Rother Valley Railway

Well spotted Mark. I seem to remember there were some negative views expressed about loss of wildlife corridors along this stretch of line. However, this aerial view clearly shows the railway retaining adjacent hedgerows for our wildlife which provides encouraging evidence to perhaps reshape views of some of these erstwhile detractors...

 

I'd missed this as well although there was a piece in the recent members' magazine showing the start of tracklaying. This followed the granting of the S73 planning consent enabling the construction of the line to be phased. Laying this section of track means that work has started on the original planning consent thus preserving it. We are still awaiting the result of the Public Inquiry into the TWAO which shouldn't be long now.

 

Let's hope its going to be a green light,

 

Here are a couple of Pictures I took of the Turntable at Robertsbridge which I took yesterday. Apologies for quality of the photos. It's rather Bigger than I thought it would be!

 

Some pictures below showing the work that’s currently in hand toward completion of the Robertsbridge turntable project. The circular steel structure for the timber access platform and the rotating fencing around its circumference is seen well advanced (as described in my earlier post on No 1897 on Page 95 of this thread). The K&ESR volunteer track gang have also been back on site to install the new point and siding to the turntable. Following that Balfour Beatty bought their tamper liner down to RVR Robertsbridge for a few days of on site operator training and while there kindly tamped that new track. The final picture is a cab view of the tamper returning to the N Rail mainline at Robertsbridge for its journey back to base – which is coincidentally at Hither Green where the now refurbished turntable came from! Mike.

 

Thanks Mike for the pictures - it's certainly coming along. That Tamper Liner is a bit of a beast!

 

A much appreciated update, Mike, and many thanks for that. Just wondering how the relaying at Junction Road is progressing. Has that now been completed?

 

If the rotating decking will cover the whole area, why are fences needed between that and where a loco goes?

 

I’m guessing that the fences are only temporary to protect the currently open pit as they are just scaffolding tubes.

 

The turntable will not be fully decked, and possibly never was. It’ll be much as it was at Hither Green (apart from the weeds). See Mike’s earlier post which explains this clearly.

 

If the outriggers(?) are not for supporting a deck, what is their purpose?

 

I recommend you mock a turntable up with 'outriggers' set-up as they are shown in that photo, and then try turning it…

It looks very much to me as though they're simple, temporary devices to hold the deck in its current position.

Re-looked at the photos, and I'm now confused too.

Simon

 

There's some discussion here: https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/rother-valley-railway.38105/page-95#post-2733530

Looking at photos of the turntable in situ at Hither Green, it certainly didn't have decking by the late 1950s or 1970s. What it was like when originally built I don't know. But the key to it seems to be that the framework supports a rotating fence around the perimeter of the pit.

Tom

 

I was never any good at rotation in geometry. Thanks for the reminder.

Simon

 

As explained in Mike’s earlier post (linked above by @Jamessquared , or look for any photos at Hither Green) they support the decked walkways on both sides of the bridge, and the rotating fencing all around (just inside) the circumference.

 

That's making some sense now, but raises yet another question: why a rotating fence rather than a fixed one?

 

Because that way you only ever have a gap in the fence that leads onto the turntable deck itself - if you had a fixed fence with gaps where the rails head towards the deck then they would give free drop access into the pit whilst the table was part rotated. Moreso if there were multiple tracks onto the turntable.

John

 

Heres a few shots of the turntable when it was at Hither Green that might help with how the rotating fence around the circumference of the turntable functions

 

It may be needed as part of the rebuild, but how many other turntables, around the country, have this amount of fencing installed?

 

How many of them had it originally? Isn’t that the point here, that as well as a practical asset for the railway, it’s a restoration …?

Simon