Earlier this year, an embankment failed near Bishops Cleeve on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway.

There has been a speed limit in place since the slip, and a revised timetable has been in place with repairs given the green light earlier this month.

The repairs are being carried out by local contractor R J Clarke Contractors, thanks to funding from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust. The contractors will install crushed stone at a shallow angle to strengthen the embankment and improve drainage.

The team at the railway believes the slip was caused by the hot summer last year, which led to the shrinkage of the clay soil. The subsidence caused by the dry weather led to the ground cracking and becoming unstable. This can then be further affected by a period of heavy rainfall, as the soil doesn’t have the capacity to absorb water after such a long period of being dry.

An altered timetable remains in place until 14th May (subject to change) while the repairs are carried out. Further information on when trains are running can be found on their website.

 “We noticed cracks forming along the top of the embankment in September, so we have been monitoring the area for potential movement since then.  In January, we suffered prolonged and intense rainfall, which appears to have triggered a sudden failure which happened late in February.

“Fortunately, this happened on the vacant former Up (or Malvern) side of the embankment, away from the present track.  It’s not far from a similar failure that happened three years ago.  However, a civil engineering assessment concluded that it was safe for trains to pass, albeit at a 5mph speed restriction.” “This effort has already mitigated earthworks failures elsewhere on the line. 

“However, we are dealing with assets that are well over a century old and whose builders had much less geo-technical understanding of earthworks construction.  We understand that the clay dug out of the Greet Tunnel and cuttings along the route were used to construct the embankments.  If such embankments were to be built today, their construction would be much different and with less steep angles to the sides, given the local geology.”

Sarah Clayton, the GWSR’s Infrastructure Manager