Concrete Repairs

Tuesday 27th Aug

The two concrete blocks holding the pulley wheels at the bases of the two signals adjacent to the road bridge at Winchcombe are suffering from embankment slippage and water scouring.
Last week the sticky black clay was dug out in front of the signal on platform 2 side and a preliminary pour of concrete put in with some supporting lengths of point rodding hammered into the ground (yet another use for miscellaneous bits of point rodding!!)

The embankment side is quite steep here but this additional support should stop any further tilting of the pulley blocks - the signal post anchored in its deep concrete "boot" looks OK. Carl S adding the finishing touches :

And the finished job

We had taken a possession of the line through platform 2 so made use of a P Way trolley to carry supplies up to under the bridge - this a) gave us some shelter from the sun and b) prevented the trolley interfering with the track circuits further on.

The ground under the concrete blocks at the base of the signal on the opposite side had been badly scoured away by water coming down the embankment :

The block on the left was completely unsupported underneath. So a bit more excavation was required to make space for a few more barrow loads of concrete

We will have to keep an eye on this to check for further scouring.

A bit more work has been done on the fittings for the bracket signal including the fabrication of brackets to hold the call-on arm lamp cases and the welding of down rods - but more of that next week.

Curly

PS  A message for Aardvark. We would love to take up your kind offer of a block shelf plunger. I have a colleague near Solihull who could pick it up if you could let me have contact details.
Richard.collier_1@btinternet.com