It’s been a very busy weekend for our volunteers at Apedale. The challenge has been to resolve a couple of long-standing drainage issues at the Apedale Road end of the railway. In essence, heavy rainfall resulted in significant standing water at that location. We’ve never had to cancel services because of the problem, but it is clearly having an effect on the longevity of the wooden sleepers. The answer is to replace a rather small existing drain with a much larger one, and to add a new drain further to the north.
Inevitably, this means earthmoving in quite a big way. A hired JCB minidigger helped (staying loyal to Staffordshire..) but even so, there’s always a lot of shovelling to do.
Until the 1920s, the Apedale site was home to the Midland Coal, Coke & Iron (MCCI) company. It’s fair to say that they left their mark in many ways Of direct relevance to the drainage project was the presence of a layer of iron furnace slag, which is very hard and needs to be broken up with air tools. It also smells vile! Perhaps more interestingly was the discovery, a few feet below the current surface, of well-preserved standard gauge rails, complete with wooden boarding between them, suggesting a level crossing or similar. Sadly, the Time Team forensic excavation will have to await another time.
