North Dorset Trailway Gains Cross Section

[Matthew Arnold]

We are hoping to be at Blandford in the next year or so. Most of the landowners (bar one) are up for it. We have 5 heaps (150+ tons each) of contaminated soil to get shifted after we get the trees felled. We have already made a small start at the blandford end by removing about 200 trees (only 3 inch things all done with clearing saw). Just to give us a head start as we have some bigger stuff to remove. These are pics of the bottom of the Gains Cross slope after we felled loads of coppice stools and some dodgy looking Ash.

 

Gains cross in June 2010. Just been surfaced with road planings. Cost about £15,000 less than transporting stone from the mendips. Still got a fair bit of work to do down there mainly tree work coppicing buddleia and knocking out brambles so we can spray the knotweed on that section. Hoping to clear the bridge top at the same time. The two darker/woody pics are taken from the Stourpaine end. Same time as the Gains cross pics. We are planning on going down there i nthe next couple of weeks to take out the first line all the way down through and maybe remove some of the second row (if they have lots of squirrel damage).

[Matthew Arnold]

This will hopefully during the summer become ours ready for us to hammer it in the winter. The piece of land next to it is part of the old railway line as well but no-one has any idea what it is/was.

[Matthew Arnold]

23/4/2011 Gains Cross and Hodmoor Bridge

[Matthew Arnold]

Got the Two Tunnels project guys from near Bath coming down to have a look at our 6 mile stretch of trailway. And give us tips on ways we can improve it. We made a start today mowing and strimming the edges. Got soaked at lunch as coat was in the van about 250 metres away. Was very nettly but not much hogweed. Had to avoid Jap Knotweed patches but will be blasting them some time this week.

[Matthew Arnold]

For those of you interested we are having a Trailway Clearance Weekend. It is running on the 18th and 19th Feb. We shall be starting at 10am and finishing at 4pm each day. I shall give more details when i get them.

[Matthew Arnold]

We are having the Blandford section scraped and re-dusted. The contractors found out how far they have to scrape and how deep. Today they shifted 10 ton of soil from the edges. Tomorrow they shall be getting to the worst section.

[Matthew Arnold]

Here is a picture of the new stretch of trailway. The picture is taken off what would have been the cutting height.