Donington Road

We'll just end up taking bigger stepladders.

The end of the down ramp on the west side of Cock Lane footbridge is getting additional plating. During Saturday nights complete track possession it appears there has been some activity of levelling the ballast out of the old temporary Up Stamford line between the Down Stamford line and the dive under wall. Also there is the new addition of gates protecting the entrance to the maintenance tunnel. The last user having left them open. All photos courtesy of Trackside ECML

Brook Drain culvert at Cock Lane has finally got some safety railings and Armco put around it. No more work has been done to Cock Lane footbridge since the photos that were taken last Sunday.

The blue hazardous materials shed was reposessed by two men in a white van on Thursday morning exposing the extinguishers to the elements. Maybe they will flourish now they have some sunlight.

That is probably another issue that has been considered. This footbridge should have been designed better in the first place. IMO there could have been just one long ramp either side with a span single across. Unravel the folding design of the existing bridge and it would stretch from the junction of Dukesmead/Cock Lane on the east side to about half way along the footpath off Stirling Way on the west side. The amount of steel work for the structure would be about the same or less and there could have been open railings on the ramps with no need for the heavy plated sides. The footbridge would not have been solely on railway property but the local council/land owners could have worked together to have found a better solution. At the moment it is an enclosed and unlit monstrosity, just ripe for attracting antisocial behaviour. Every time we go there, there has been more graffiti, damage to signs, litter and discarded food, broken glass, signs of fire, damage to paintwork and the smell of urination. Sadly, I fear it will deteriorate even more as time goes by.

At Hurn Road more hedging whips have been planted which has created a corridor between them and the green fence. If that stays open to public access it is going to be a nice place to view the dive under to the left.

I think it is being done because the OHE are very close to the bridge in that area. It is not a very suitable part of the bridge to take photos from as the concrete column blocks views looking south and the bridge structure blocks views looking north. Giraffes with long necks are rather scarce around here but unfortunately there are other species that have no brains that do put themselves and others in danger by their antics.

In other news, a temporary footbridge has been installed across Marholm Brook to access the field of what was the old main site. At the west side of Cock Lane footbridge more flags have appeared in the area near to the access gate and the outflow of Brook Drain. Possibly indicating that more fencing is about to be done? Many thanks to my good friend Trackside ECML for venturing out today in the bitterly cold wind to get the photographs.

A few more photos of the modifications. All photos courtesy of Trackside ECML

Cock Lane footbridge this week has been getting some additions to the lower ramp adjacent to the Down Stamford Line. The substantial framework that is being welded to the existing sides suggests that this will be plated rather than mesh screening. The existing four plates protecting the signal for the Down Stamford will probably be removed and higher plates installed. All photos courtesy of Trackside ECML

Looking at the email headers I think there has been a problem with the server mx2.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net not picking up the sent messages from RMweb for delivery to Virginmedia. Hopefully it is all resolved now Robin.

Andy, as you know I changed my email address at ntlworld for receiving notifications at around 9pm on Monday 28 February due to not receceiving any notifications since Friday 25 February. The new address at gmail is working ok. Last night I completely emptied my inbox, this morning I opened my email account and this is what I received. Note the Sent and Received columns. I wonder where all those got held up? I know the price of postage is going through the roof, but you did put a first class stamp on them, didn't you?

I actually know someone who keeps their pc in its box and brings it out a couple of times a month or less to do something then pack it all away again until the next time, they even put that plastic cover over the three pin mains plug that comes in the packaging!

UPDATE I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the various shenanigans that have been going on tonight trying to solve this problem. I phoned Virginmedia help and spoke to a nice chap in India who was speaking ten times faster than I could string his words together to make any sense. He confirmed that there is no problems with my email account, which I know, but I could not get him to understand that it is only emails sent from info@rmweb.co.uk that are not getting as far as my inbox. When I suggested that it is their spam filtering mechanism he didn't know what I was on about (probably not on his crib sheet) and gave me a phone number for their security engineers. In the meantime all he wanted to do was sell me new TV/broadband/phone packages because Virgin are raising their prices in April, all the packages he suggested were going to cost more for less content than I have now and he could not understand when I kept saying no. I terminated the call in frustration. Call number two to the London number he gave me was a waste of time. It turned out to be F-Secure the security package that Virgin sells to their customers. The nice chap there said they do not deal with email problems. Back to phoning Virgin help again with the hope of getting someone more understandable and with a bit of knowledge. Well, the lady was understandable, but working off the same crib sheet we got nowhere. She could not or would not give me a number for me to call in the UK for a more technical person to assist so again call terminated. Having thought a bit more about the problem which seems only to effect Virgin email customers I decided to change my email address on RMweb to one of my Google @gmail addresses. Easy to do, or should have been! Logged on to my RMweb account put my new email address in the appropriate box, entered my password to confirm, clicked save and a new window popped up as below. I went the other tab in my browser where the email account was already open and waited, and waited, then it kicked off, content I follow notifications where coming into my gmail inbox faster than it rains BUT still no validation email had arrived. I am now in limbo, I cannot open my old account because I don't exist and clicking on the 'Go to this post button' on one of the notification emails gives an error page because I have not confirmed my new email address in the validation email that I have not yet received. Back to the other browser tab (good job I had not closed any tabs) and clicked on the Re-send Email link which then gave me this. So I left the computer and went off for half an hour to calm down. I clicked resend on my return and the new confim email arrived instantly. Clicked the comfirm address button and I am all good to go again. Everything is as it was before on the RMweb site and I am now snowed under with notifications in my other inbox. Life is back to normal! P.S. Andy, you have my upmost respect for dealing with these sort of problems every day, how you manage with those who are not so computer literate is beyond me.

Thank you Robin for confirming what seems to be a Virginmedia problem. I very rarely go on their website to view my email as it is all downloaded to my Outlook email client. However, I did today and in settings I have changed it to not filter spam. I don't for one moment think it will make any difference, as I think that is just to remove spam email from the inbox to the spam folder 'after' receiving it. The bigger issue is Virgin filtering 'what they think is spam' before it gets to the inbox in the first place. It seems a common problem having trawled the internet for answers. There is also no white list for email on the Virgin site either.

Thank you Andy. I am with Virginmedia, there is the odd scam email going to my spam box but nothing there from RMweb. I know that Virgin do filter spam before it gets anywhere near the account, maybe that is what has happened but that seems odd after all these years of receiving the notifications, but then again that is Virginmedia. I will check further at my end.

Since Friday 25th I have not had any email notifications to my inbox of the numerous followed topics I subscribe to. There have been posts made to some of the topics since Friday when I check Content I Follow on the RMweb site. I have not changed any settings at RMweb, I've checked spam and junk folders on my pc and the webmail server that my emails go to. Screenshot of my settings below. Any help appreciated.

Might just be a local interpretation of the coloured flags. Core samples being taken at the white flag. Excavator digging at the yellow flag and samples being bagged up.

Something going on at Lincoln Road.. Could be just moving home from Hurn Road? All photos courtesy of Trackside ECML

The red and white flags make sense, but the yellow ones of which there are many dotted around seem a bit questionable, unless there are hidden fuel reserves lurking beneath the ground.

More from the field. Digging samples between the spoil heap and the Lloyds building. The temporary mats have been laid all around the spoil heap. Rig set up for taking core samples behind the spoil heap. We even have a survey marker flag on the top of the spoil heap. Does it really need a 5mph speed limit sign to drive on the mats? A few mats laid near the spillway at Cock Lane. Carefully laid around the white marker flag. All photos courtesy of Trackside ECML Anyone know what the different colour marker flags denote? There are red, yellow and white ones on this site.

Something going on in the field of what was the main site. A temporary roadway being laid around the large spoil heap and more surveying taking place.

Exactly what we were saying earlier. It looks more like a launch ramp off an aircraft carrier, just right for flying over the green fence. They must put Armco around it surely or those concrete Jersey barriers. Note also that there is no raised kerb, the road surface is flush with the top of the kerbing.

The top surface of tarmac was laid today at Hurn Road. The reversing bay for larger vehicles such as the bin lorry to access the properties at Hurn Road. The tie-in for pedestrians and cyclists to access the bridleway under the A15. Getting soil ready to landscape the area.

At Cock Lane today. The fields to the west have been divided with a fence, which then continues along the Environment Agency's access road along side Brook Drain towards Hurn Road. Three o'clock and finished for the day. I can see this thing getting ambushed if it has to stop for those Joint Line freights crossing........ .......as it is carrying some rather expensive fuel. Then I got rumbled doing a bit of spying.