Contractors at work

The contractors mentioned in an earlier post have now started work.

There are two jobs:

- Repair of a small slip on the Malvern side.
- Repair of the mouth of a culvert under the embankment, both sides, a few yards further on.

The contractors are expected to be on site for 5 weeks or so, but after only 3 days progress was already quite impressive. Here is a view of the two sites today:

Just to recap, where we are is a 3 panel gap in the Laverton headshunt, Malvern side. The temporary gap in the track was created just so that this work could be carried out, and in the distance you can see the headshunt continue, with the PW train on it. Now you know why we can't get any more concrete sleepers - for a while.
The side of the embankment has been cut away in steps right down to the bottom. While the top end of the embankment is made of ballast and ash, the lower half is clay, excavated in 1904 from the cuttings north and south of here.
The black line across the field on the left indicates the brook,which crosses under the embankment and whose culvert is also being repaired.

This is the culvert, Malvern side. It's a brick arch on a bed of Cotswold rubble. PWay train of ballast hoppers above - we will need a lot of ballast hoppers!

There are two interesting pipes that have been placed in the culvert. I wonder how they came to be in there?

The brook then flows into large concrete pipes under the camera, to dive under a farm track parallel to the embankment.

The damaged section has already been removed, so these guys work pretty fast.

Here the excavator is removing a line of fence posts between the two jobs. A French drain will be laid at the foot of the embankment. No doubt we have built up some experience after tackling the larger jobs at Chicken Curve and at Gotherington.

It is a hot and sunny day today. The chap in the yellow vest is in an unusual pose, and no, he's not looking at his wrist watch.

This is the reason ! The yellow colour attracts swarms of flies, as you can see with this Hi Viz vest left on a fence post. Yours truly, in an orange vest, wasn't unduly bothered by them, so perhaps give them a change of colour, or a big beer tonight? They will have deserved it.

A last look at the work on the slip:

Seen from underneath, the steps are quite striking. A bit more spoil removal, and then this area looks ready for back filling with good material.

We'll take a look from time to time, and keep you posted of progress.