Of trees and water

22nd October 2023

My sister emailed this afternoon to see if we were 'ok' as news of flooding from Storm Babet has even reached Guernsey, (where they don't have floods because they don't have any rivers). Mmm, but we have sea levels rising....

I'm afraid if you are hoping for lots of loco pictures this week you're going to be disappointed. I had envisaged a quiet week as the diary was filling up with non-railway matters. Actually I said last week that both the van and I had 'medical' matters looming but actually I had my dates wrong and all I had on Monday was a 'telephone appointment' with a hospital admissions unit rather than the real thing and although I sat by the appointed phone for 40 minutes no call came through, so the day ended a damp squib with some admin work getting done. Tuesday was back at the shed as Andy H was there to progress the paliisade fencing. Despite ideas of getting other work done, this ended up the bulk of the day with some boscage clearance, plus breaking up some of the concrete base of the old gas bottle store as the resultant arisings could be added in to the holes that Andy was creating and thus reduce the quantites of costly Postcrete. (Besides it's recycling which has got to be the flavour of the month.) I did try laying out a 110V feed and drilling holes through the concrete with a big hammer drill to weaken it. Actually I spent ages looking for a big old drill which had a chisel in it dedicated for the purpose but couldn't find it - maybe it was something else that went in the break in, but as it only cost me fifty pence or something a decade ago I shan't be too sorry. Anyway in the end it was a good old sledge hammer and a bolster chisel that made the most impression but it will be a hard slog nonetheless and I started referring to it as 'The Quarry'. Andy got 2 more panels in - which brought it just past the front (north) face of the shed, but more ground clearance was needed to go further.

Late in the day Andrew appeared and the two Andies did some checking on the generator from Des that suggests that the armature may be OK and the field windings are at fault. Since the 'spare' generator we brought up 12 months or more ago had an armature fault there is a chance that we can make one good genny from two but it will have to go out for a professional assessment.

On Wednesday the van was booked in for a new turbo, DPS filter and sundries so I wasn't expecting to go far afield and in fact it wasn't ready until Thursday lunchtime, so Steph dropped me off at the shed Thursday morning as I had a visitor due. By now it had been raining quite some time and Storm Babet was the topic of news as it headed down from Scotland. With him satisfied and on his way back there was sufficient lull for me to walk home without getting soaked. Indeed, that evening I popped in to Sheffield to see a friend and around midnight came back over Church Lane and up Station Road past the shed to see that all was well, and it was.

Friday morning however, was different. The junction between Church Lane and Station Road is known to us as Four Lanes, and before Whitworth built the straight bit of road that is today's A6 the 'old' road meandered up from Matlock, took what is today 'Old Lane' and crossed Station Road/Main Road on to Church Lane. Four Lanes has featured in this blog before as when the Derwent is in spate, it overflows around Rowsley, covers the fields and puts Four Lanes under a foot or more of water. I have pictures from February 2016, October and November 2019, February 2020 and February 2022 - it is not exactly unknown. Fortunately the railway is a few feet higher and the gradual slope of the road up from Four lanes to Darley Dale level crossing means that we measure how close it comes by how far we have to walk to the edge of the flood. We had called off Andy H's planned return because of the forecast, but instead he was coming Saturday when it was presumed to have died down. A plan to collect Des's generator was scrubbed when the firm reported their lorry 'couldn't get anywhere' because of flooded roads. We'd also arranged for Tom D to turn up and carry out more chain-sawing of some of the bits of boscage in the way of the fence extension. Late Friday night Andrew and I drove down to the shed, past the 'ROAD CLOSED' signs at the top of Station Road, to check that all was well and how bad the footpath was as it has been known to get so wet as to seep through and fill our 'ornamental pond'. With Wabtec brolly we had a look at the Warney Brook, which is at the south end of our yard, just beyond the headshunt, and is normally a few inches deep and trickling along quite placidly.

It feeds in to the Derwent. Not particularly good photos, but Andrew grabbed these which give you some idea of the depth and speed of the flowing water - at least it hadn't got as high as the track drain which was still discharging from the Redhouse side of the bridge.

Saturday and I got down about ten-past nine to find Tom waiting and we got started clearing the next 7 or 8metres ready for Andy H's return.(He was not to make it that day because of flooding). However we were interrupted by the arrival of a lady and her husband who demanded we stop what we were doing. They had heard us chain-sawing before, she claimed, and had phoned the council who had assured her they would tell us to cease forthwith. These trees were part of an agreement, she claimed. There were Hawthorns there to act as a noise-screen. This was a new one on me, certainly there had been no mention of it when I was battling the council's Environment department a decade ago and had to shell out £1500 on noise consultants to prove that our activities were 'unlikely to give rise to complaint' in accordance with the relevant British Standard. 'How far was this fence going to go?' she demanded. I explained that it was going to the back of the Station House's garden as that was the limit of the railway land. 'Oh no it's not' she insisted. I explained that that put me in an impossible position as on the one hand I had to have the railway's boundary adequately fenced, while I had had complaints in the past about our use of razor wire from the Council and even that had not stopped our break in. She insisted that this fencing going so far was not acceptable. She was determined to save a tree that is not actually in our way but in hindsight I think she thought we were out to fell it. 'There's birds nesting in that tree' she declared. I refrained from pointing out that few birds nest as late as October. Indeed, considering the possibility that the Council had been in touch with the Peak Rail office but that Mark Sealey, who had been busy pulling caravans out of imminent floodwater at Rowsley the previous day, might not yet have received it, I agreed to cease work for that day (bar a bit of tidying up) while the matter was resolved.

Afterwards Tom D congratulated me on keeping my cool. I might add that she and her husband conducted this conversation not from our yard nor the public foopath, but from the council yard through the mesh fence. Had she come closer she might have had to admit that the two branches that (for now) I have left alone are dead and rotten, killed by the parasitic ivy that we have been unable to do much about under the previous PR management's auspices.

But once again the situation is now very different, and while I reported the confrontation to Andrew (who was still at home with grandson up) he immediately rang Mark. He at that time was sorting out the situation futher south. The railway had already cancelled Saturday services since flooding was widespread (Bakewell was almost isolated as the A6 was closed north and south) and there were hay bales standing on the track a mile or so up from Matlock. He was by then inspecting Bridge 35 (the girder bridge over the Derwent) where river water had been over the top of the girders and a tree was still pressed broadside against two piers. Within 20 minutes he arrived at Darley and after looking things over and having a first hand account from me, went straight round to the lady's house to explain, politely but firmly, that the fence work would proceed. There had been no contact from the Council, he assured me, and he was confident that there wouldn't be.

After the intervention we had a cup of tea and a look around the shed. I offered that if he'd a lay a 3rd rail we could test DL34 on passenger trains. More serious was Andrew's suggestion that Des, once it has been sorted and vac fitted, could do a turn or two on passenger before returning to Toddington.

With the drama over we had a large amount of branches and undergrowth to dispose of and Andrew decided we should make a brazier. There was a 45 gallon drum which we had been using to store diesel fuel in until we discovered it had developed a pin hole in one side. This was now dug out and Andrew cut out its top and a row of holes around the bottom. After lunch we made an effort to have a bonfire, but try as we might, (and that included judicious use of accelerant) couldn't get it to burn, concluding it was all too wet. Andrew went off to weld up extension pieces on more fence posts. I set about snipping the piles of branches into shorter pieces and hoping that they'd dry out.

Sunday. Andrew was off with grandson for the day - it was also Andrew's birthday. I headed down to the shed alone and had another go with the brazier without much more luck. I had an alternate try with the stillage up the yard but didn't manage to burn much there either. Dispirited I turned to Alstom's loco, which has been waiting for me to sort out software issues. By contrast to the previous day it was bright, sunny and with an almost cloud-less sky, too bright in fact and I had difficulty reading the lap top screen. Part way through the afternoon the loco's batteries seemed to be lagging, so I dug out a battery charger and left them to re-charge for a while. Returning to the brazier, I emptied it all out, lit a fresh flame (old rubber gloves are excellent for this) and once established on an old cardboard box, threw in twigs and leaves by the handful. At last the brazier lived up to its reputation and I found that by just chucking in handfuls as it burnt down the fire consumed a considerable quantity but you had to be there and feed it.

By around half four I decided to let it burn out, and came around to the side of the shed - and saw kids climbing out of 14901's cab. I can raise my voice quite a lot when the need arises and my 'Get out of this rail yard!' (no, not Get orf my land) had them legging it towards the Warney Brook bridge - two boys and a girl judging from the bright pink back-pack. I followed them far enough to see them duck through the railway fence and on to the footpath between the brook bridge and the Old Road overbridge by Redhouse. It's beyond our razor wire (and beyond our responsibility) but a constant source of irritation as too many young people walk down the track from Redhouse crossing, under the road bridge and turn right out there and through DFS car park - it's slightly shorter and fewer stairs than using the 'official' footpath. (Not just young people, we once heard noises and came out to find two more mature people pushing bikes through the yard and on questioning, they claimed they thought that this was the cycle-way!)

At the time I was alarmed in case the kids had been into Alstom's cab and stolen my laptop, but it was untouched and a walk around suggested they had in fact been in to 3 or 4 loco cabs farther up the yard. Maybe we have another generation who have been told that it is an 'abandoned rail yard that they can play in' as has happened before. As I left for home an hour later you could drive down to Four Lanes and turn left or right, but the waters still covered the road ahead to Darley Bridge. I imagine the old Square and Compass pub there is under water again - maybe the 4th or 5th time in as many years - but at least the flood prevention and repair work down at Matlock, that has had a giant crane dominate the skyline for over 12 months until it came to an end about 6 weeks ago - appears to have functioned as it should. Further downstream though - Cromford, Duffield and Belper have all had flooding and I hear that the Ecclesbourne was flooded at Wirksworth and the cutting side at Duffield moved again.

Anyway, back to the fence tomorrow and I hope to see 2 or 3 more panels in, though I must leave Andy H to go visit the dentist again. I originally had transport plans but these fell through so there's the following week to sort, plus all the usual admin functions. Maybe some better pictures to take, who knows. Pop back next week and you'll find out. See ya then.