FLOODLINE NEWS
For insurance reasons only working members of the Railway can be directly involved in repair activity. Any members not currently working volunteers and who wish to assist should contact Dewi Jones in the first instance.
FLOODLINE No 19
Tuesday 17th July 2007
Flood Appeal Fund tonight stands at £186,500. An additional £5,100 has come via the internet since
Friday. Today the office staff have sorted and banked £17,500 from cheques and credit card donations.
Just to illustrate the amount of additional paperwork involved, one volunteer spends 3-4 hours each morning just sorting out the donations before someone else processes the paperwork. Of the thousands that have donated it is obvious that it now not possible to acknowledge all the small donations but the SVR just has to give a collective thanks for these.
Highley
Crawler bucket delivered today and with the SVR 6 ton steam crane will be in use tomorrow to recover any remaining trackwork above or near the slip.
Investigations on how to generate electric power for the Engine House are being discussed. The power line can not be energised as the route it is too close to the slip and the planned excavations with the risk of damage. Issues such as lighting, heating and ventilation need addressing.
Victoria Bridge
The stone lined embankment on the upstream side has now been repaired. These stones were placed on the bank probably when the bridge was built to help keep the embankment from being washed away.
Although many stones were washed out, most remained in place. The missing stones have now been put back where they belong.
On the downstream side where we had the deep washout of the embankment, all the stones ended up on the riverside footpath. The contractors have kept these to one side and are now reusing them to rebuild the wall. Its now about half of its original height of about 20 feet and as it rises new stone is placed behind it and tamped. Once the original height of the wall is reached the rest of the now missing embankment will be replaced with tamped down tiered rock.
Another day’s production was lost on this site today due to further heavy rain and thunderstorms.
Folly Point
All the gabion baskets at the bottom layer have now been laid and the top layer should be finished by Friday.
Thurs 19th July
Cl 08 driver and guard (passenger qualified) required BY d 8.00am a 4.00pm for drain cleaning train. Contact Dewi
Friday 20th July
Cl 08 driver and guard (passenger qualified) required BY d 8.00am a 4.00pm for drain cleaning train. Contact Dewi
Sunday 22nd July
Guard (passenger qualified) required (contact Dewi) for vegetation clearance train BY d 10.30am
Non SVR members wishing to assist with vegetation clearance will be issued free day membership. Similarly SVR members who are not volunteers are also welcome to join us on this train.
Please contact Dewi Jones on trafman@svr.co.uk if you intend coming.
Autumn Gala
We would like to run a fleet of vintage buses from KR to BH for the Autumn Steam Gala. Anyone who has contacts for suitable vehicles would they please contact John Leach on 01299 403816
Dewi Jones
Traffic Manager
FLOODLINE No 18
Monday 16th July 2007
45110 failed to leave shed this morning – cracked brick arch. Cl 11 worked 10.30am and 11.30am ex KR. 4566 substituted. Cl 11 took Flat ED wagon back to KR ready to receive cable drums for NH to VB relaying.
Sat 14th July.
Gang from BY started scrapping out unwanted metal from the Stourport P Way area. he aim is twofold. One to raise money from disposing of old RSJs and rail and secondly tidying up the site. The longer term aim is to relay the sidings with concrete sleepers and bury the site up to rail height to allow road rail vehicles to move around easily on the site.
Another fifteen strong gang continued with the lineside vegetation clearance at Northwood
Friday 20th July
Traffic Shunter required to assist KR carriage cleaners see TN for details from 10.30am contact Dewi.
Saturday 21st
No vegetation clearance train today
Four spear-head fence panels remain to be painted outside BY station. Volunteer required - contact a member of station staff on the day
Bewdley Station Gala - 7325, 4390, Class 08, 46443 and 4566 on display. 37906, 45110 and DMU on service trains. Evening BBQ for working members’ families and friends.
Sunday 22nd
Vegetation clearance train leaves Bewdley at 10.30am
08 driver D Price
Guard required offers to Dewi
We are using Taw Valley’s support coach 35479 so from Sunday we will literally be cooking on gas. Jean and Michael will be cooking bacon butties at £1.50 each mmmmm.
Oldbury
Catchpits, sumps and new drains going in. Specialist drainage contractor to be employed. Retaining wall half way up the embankment cracked and will have to be stitched
Knowlesands
BH pattern shop are going to make a wooden pattern for casting new GWR signal post finials to replace damaged ones.
Highley
Indications are that the water tower may have to be removed due to its location in relation to the planned excavations. To be reinstated hopefully without disturbing the base. 3 days of jetting culverts at HY, some still blocked and may have to be dug out from above. In one culvert everything ok but flat stones which are too big to have been washed in, so were they placed there when the culvert was built on day dot on purpose or was it a Friday afternoon and builders did not bother to recover?
Geologists drawing up plan which may require up to 8m of ground under track level to be excavated. Plan to be submitted to other bodies including an offer from Network Rail to double check.
Another option to explore is to remove less spoil but then drive piles into the ground. This would involve concrete and lengthen the rebuild time.
Fishermans Xing
New drain design, Environment Agency investigating debris washed out into farmer’s field to advise on removal/relocating plan.
Victoria Bridge
Contractors came back Sat to catch up with lost day on Friday due to bad weather. Retaining stone wall at river footpath level has now been rebuilt and stone brought in by RR from EVA car park is about to be used as fill. Earthworks back up to trackbed level should be completed by the middle of next week.
Eyemore Cutting
Contractors working night shifts Tues/Wed and Wed/Thu to dig out cesses and tip at Trimpley
S+T cable VB to NX will be scrapped. Contractors started work on repairs to the siphon. Next week contractors will absail to release the steel netting on the Down side and release unstable rock and debris before reattaching the netting to rock face.
Folly Point
Anyone got any info on a suitable mole that can be attached to a road rail machine to bury signalling cables. Gabion rock baskets should all be in position and complete by Friday
Northwood “New” slip
Very unstable – rain generated - can sink up to your knees in it. Trees 3 foot in diameter slipping toward the railway. More slips, more tension cracks. Slip is above SVR boundary fence.
Northwood
Concrete troughing for S+T cable to used in some areas. Drain Jetting Train hopefully will have completed work by end of day Wednesday. At least one drain collapsed which will require track off, sleepers out, dig trench and replace pipe and return track ready for ballasting.
Boring bit.
A massive amount of paperwork and phoning work has been going on which is not newsworthy but these are things that have been going on and have to be sorted. Access to neighbours’ land, works on neighbours’ land, some without authority in emergency, authority and agreements need to be in place for other access rights. Councils and their various departments consulted, drainage department, Environmental Agency, Severn Trent, South Staffs etc wherever there is now work we have had to be in constant discussion with various bodies, individuals, solicitors and lawyers to ensure that what we do is legal and right for the future. We will still have to live with our neighbours. If someone was going to drive a land rover over your front lawn you would like to know about it first and know who was going to put the turf right afterwards!
Dewi Jones
Traffic Manager
FLOODLINE No 17
Friday 13th July 2007
Friday 13th July
Track tamper arrived at KR will be stabled here until the damaged line is ballasted
Drain cleaning train in use again (work restarts on Monday)
Saturday 14th
Dogfish hopper wagon due to be delivered to KR from Titley Jn
37906 and 45110 working BY-KR also DMU on Fish and Chip train
Sunday 15th
Arley Station gang meet at AY 10.30am for tea! then start at 11.00am. Either cesses and drains AY to Borle Viaduct or cesses and drains in Eyemore Woods – any help welcomed.
45110 working BY-KR
BH P Way gang will be clearing vegetation in the Knowlesands area anyone interested in helping bring tools and report to J Walker.
Monday to Friday 16th to 20th
45110 working KR-BY
Tuesday 17th
Further trench investigation at HY, BH and any other P Way staff required to assist in removal of track components above slip.
Cl 73101 to be delivered to KR
Hired diesel locomotives to work spoil trains VB to Kinlet Sdgs
Cl 20 No 8188 - Agreement made with Swanage Railway.
Cl 73 No 73101 (Pullman Livery) - Will be released from the Avon Valley Railway.
Details of the third diesel TBA
Knowlesands
Two of the three washouts have now been filled up to rail height (well it would be if there was any rail!). One new large diameter drain pipe has been buried under the track formation with another to be done. South of tunnel work starts next week on repairing the washout areas in the cutting towards Crossing Cottage.
Victoria Bridge
Contractors hope to complete earthworks here sometime between 20/7 and 24/7. Due to heavy rain today work had to be halted for safety reasons. About 100 tons has already been dug out and removed by rail and temporary stored on the lineside at Trimpley.Folly Point
Contractors hope to complete earthworks here sometime between 20/7 and 24/7.
Northwood “new slip”
Contractors will next week start felling trees on this slip. Under no circumstances should SVR staff work or fell trees between the red flag at Northwood and Folly Point.
Bewdley Station Gala Sat 21st July 2007 – Hagley Hall and 7325 on display. Request for an additional 4 TTIs or “redundant” booking office staff to help sell site entry tickets, an “official” photographer and a few extra hands to help with the BBQ in the evening. Contact Simon BY ASM on 07811 186056.
Dewi Jones
Traffic Manager
SVR
FLOODLINE No 16
Thursday 12th July
Download Floodline No16 as PDF. (1.1MB)
FLOODLINE No 15
Wednesday 11th July 2007
Those from the SVR who went to the Bishop’s Castle Beer Festival last weekend raised £276 for the Flood Appeal - could have stayed at home and done that but it wouldn't have been so much fun!
Eyemore Cutting
840 steel sleepers ordered (at £52.12 each) to replace 30 panels of track = 3 lorry loads to be brought into KR next week. Enquiries being made for replacement rail.
Bradshaw's, one of the contractors employed by the railway, will be working 24 hours a day digging out the cesses in the cutting next week and preparing for removal of the track w/c 23rd July.
The AY Down Distant Signal has been extracted to allow further excavation work to take place to the south of VB.
Orders for replacement signal cable is soon to be placed.
Enquiries in hand to hire up to three diesel locomotives and vacuum or air braked spoil and ballast wagons to work between between AY and VB.
The high pressure water jet machine was delivered to KR today. It’s a conversion of a US army two unit caterpillar. The front unit is a crew cab (was for soldiers!) and its trailer houses the pump equipment.
It was loaded onto a Flat ED wagon from KR P1 and moved to BY ready to start work at 8.00am tomorrow jetting out damaged and blocked drains and culverts.
Vegetation Clearance train on Saturday 14th Dvr N Hanson Guard H McQuade
Vegetation Clearance train on Sunday 15th Dvr VACANCY Guard Ray Durrant
A SVR statement on the financial packages presented by various agencies will be made tomorrow.
Dewi Jones
Traffic Manager
SVR
FLOODLINE No 14
Tuesday 11th July 2007
Flood Damage Appeal stands at £123,931 tonight.
Although it sounds from the TV and newspapers that we are “in the money” its not the whole story.
A detailed announcement will be made by the SVR tomorrow and will be explained in some clearer detail via Floodline. The message will still be that there should be no let up in encouraging donations to the Appeal.
Barry Hancher, Carriage Shed Foreman at KR, could use up any help offered. Jobs include cleaning and polishing coaches inside and out, including buffet cars and general tidying up in (no excuse about working in the rain!) and around the carriage shed, light and medium heavy work to suit. Contact him on 01562 743617. Also help in sorting out the large S+T stores at the back of CS6 – a chance for “unemployed” signalmen to assist?
We’re looking to hire vacuum braked bogie spoil wagons, if you know of any not too far away on a railway which might be able to loan them for about four months, please let me know.
High pressure water jet machine 4.2 tons, 1.8m x 6.3m is being delivered by road to KR tomorrow and loaded onto a rail vehicle for movement to BY ready to start working with a 3 man team towards NH on Thursday.
HY
While we are awaiting the survey of the Highley slip indications are that up to 6,000 cu mts of spoil may need to be extracted. That’s equal to 12,000 tons or in plain English it's about 750 lorry loads with possibly another 750 lorry loads to bring in new rock. The reopening date of the line will now hinge on the results of this geological survey.
Northwood Lane
Further slippage on the uphill side between the Halt and what was the first washout. Found this afternoon. Inspection resulted from aerial photographs. A large block of the hill has/is slipping towards the rails, including the trees. The neighbours now have a clearer view of the valley below! This is causing concern and geologist are now investigating. If serious enough could further delay the reopening of this stretch of line.
I'm still looking for a goods guard for tomorrow (Thursday)
KR d 9.30am and to work at BY finish 4.00pm. Ring me on 07957 431231.
Also
Cl 08 Driver and Guard required Sat 14th 9.00am ex BY
Cl 08 Driver and Guard required Sun 15th 9.00am ex BY
Cl 08 Driver required Tues 17th 9.00am ex BY (provisional)
Dewi Jones
Traffic Manager
SVR
FLOODLINE No 13
Monday 10th July
Download Floodline No13 as PDF.
News reports regarding the additional funding announced today:
BBC
Midlands Today Video Report
24Dash.com
Express and Star
Shropshire Star
FLOODLINE No 12
Friday 6th July 2007
There was no Floodline No 10, who had withdrawal symptoms then?
The road rail dumper truck idea has now been found to be unworkable on the BY – VB section. Of the four ordered, two left the railway today and the remaining two will leave on Tuesday. Good idea at the time.
Tons of rock are being extracted from the track formation at Folly Point to make space to insert the gabions rock baskets. The contaminated rock is dug out of the formation and then moved by rail to the Elan Valley Aqueduct. It is then craned out of the RR trailers into road dumpers and taken down a 300 yard lane before being tipped on top if the large boulders deposited in the Severn last week.
Just to illustrate the difficulty of this task about half of the 300 yard lane had to be resurfaced before it was safe for the dumpers to take their load to the Severn.
Clean rock is brought in by the lorry load to the EVA car park then craned into the RR trailers to be moved to FP and then bucketed into the baskets.
The isolated location of the damage and the logistical problems associated will and are being repeated to some extent at each of the work sites.
Sat 7th and Sun 8th July
AY - clearance gang from 10.30am
BY – Staff Train departs at 10.30am to clear vegetation at Northwood Halt
Monday 9th
Road rail bucket to be moved from Folly Point to BY, then by road to Victoria Bridge to start moving spoil in conjunction with two other machines here.
Tuesday 10th
A road rail crawler bucket will be delivered to BY to go to Folly Point. The idea of having this machine here is that it is more stable than the rubber tyred RR machines especially in the spreading of the ballast over gabion rock baskets.
Thu 10th
Cl 08 and Engineers train ex BY to clear drains with high pressure water jets
Fri 11th
Cl 08 and Engineers train ex BY to clear drains with high pressure water jets, goods guard required.
Sat 12th
Cl 08 and Engineers train ex BY to clear drains with high pressure water jets, Cl 08 driver and goods guard required.
Dewi Jones
Traffic Manager
Photo at Folly Point shows two levels of gabion rock baskets well below rail height. They come as flatpacks and are made up on site. 6 are in position with 94 to go. Once the riverside wall has been built the ground behind the wall on the uphill side will be excavated and again filled with rock baskets before drains, ballast and track can be reinstated. Photo taken 6th July 2007.
Further recent photos from Paul Pearson and Richard Shaw.
FLOODLINE No 11
Thursday 5th July
BY-NX
Camera inspection has revealed that nearly all of the smaller drains running under the track need jetting out with high pressure water. In some places where only one side of the pipe is exposed the route of the pipe can be followed electronically from transponders in the pipe. This will then give an indication of where the other end of the pipe is to aid uncovering. It was the force and quantity of water that jammed vegetation, stones and silt in them thus blocking the flow and forcing water courses to run over the tracks. Inspection will continue this week. Next week high pressure water jetting will start with an Engineers Train required to carry pumping equipment and water BY to Northwood.
Staff requirement
Wed 11th July Guard to move Engineers Train KR to BY
Thursday 12th Cl 08 Driver and Guard ex BY 8.00am to work to Northwood with eng train
Friday 13th Cl 08 Driver and Guard ex BY 8.00am to work to Northwood with eng train
Sat 14th Cl 08 Driver and Guard ex BY 8.00am to work to Northwood with eng train
Offers of assistance to Dewi Jones
A ballast tamper has been booked but its delivery date is yet to be determined.
There is also an an option being looked into of obtaining a road-rail tamper to get to locations that the rail tamper can not initially reach. This will also give us the option of tamping BY-AY and BH-HL sections at the same time.
Oldbury Viaduct
The drilling rig will not get onto site until Monday. The continuous rain has prevented safe working at this site.
Highley
Boring results will be known late next week. A topographical survey has been carried out and with the boring results a three dimensional model can be made. This work will take about another week. Only then a solution to repairing the slip can be drawn up, so don’t expect much visible progress at HY for a few weeks. A reinforced earth specialist has been lined up in readiness for the repairs.
Victoria Bridge
One crawler bucket half way down to the river from track level. One small crawler bucket at river level. The small one is “feeding” the larger one which then will be loading the road railer trailers for movement to Folly Point for disposal.
Folly Point
More gabion rock baskets are now in place where the track formation used to be.
Some recent photos from Adrian Hassell and Pete Cherry
Dewi Jones
Traffic Manager
SVR