GWSR Lineside

Five of us today, Alex, Andy, Dick, Katrina and I. We worked between Cheltenham Racecourse Signal box and Southam Lane Bridge. In no specific order: Cleared under the signal wires from the box to each signal and same for point rodding. Cleared back the paths for the foot crossings Removed a few ash and elder saplings  Cleared around the SW sign for the RDA crossing. Cleared back the blackberry at RDA. We did see Railcar 22 leave Cheltenham as we arrived. A few photos attached  and so we can complete the set, also one of 22 at Winchcombe this afternoon with absolutely no editing to remove signals, houses or make it black and white (honest). A work to log for C&M the fence alongside the path on the Malvern side for the Cheltenham foot crossing needs replacing from the line down to the foot of the embankment. There also appears to be a fresh badger set between the RDA crossing and Southam Lane Bridge on the RDA side. Graham      End of day pic

  Cracking day to day  with Alex, Andy, Dick. Paul, Nick, Rachel, Simon and I in attendance. Mission accomplished, we cleared all the bramble trip wires from the end of the retaining wall on Cotswold side all the way to the end of north siding. As we finished before lunch we walked back track side along the retaining wall and checked/cleared as we went all the way back to the station. Graham Leach Site clearance picture

Our team for today consisted of 6 members as we returned to Mrs Townsends for a final tidy up for this summer.  There was no cutting done as the designated task was to tidy up the site. It took 3 trips in the pick up to move all the logs off site and a vigorous raking of the heaped chippings  to make them safe from any internal combustion.  The majority of this material will be reused at the orchard on chicken curve to make the  environment into a natural habitation for wildlife. Our contractors will now close the fence which will make the embankment inaccessible  from this side This is a great pity but at least it can be accessed over the track  thanks to the marvelous clearance done by the team and hopefully we can complete the clearance later in the year.  We will start our summer activities hopefully next week on the same embankment but dealing with some potentially problematic trees on the up side.  The teams have done an impressive  cle...

W e ended  our days session with a team consisting of 8 persons working.  They brush cut a strip along then remaining fence line (about 120 metres long by 3 metres wide) between the bottom of the embankment and the adjoining meadow.  Whilst this was being done the next section of the embankment was cut back after the necessary checks were done for nesting birds.  All this was time consuming as each check lasted about half an hour Most of this area consisted of thick blackthorn mixed with brambles and all this had to be disposed of to leave the site tidy. Two fires were needed to get rid of the dross so the team was kept busy.  An additional task that was requested of the team was to move the piles of logs from their position so that our contractors could install new fencing during the coming week.  This late task required the team to divert from the clearance and served as a public relations task towards our neighbouring land holder who has been very tolera...

There were as stated a team of 8 today so we were able to split into two teams of four.  The one group continued with the clearance at Mrs. Townsends whilst the other loaded the vehicle with the heap of wood chippings for use of mulching the relatively new trees that had been planted along the line.  This was an arduous task and had to be loaded via a single wheel barrow at a time . Our thanks to Lawrence who was not only our driver for the day but also our single power tool operator so he was kept very busy by the rest of the team members who went about their tasks with great determination.  A fire was lit to burn the cut material that at times was cut by the use of hand saws.  We have left an amount of cut material on the ground ready for disposal next week so we plan to continue with that. Before work commenced the area was checked for nesting birds of which none were found but we did observe a robin and blackbird on the ground with several swans flyi...

There was a turnout of 6 today and after an initial inspection and observation for any nesting birds we cleared the next section of about 40 metres of embankment   We would have done more but owing to the fact that future access to the site could possibly be denied to the team  we conducted a quick tidy up so that the site was left tidy  The cut material was all burnt and most of the logs were transferred to the bridge so that they could be collected.  The team worked well in the time available  and even though several expressed their unavailability for next week they hoped that we could finish the job. Brummie Dave Final state, clear down past the crab apple on a fantastic spring day A few logs available just past the bridge