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And time was you could wander around the railway and work. Those days are gone. The biggest issue now for all trackside work is access.

I think Sonning is predominantly clay and if so when it was first dug it will be well compacted, unlike many embankments. I don't think a gabion wall will be sufficiently robust enough to hold back a slip but if it is clay then I can't see any real need. I suspect it's the top soil which has...

The area around B&E house is private land now and nothing to do with NR.

And that water soaking in can and does cause a problem. IIRC The water soaks through until it hits the underlying clay, rock, etc . That then causes a slip plane, the water soaked top soil combined with the weight of vegetation causes the slip.

I think the objects crossing the tracks are pipes, possibly for cables to cross both tracks.

The riser walls on Bath Spa station are the same.

When I was part of the construction team in NR capital delivery I would always walk through with the Coss to make sure it was safe for the passage of trains before handback. Got a few moans about doing it but it always happened.

You can have as many safety standards as you want but it relies on people working to those standards.

They hire them in as and when required.

I left NR a couple of years ago but came back as a so called "consultant" as my skills are somewhat unique, in fact I was the only one in the country. My costed hourly rate whilst working as an employee for NR was about £95, as they had to pay my wages, pension, sick pay, holiday pay, car costs...

A few years ago I was out on the Somerset levels and had an interesting conversation with an old farmer there. He hated the fact that the flood water was allowed to be run off as fast as possible. He said that the flooding in the winter dropped all the silt on the land which in turn fertilized...

I suspect the works will start just after midnight, the staff will arrive on site a couple of hours prior for briefings etc etc. Normally the welfare units will be delivered during normal hours and then set up ready for the works. Again the site will be cleared during normal working hours which...

The arms that fit to the rail are single pieces, they're linked together by 2 rows of fibre glass poles, 1 above the other, so forming a fence. The poles are in short sections which fit together so forming a continuous barrier depending on how many arms are fitted to the rail. The colour isn't...

It's a safety system, commonly called Vortok fencing. It keeps trackside staff away from the running line at a safe distance. The "arms" clip under the rail and are connected along their length by the blue poles, once work finishes then they're unclipped and taken away.

Cables over a certain length need to be sheath gapped, I can't remember if that's 2.5 or 5k in length but that includes any redundant cables.

Aiui a project is underway to replace the headspans with portals.

There seems to be an assumption that because it's already a live railway it's in perfect condition. Perhaps it isn't. Perhaps bridges need to be replaced. Perhaps the formation needs major works. All of that takes time.

So your suggestions for dealing with adverse weather such as experienced today are?

The roof works will extend throughout the length of the roof but aiui fire regulations mean the scaffolding can't be put up all in one go.

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