The Bristol Railway Archive

Landslip near Westerleigh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-20523339

The thing that strikes me about the slip is the amount of ballast on view. I do wonder sometimes whether an engineering assessment is made of the increased loading on the embankment brought about by the ever increasing depth of ballast. By just piling up the ballast on top without increasing the width of the embankment the whole thong will become overloaded causing slip plane failures, especially in wet conditions which lowers the bearing capacity of the ground, which is exactly what this looks like.

By just piling up the ballast on top without increasing the width of the embankment the whole thong will become overloaded....

My partner has the same problem