Work is about to start on repair of the collapsed railway embankment at the so-called 'Chicken Curve' on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, just north of Winchcombe station.
Contracts for the repair work were signed at Winchcombe Station on Thursday 19 January following several months of monitoring, examination of soil samples, repair design, drainage works. Negotiations with nearby landowners have also been concluded, to allow access by heavy plant, equipment and vehicles to both sides of the railway.
Work will start on site early in Feburary, initially to lay the temporary roads from the B4632 road.
Total cost of the project is expected to reach around£670,000. Because of the previous embankment collapse at Gotherington two years ago, the railway has been unable to secure further insurance against such risks
This means that the railway has had to find the money itself.
The collapse, which happened at the beginning of January 2011, severed the railway in two. This disaster came at a time when the railway was still repairing a similar embankment failure at Gotherinton which had stopped trains from reaching Cheltenham Racecourse. Added to that, the railway lost about £60,000 in revenue when heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures curtailed the railway's 'Santa Special' services in December 2010.
Malcolm Temple, GWSR Plc chairman, says: "The combination of these three serious setbacks placed considerable financial strain on the railway. 2011 was, literally, a 'make or break' year for our entirely volunteer-run business."
EngineersThe consulting engineer and project manager is Jonathan Symonds of Birmingham-based David Symonds Associates, who also managed the Gotherington repair. Main contractors are George Law of Kidderminster while specialist soil nailing will be carried out byM & J Drillingof Tipton. The geotechnical consultant is Julian Hughes of Wolverhampton-based GIP.
Darren Fairley, the railway's volunteer properties director and a Network Rail expert in railway infrastructure, says that extensive geotechnical surveying has determined the structure of the embankment and the soil underneath it, providing a '3-D' picture of what is happening within and below the earthworks.
"That, combined with on-going monitoring to determine the extent and direction of movement, has enabled us to develop a detailed design for the repair which was used to obtain tenders for the work.
"In addition, we have carried out extensive repairs to existing drainage and will be installing additional drainage as part of the repair work. This will mean that both the embankment and the land on which it stands will be better drained than perhaps they ever have been.
"This has taken time but it means that we have a cost-effective solution that we expect will fix this troublesome embankment for good," Darren adds.
The project is divided into three work areas over a distance of about 300 metres. The most serious section - which amounts to over a third of the affected area - requires the embankment to be dug out and terraced back with new material. The survey shows that movement extends beneath ground level and this will need piling to prevent the rebuilt embankment from sliding out again. The back of the main collapse will be stabilised with soil nails while at the other end, next to the B4632 road bridge, continuing movement may also require soil nailing.
Work will start on 6th February. Neil Carr, the railway operations manager will be overseeing the work on a day-to-day basis.
"This is a complex project that aims to finally overcome the geological problems that have dogged the railway for almost a century," he says.
"The work should continue for about four months and it will involve movement of lorries and civil engineering equipment -however, we will seek to keep disruption to a minimum for local people. Inevitably there will be some additional heavy goods traffic on the B4632 but, as far as possible, they will avoid the historic town of Winchcombe itself,"
He points out that after the wok is completed, the track will need to be re-laid and ballasted and the signalling reconnected.
Target completion - early Autumn 2012Commenting on the work schedule, Neil says: "Given continuing response to the appeal, fair weather and no unforeseen geological difficulties we hope to be running trains once again over the embankment by early Autumn 2012.
"That will re-unite the two separate railways we have been operating throughout 2011 and will continue to do so until the work is finished."
However, Neil stresses that while work is starting, there is still a financial gap to fill.
"Given the economic difficulty that is affecting families and businesses, response to our £1m appeal has been quite amazing," he says. "But we are still at least £170,000 short to complete the work and how quickly this comes in will determine how quickly the work is finished.
"I believe that when people see the machines digging into the embankment it will help give additional emphasis to the final financial boost we need," he adds.
History of the embankmentThe railway's Chicken Curve embankment has been problematical since at least 1925, when the Great Western Railway, which had opened the line less than 20 years earlier, suffered landslips here. That entailed using steel piles in an attempt to prevent the embankment from moving and installing special 'counterfort' drains cut into the embankment, which can still be seen.
Darren points out that the embankment was constructed using a structurally poor mixture of clay and other materials, "Not only that, the embankment crosses boggy land which has seen the whole structure settle and move ever since it was built.
"The original piles seem to have sunk or rotted away because there's little trace of them today. In addition, changes in land use and diversion of a stream some way away from the railway have led to the embankment becoming increasingly wet over the years. The stream diversion, and a dam downstream of the railway, have now been corrected.
"This quite substantial earthwork gave problems to British Rail as well and it was here that movement beneath the track led to derailment of a freight train at this point in 1976. After that the line was closed; the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway taking over in 1981."
The final financial pushRailway chairman Malcolm Temple says that the response to the appeal from individuals, fund-raising groups and especially from the heritage railway community has been magnificent.
"As a result, we are within sight of reaching our £1 million fund-raising goal. Part of that has paid the balance for the Gotherington collapse and the rest - about £670,000 of which at least £170,000 remains to be raised - will pay for the Winchcombe repair and associated drainage improvement works and laying new track.
"But we now need to raise that remaining sum as quickly as possible," Malcolm adds. "Financially, the railway has been 'running on empty' for the past year although the commercially successful two sections of railway: steam between Winchcombe and Cheltenham and diesel multiple-unit operation out of Toddington, has given us breathing space.
"I can't emphasise enough that successful completion of the Winchcombe repair work over the next four months or so needs that last effort to bring the money in. Our minds have been focussed for so long on the appeal but we are now within sight of completion.
"Once that is put behind us, we can concentrate once again to pressing on with our expansion plans to reach Broadway and, in the longer term, Honeybourne."
The railway welcomes donations, which if made through the
The railway welcomes donations, which if made through the GWR Trust (there is a 'Donate' button on the homepage) attract Gift Aid; and investment by buying shares.
Share ownership brings voting and travel privileges and every investment of £1,000 or over qualifies shareholders for the '300 Club'. Benefits include a 'Golden Pass' providing free lifetime travel on the railway.
Adds Malcolm: "Many people have invested on behalf of their children, affording them a lifetime of enjoyment of the railway. To me, that represents a far better return than almost any other type of investment!
Contracts for the repair work were signed at Winchcombe Station on Thursday 19 January following several months of monitoring, examination of soil samples, repair design, drainage works. Negotiations with nearby landowners have also been concluded, to allow access by heavy plant, equipment and vehicles to both sides of the railway.
Work will start on site early in Feburary, initially to lay the temporary roads from the B4632 road.
Total cost of the project is expected to reach around£670,000. Because of the previous embankment collapse at Gotherington two years ago, the railway has been unable to secure further insurance against such risks
This means that the railway has had to find the money itself.
The collapse, which happened at the beginning of January 2011, severed the railway in two. This disaster came at a time when the railway was still repairing a similar embankment failure at Gotherinton which had stopped trains from reaching Cheltenham Racecourse. Added to that, the railway lost about £60,000 in revenue when heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures curtailed the railway's 'Santa Special' services in December 2010.
Malcolm Temple, GWSR Plc chairman, says: "The combination of these three serious setbacks placed considerable financial strain on the railway. 2011 was, literally, a 'make or break' year for our entirely volunteer-run business."
EngineersThe consulting engineer and project manager is Jonathan Symonds of Birmingham-based David Symonds Associates, who also managed the Gotherington repair. Main contractors are George Law of Kidderminster while specialist soil nailing will be carried out byM & J Drillingof Tipton. The geotechnical consultant is Julian Hughes of Wolverhampton-based GIP.
Darren Fairley, the railway's volunteer properties director and a Network Rail expert in railway infrastructure, says that extensive geotechnical surveying has determined the structure of the embankment and the soil underneath it, providing a '3-D' picture of what is happening within and below the earthworks.
"That, combined with on-going monitoring to determine the extent and direction of movement, has enabled us to develop a detailed design for the repair which was used to obtain tenders for the work.
"In addition, we have carried out extensive repairs to existing drainage and will be installing additional drainage as part of the repair work. This will mean that both the embankment and the land on which it stands will be better drained than perhaps they ever have been.
"This has taken time but it means that we have a cost-effective solution that we expect will fix this troublesome embankment for good," Darren adds.
The project is divided into three work areas over a distance of about 300 metres. The most serious section - which amounts to over a third of the affected area - requires the embankment to be dug out and terraced back with new material. The survey shows that movement extends beneath ground level and this will need piling to prevent the rebuilt embankment from sliding out again. The back of the main collapse will be stabilised with soil nails while at the other end, next to the B4632 road bridge, continuing movement may also require soil nailing.
Work will start on 6th February. Neil Carr, the railway operations manager will be overseeing the work on a day-to-day basis.
"This is a complex project that aims to finally overcome the geological problems that have dogged the railway for almost a century," he says.
"The work should continue for about four months and it will involve movement of lorries and civil engineering equipment -however, we will seek to keep disruption to a minimum for local people. Inevitably there will be some additional heavy goods traffic on the B4632 but, as far as possible, they will avoid the historic town of Winchcombe itself,"
He points out that after the wok is completed, the track will need to be re-laid and ballasted and the signalling reconnected.
Target completion - early Autumn 2012Commenting on the work schedule, Neil says: "Given continuing response to the appeal, fair weather and no unforeseen geological difficulties we hope to be running trains once again over the embankment by early Autumn 2012.
"That will re-unite the two separate railways we have been operating throughout 2011 and will continue to do so until the work is finished."
However, Neil stresses that while work is starting, there is still a financial gap to fill.
"Given the economic difficulty that is affecting families and businesses, response to our £1m appeal has been quite amazing," he says. "But we are still at least £170,000 short to complete the work and how quickly this comes in will determine how quickly the work is finished.
"I believe that when people see the machines digging into the embankment it will help give additional emphasis to the final financial boost we need," he adds.
History of the embankmentThe railway's Chicken Curve embankment has been problematical since at least 1925, when the Great Western Railway, which had opened the line less than 20 years earlier, suffered landslips here. That entailed using steel piles in an attempt to prevent the embankment from moving and installing special 'counterfort' drains cut into the embankment, which can still be seen.
Darren points out that the embankment was constructed using a structurally poor mixture of clay and other materials, "Not only that, the embankment crosses boggy land which has seen the whole structure settle and move ever since it was built.
"The original piles seem to have sunk or rotted away because there's little trace of them today. In addition, changes in land use and diversion of a stream some way away from the railway have led to the embankment becoming increasingly wet over the years. The stream diversion, and a dam downstream of the railway, have now been corrected.
"This quite substantial earthwork gave problems to British Rail as well and it was here that movement beneath the track led to derailment of a freight train at this point in 1976. After that the line was closed; the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway taking over in 1981."
The final financial pushRailway chairman Malcolm Temple says that the response to the appeal from individuals, fund-raising groups and especially from the heritage railway community has been magnificent.
"As a result, we are within sight of reaching our £1 million fund-raising goal. Part of that has paid the balance for the Gotherington collapse and the rest - about £670,000 of which at least £170,000 remains to be raised - will pay for the Winchcombe repair and associated drainage improvement works and laying new track.
"But we now need to raise that remaining sum as quickly as possible," Malcolm adds. "Financially, the railway has been 'running on empty' for the past year although the commercially successful two sections of railway: steam between Winchcombe and Cheltenham and diesel multiple-unit operation out of Toddington, has given us breathing space.
"I can't emphasise enough that successful completion of the Winchcombe repair work over the next four months or so needs that last effort to bring the money in. Our minds have been focussed for so long on the appeal but we are now within sight of completion.
"Once that is put behind us, we can concentrate once again to pressing on with our expansion plans to reach Broadway and, in the longer term, Honeybourne."
The railway welcomes donations, which if made through the
The railway welcomes donations, which if made through the GWR Trust (there is a 'Donate' button on the homepage) attract Gift Aid; and investment by buying shares.
Share ownership brings voting and travel privileges and every investment of £1,000 or over qualifies shareholders for the '300 Club'. Benefits include a 'Golden Pass' providing free lifetime travel on the railway.
Adds Malcolm: "Many people have invested on behalf of their children, affording them a lifetime of enjoyment of the railway. To me, that represents a far better return than almost any other type of investment!
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