankment on the line. Despite the blue sky, it felt more like winter than spring today.

Another attempt to CCTV the upstream culvert which becomes culvert 25A under Working Lane bridge was abandoned. Still too much water flowing. However, we examined the entry to this covered channel, it is about 100 yards up Gopshill Lane on the east side south of Apple Orchard Close. Upstream ditch from there has a lot of silt.

Another replacement milepost head fitted – this time to 13 & three quarters, between Gretton & Stanley Pontlarge.

Milepost 13¾ looking pristine. Photo by Roger.

 

Back in the workshop two lengths of bridge rail were painted with black Hammerite.

Thursday 7^th March

Again one team member away due to a COVID-19 positive test and thus isolation – but a different person than last week.

First item for the whole team was storing the items which one of our builders merchants had delivered the day before. Always worth while getting bags of cement under cover as quickly as possible.

Then a division into three sub teams of two each.

Construction sub-team progress at culvert 24C haul road exit; laid 7 courses of bricks and 2 courses of concrete blocks.

Getting higher; 24C haul road exit. Pipe to drain boundary ditch in place to enable marking and cutting of bricks and blocks. Photo by Polly.

Milepost installation & odd job sub team. Measured distances at Broadway from milepost 4 & half (north of Springfield Lane), taking this as our zero origin as it has not been disturbed from BR days. Removed milepost 4 & three quarter house number style head for replacement. Installed replacement milepost 5 using bridge rail at its correct location. Measured up the gap where coping stone is missing from up side low mileage wing wall on bridge (culvert 2A).

Milepost 5 - a complete replacement in heritage style with bridge rail post. This by the trackside access from the 'new' Broadway Car Park. Photo by Roger.

Milepost manufacturing sub team. Progressed priming with red oxide and painting black the lead numbers and the prepared steel bar for dividers and quarter marks. One bridge rail painted on all sides with Hammerite; two bridge rails painted on one side with Hammerite. Thanks to C&W for ‘loaning’ some more Hammerite – old bridge rail soaks up the paint! Two long lengths of bridge rai which were formerly fence posts were cut down to 6 foot; old fence fixtures removed and wire brushed down.

Another piece of bridge rail cut to length, fence fastenings removed and wirebrushed. Ready for painting with Hammerite. Photo by Dave.

Thursday 14^th April

Only five in today - one off sick (suspect COVID-19 again, the third team member in three weeks) and one on holiday.

Construction sub team of two continued on culvert 24C haul road exit at Working Lane. They laid 8 courses of concrete blocks and 6 courses of bricks. This has exhausted the supply of small concrete blocks - the final course will use the recovered big heavy hollow BR blocks. Also dug ditch from the new headwall back to the boundary hedge along side the haul road and inserted 14ft of flexible pipe. This will then take the water from that boundary ditch – clearing it out back to the entrance gate is one item on our ‘To Do’ list.

You can tell which courses were laid today - the mortar is still damp. The smaller diameter pipe entering in the angle between headwall and wingwall drains the boundary ditch by the haul road. Photo by Polly.

Looking the other way; the length of pipe now buried. Dig it out in the morning, fill it in the afternoon. Beats a workout at the gym! Photo by Polly.

Odd job team of three first went to Toddington Station, two in a Transit and one in the Telehandler. This was for the final clearance from the new C&M compound (old garden centre dump). Moved remaining tree trunks and stumps to outside the compound where our forestry contractor will be able to cut them up.

Jonathan driving the telehandler removing tree stumps from the C&M storage compound, the former garden centre dump at Toddington.

Also moved a metal turnstile to just outside the compound. Loaded up the remaining rubbish, including the big flowerpot and plastic mesh and took to general skip at Winchcombe. Whilst with the telehander at Toddington we were able to fullfill a request from the Friends of the station. This was to move to move three large concrete plant troughs back to be inline with the old access road.

Repositioning concrete plant troughs at Toddington.

Then it was off to Working Lane. Attempted to use telehandler to clear some of the rubble from around a willow tree stump which is now in the middle of what will be the hardstanding area. Not very successful; this rubble contains some items that are too big for the telehandler bucket and the haphazard arrangements of the piles makes it impossible to scoop much at a time.

Telehander versus big concrete rubble.

Finally more milepost work. We checked the mileposts between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington (17 back to 15 & three quarter). All are at correct distances apart; and all are on bridge rail. We did intend fitting the new head to 16 & quarter, but the old bolts would not shift! Annoyingly we did not have a big spanner or a can of WD40 with us.

Milepost 15¾ at Gotherington is high on our list for replacement. The BR style yellow metal head is loose and the bridge rail post is leaning at the wrong angle in both planes.

Back at workshop we experimented with two method of fitting the new hollow milepost heads to the wooden posts used between Laverton & Childswickham Road. Decided use of two screws at an angle into the back of the head was best. Unless we find some more suitable lengths of bridge rail, we will have to continue to use wooden posts in some places.

Rock hard!

The changeable late Winter and early Spring weather is still affecting our plans; and not just because of too much rain. Certainly there is a lot of truth in the saying ‘Other countries have climate, the UK has weather!’

Thursday 17^th March

The day before (Wednesday of the Cheltenham Race meeting) had seen heavy rain almost all day; but St. Patrick’s day was dry and warm. However, there was a lot of water coming down off the Cotswolds and most of our culverts were flowing well. This included 25A at Working Lane, Gretton which we wished to survey the upstream bore with our CCTV equipment. This is an open channel in a brick invert underneath the bridge, but is culverted upstream. Old maps of the 1920s show it as an open ditch all the way back to Winchcombe Road. We wished to see the state of the bore whilst under railway land, and whether there are any connections from road or house drains. One of the home owners has reported occasional flooding of a land drain which probably connects into the main culvert. Unfortunately the depth of water was over the top of the camera trolley, so we could not see anything. Hence a task postponed for later.

Looking upstream in the bore of culvert 25A at Gretton. CCTV trolley was underwater. There must be a manhole up there somewhere!

The construction team of three completed the concreting for the apron of the new culvert 24C exit headwall by the haul road on the up side at Working Lane. This involved almost a tonne of aggregate and a lot of bags of cement. So both the long wheel based Transits trucks were used - one for plant and one for materials. There also had to be a return trip to Winchcombe to swap cement mixers as the drive belt on one broke. (Unlike C&M, we do not have names for our mixers, they are just the older one and the newer one).

Concrete apron for culvert 24C haul road exit headwall poured. Note the temporary barrow run on the planks to the right. (The smaller diameter extension pipe is only temporary; to get the water away from the setting concrete and in the coming weeks to keep the bricklayer's feet dry.)

Meanwhile an odd job team of two first attended to a request to install slip marker posts. This is just north of Stanway viaduct on the down side by the Toddington distant signal. PWay have had to regularly top up the ballast for a short length here, hence the request to monitor for slips. A visual check of the embankment side revealed no tell tale signs; but plenty of animal holes. This is an area where badgers were active until a few years ago; the up side embankment was meshed to stop any more digging. Additionally the area of concern is right on top of culvert 11C; which many years ago was extended with a pipe on the down side, that involved digging into the embankment.

Slip monitoring posts in place on down side north of Stanway Viaduct. Marker post for culvert 11C visible lineside and beyond the area with plenty of ballast topped up.

The odd job team then moved up to the B4632 bridge (No 8) at Stanton. Now the bridge works are complete we had access to install the new head for milepost 7¾. This is the first of the ‘house number’ style posts to be replaced with the more authentic new head with numerals in the correct GW typeface. Then it was on to Broadway for a similar exercise for milepost 5. Another ‘house number’ head but this time on a non authentic wooden post. The bolts fixing the head to the post refused to move thus preventing a simple swap of heads. The complete post and head were removed back to the workshop, but still the bolts would not budge! Partial dismantling of the head revealed extensive damp and a lot of woodlice inside; a consequence of not fitting rainproof flashing on the head. Renovating this head with correct numerals for reuse elsewhere will be a bigger task than anticipated. The new milepost 5 head will now be mounted on a length of bridge rail in the coming weeks. This will be much more in keeping with the heritage look at Broadway; milepost 4¾ just north of the up platform will be replaced in a similar way.

Out with the house numbers, in with the authentic looking GW style numerals. Mp 7¾ is just on the Toddington side of the B4632 bridge at Stanton if you want to look out for it.

A train picture for a change. This was our first working day of the year with real trains to watch out for - here 47105 brings the ECS for the Friday Broadway race train past the site of milepost 5.

Thursday 24^th March

A complex plan involving three sub teams with four vehicles working at four sites was the order of the day.

Another request to install a set of slip monitoring posts was attended to. This time it was on the up side in Toddington north cutting, so just south of the viaduct. When the vegetation was cut on the cutting side it revealed the tell tail signs of a slip; cracks in the ground near the top and a snout of material near the bottom. From our investigations it looks like this is not a very recent slip; with the marker posts in place we can monitor it to determine if it is still moving. The down side cutting behind the retaining wall by the north siding has a similar ‘dormant’ slip discovered a few years ago.

More slip monitoring posts; up side Toddington North.

The construction team today was only two in number; but they made excellent progress on the new headwall for culvert 24C haul road exit at Working Lane. No problems with out mixers today (I think it was the older one in use). Seven courses of concrete blocks (new small ones, not the heavy recovered BR era big hollow ones) and one course of bricks went in. The wall here will be 14 courses of block high; so we are halfway there already.

Halfway there - well on the block courses. 24C haul road exit headwall takes shape. When complete it will be one of our higher headwalls.

Earlier in the day, chief brickie Polly does not pause for the photographer. Note how the temporary extension pipe is keeping the work area dry.

We are extending the hard standing area at the bottom of the haul road. The Saturday clearance team have removed the vegetation in the foreground and some of the willow tree. The rest is due to be felled on Saturday 27th. The area will be levelled using infill from the old garden centre at Toddington.

 

 

The main job of the day was at Stanley Pontlarge, repairing the driveway through the small holding adjacent to the railway on the up side. Unfortunately the warm, dry, sunny weather over the previous week had made the ground rock hard, too hard for the telehandler to level out. So, unusually, we have had to postpone a task until we get some wet weather to soften the ground. We did however place some of the one tonne of No1 stone we collected from Bishops Cleeve in the worst of the ruts in the driveway. The rest of the stone is on site for when we can resume the job.

The only soft ground at Stanley Pontlarge was this puddle under the railway gate. One month ago all the drive way was mud - deep in places.

Awaiting a damp day - the rest of the stone for the driveway repair at Stanley Pontlarge.

Whilst we had the telehandler and the Citroen tipper truck in the area we proceeded to Gotherington yard to load one of the dumpy bags of pea gravel we recovered from Dixton Bridge last year. This was used to make good the damage to the U shaped concrete drain channels in Dixton Cutting, between the Tirle Brook flume culvert (32A) and Prestcott Road Bridge. Hopefully with the PWay work now complete in Dixton cutting there will be no more damage to these concrete channel; they are impossible to repair and exact replacements of these BR era relics do not exist.

Pea gravel used to level out tops of the BR style U shape concrete drainage channel. When new this would have had concrete lids on it for the entire length (nearly ¾ mile here at Dixton Cutting).

Whilst all the weather related disruptions to our plans are annoying; working out side in warm, spring sunshine was a joy. It was almost like summer!