The line to Newquay is flooded at Roche this morning.   The line to Looe floods regularly, and flood between Swindon and Bristol Parkway are common enough for us to just roll our eyes - "again". The Barnstaple line has its issues and they seem to have been more of late.  More seriously, part of the Spey Bridge has collapsed - now a cycle way and footpath, and in the "care" of another party rather than Network Rail.

Are things getting worse?  Climate change? More cautious approach with more check and safety measures?  Modern trains not able to stand up to the water? Better information systems bringing us the news of problems we wouldn't have heard about in the past?  Reduced preventative maintenance? Something else?

 
Even after working on the Big Railway for some time, my move to the West Somerset Railway led to a much wider and deeper understanding of the infrastructure and and work needed to make, or keep, a railway in good fettle, sufficient for the safe working of trains

I guess the Minehead Branch is not unique in the number and complexity of the ditches, drains, culverts and other water channels that it has.  I was astonished to find out how much drainage infrastructure there is, and how much routine work is needed to keep it all working properly.  I was even interviewed for Points West, by Andrew Harvey, one time.  We were standing in a ditch at Woolston Moor, discussing how much work was needed.

I also discovered how easy it was for things to go badly and expensively wrong if the maintenance was neglected.  On the bit of the line that hadn't then been opened for traffic, near Washford, a blocked ditch at the top of the cutting by Bilbrook Bridge caused a landslip of the steep bank, in 1976.  Took weeks to fix.  And a similar thing happened near Lydeard Bridge, Crowcombe, a year later.

Keeping the water flowing is of paramount importance

I'm not at all convinced this vital work is done to the same standard on the Big Railway these days, as it used to be

 
The Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway have, in my opinion, a most interesting Drainage Blog at https://draingang.blogspot.com/?m=1

The work that they have to do to maintain what is a relatively short stretch of railway is really quite something.