You wouldn’t know it but while you travel along our 11 miles of railway you traverse over nearly 100 bridges and structures. Some are as simple as small culverts, (a culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway.) To large culverts over bridges like that on the Leek Road from Cheddleton. These are all important to our operation and require careful maintenance, planning and sometimes renewal.
The Bridge and Structures department headed up by Tony a long-standing volunteer who was a forefather of the railway have been tackling these sometimes complex tasks. Below is just a snippet of the work carried out from January to April this 2024.
18th January 2024: Despite the cold - Bridges Dept at Bradnop today.
Our main focus was on the large chamber we are creating on the upside, opposite what was the old station platform. This week we moved and installed the final six concrete rings, giving the chamber a depth of some four feet! We intended to backfill around the outer edge of the rings, but today the heavy frost prevented us digging into the surrounding ground. Separate subject, but our regular check of the nearby tunnel revealed some interesting stalactites- all courtesy of the low temperatures. Also, where the stalactites had dripped water as they formed was some heavy “blisters“ on the rails below.
Bradnop is a nautorisuo area of the railway none for having a lot of running water due to the geometry of the land around the large cutting. The team have been on a steady process of the last few years to take the chambers in the area from 6 to 20 so as to improve maintenance, access to the drainage system and a smoother ride for the customers.
5th March 2024: The guest Loco (75014) being out today, Bridges Dept diverted to the far end of the operating line at Bridge 21 (Ipstones).
Some months ago we made a huge effort to get the invert drain working properly, we were disappointed to see that the input chamber was leaking badly and the output stream had been blocked by debris! Nevertheless, Bernard got stuck in and removed huge amounts of sludge from the output stream and between the two of us managed to get lots of clay into the leaking 12” input pipe.
We plan to dig the outlet stream deep enough to accommodate some new 12” plastic pipe and fittings. Whilst we hadn’t enough labour to finish the job today, it meant that we were well prepared for our next visit and could “offer “the parts to check that everything would fit! We may not be operating all the way to Cauldon Lowe, but we do maintain the railway in this section including the bridges.
30th April 2024 – The team return to Bradnop cutting.
Having a full team of 4, we decided to focus on building one of the new chamber’s, which was previously planned to improve the upside 12” drain system within the cutting.
As usual, we excavated the ground above the ceramic drain and then created a clay foundation, followed by two courses of blue engineering brick.
Four concrete chamber rings were brought down from Bradnop Coal Yard and installed above the engineering brick. Postcrete was then used to stabilize the lower rings and 12” plastic drain was cut and installed either side of the chamber to repair previous damage to the ceramic drain.
Since this work has been completed the chamber has been in full use for inspections and servicing. Many more chambers have been installed also.
If you have had your interest peaked by our wonderful team then feel free to contact us at [email protected] . We will be more than happy to put you in touch with our team of volunteers.
Keep your eyes peeled for more updates soon.