Gotherington Slip Repairs - Week 4

Despite a short working week and rain over the Bank Holiday weekend last week's work was the last for our contractors.

At completion just shy of 1500 tonnes of new material was reinstated at site.

The site was left with a temporary speed restriction, increased to 10mph, & monitoring in place for the weekend of the 9/10th May.

This week the Permanent Way have works planned. They will be the welding of every-other-joint together. The result is a reduction in dipping of joints which in turn decreases the effect of 'hammer blow' from the train wheels every time they pass over a joint. PWay are undertaking this task, which will be from the foot crossing next to the slip, down to the fully-welded section at Bishops Cleeve, is in an effort to prevent the track infrastructure, and any subsequent vibrations resulting from it, from transferring through to the embankment.

On Friday, 15th May, those experiencing the footplate experience will be the first to experience the whole line again at full line speed. A phenomenal effort by contractor & volunteers alike.

Thanks,

Sarah Clayton (Infrastructure Manager)

Gotherington Slip Repairs - Week 3

The team have worked immensely hard & the rewards are being seen. The weather has been kind and the team got into their groove delivering three train loads of stone a day to site.

Monday:

Wednesday: 

Friday:

Keep your fingers crossed for continuing dry weather.

Thanks,

Sarah (Infrastructure Manager)

Gotherington slip repairs - Week 2

The weather has been kind and the progress good. The excavation was completed by the end of the week.

This was despite finding a wet area halfway down the embankment and extra drainage needing to be installed.

So on Friday we were able to undertake a trial of the stone train delivery method. The Racecourse is very kindly letting us use their land at Cheltenham Racecourse to stock pile the stone and the dogfish wagons are loaded there.

In order to empty the wagons RJ Clarke created a bespoke chute which needed some tweaks as the day progressed. We also required the help of the PWay team.

Overall a very successful week. We have approximately 2000 tonnes of material to reinstate and the stone train delivers 80 tonnes a time. It is also not simply a case of dumping the stone in situ. The stone must be compacted in suitable layers.

So the next few weeks will be busy. Additional thanks must be given to those Drivers & Signalman doing extra shifts to enable this repair to go ahead.

Cheers,

Sarah (Infrastructure Manager)

Gotherington slip repairs - Week 1

During February 2026 GWSR suffered another land slip on the Malvern side of the embankment between Gotherington and Bishop’s Cleeve. This is unfortunately the 3rd slip in a short section of the line. A length approximately 20m long failed in a combined translational/rotational movement. 

GWSR then engaged with the Geotechnical Consultancy, Tony Gee, to run analysis in order to support the Railway in implementing a risk management procedure for railway operations. Part of this process was to instigate a 5mph speed restriction in the area of the slip. Thankfully this has enabled the the railway to run passenger trains to Cheltenham Racecourse in the short term before the embankment could be remediated.

Subsequently Tony Gee were able to provide the Railway with a repair design which we are trying to complete before the Steam Gala at the end of May. The Steam Gala has services planned along the full line from Cheltenham Racecourse to Broadway. If the slip is not repaired then a revised timetable for the gala would be needed. This has potential to lead to significant disruption & to loss of revenue.

Last week the chosen contractor, RJ Clarke, started on site. 

The first activity is the removal of the failed material (in both section and plan extents). This will continue on this week (further benching) prior to construction of a granular re-grade with a shallower slope angle to reinstate the crest line of the embankment.

The failed material is being spread at the toe of the embankment to provide extra stability as a toe weight and to also provide material for the granular material to key into.

Passenger services have now stopped mid-week to enable the contractor the best chance of completing the works in the tight timeframe. The railway is working hard to maintain as much of the advertised service as possible while ensuring the safety of our passengers, volunteers, and infrastructure. I will continue to provide updates as work progresses. 

The railway is grateful to the supporting Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust  which is funding the repair costs. Donations to the Trust’s general funds can be made here: www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/how-to-donate 

Thanks,

Sarah Clayton

(Infrastructure Manager)

New french drains at the Aqueduct

Happy new year!

For those not so familiar with the railway we have an Aqueduct, also known as Bridge 09, at Stanton. It is a 3-span aqueduct with a footpath running over full length of structure. The structure consists of a steel box girder supported on brick piers and concrete abutments with metal handrailing and GRP deck for foot traffic. The watercourse runs from Downside to Upside (right to left in below picture).

The Downside embankment has been, for the last few years, very wet and there have been a variety of minors works done to try and ensure that the water flows over the structure. You can also see from the above photo monitoring posts have also installed due to fears of ground movement.

After having reviewed the problem with our HoD Lineside Drainage, Andrew Laycock, and a contractor Tom Clarke from RJ Clarke we decided to try a different approach and improve the drainage in the slope.

These works were completed in December 2025 so hopefully they will help with the wet season ahead.

Thanks, Sarah

Structure Examinations - Part 2

Following on from Part 1 in August, Inspire Structures Ltd returned to the Railway last week to complete their examinations for this year. 

The remaining exams are Detailed Exams on three bridges, Numbers 40, 41 & 42, and Greet Tunnel Bore. These are carried out during the closed season in November as we will require an Engineering Possession to enable access to the bridge decks and the tunnel bore. 

 

The Visual Exams on Stanway Viaduct, Hunting Butts Tunnel and the Portals of Greet Tunnel were also completed 

 

Bridge 42: The photos show ladders and a tower scaffold in use to access the soffit of the bridge to examine the girders and record all the defects. Due to the position of the track at this location a road-based MEWP would not be able to get to the bridge. 

 

The examiners will carry out the exam within touching distance of all the parts of the bridge and produce a report detailing the condition of the bridge with recommendations for repairs. The report will compare any defects to those noted in the previous exam report, so that deterioration can be monitored. 

Greet Tunnel: The RRV gained access at Winchcombe yard and travelled up to the tunnel. The tunnel is marked out with markers at 1 chain (22 yard) intervals. As with the bridges, a report is produced charting all the areas of the tunnel bore with areas of open joints, hollow brickwork, and wetness all mapped out using the markers as reference points. Again, recommendations are given for repairs.

 

The reports will be sent into the Railway for checking and acceptance.  

 

The Infrastructure Manager and the Civil Engineer will then use these reports, and those carried out by own engineers, to decide a programme of future works to be carried out on our structures. 

 

John Fancote, Structures Examination Works Leader 

 

Bridge 28 Stanley Pontlarge - lattice parapet repair works - update

If you have been in the Loco Shed recently you will have noticed the lattice parapets being repaired by a large team. Progress has focused on one side in order to ensure quality & manage workloads.

First the needle gunning was undertaken.

 

Then where the joints were packed out with rust they were disassembled, repaired & painted then re-riveted.

 

Half of the above rivets are new and half original - I can't tell the difference!

Thanks to everyone for their hard work.

Regards, Sarah