Bluebell Northern Extension - so what's occurring then?

LATEST SCORE:

Phillpot FC 3, Earthworks Contractors Nil.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

It's a damn shame we still haven't got the Q1 working, the sound of 33001 barking up that gradient with 6 in tow would've be quite tasty I can imagine.

 

Unless the BB has imposed a 1:60 on the original gradient diagram north of Kingscote (which it might have done) the ruling gradient has always been 1:75 excepting the results of the slip south of the tunnel.

Could the railway publish a revised gradient diagram please?

Regards

 

This was discussed a few pages back - go to see post 264. Incidentally, even excepting the slip south of the tunnel, the ruling gradient is actually 1:63, for a reasonable length immediately north of HK.

There will have to be a new gradient diagram to go in the sectional appendix for operating staff, but I doubt it will be circulated until the track is laid, so you'll probably have to wait a few months. But if you take the profile at Bluebell Railway Map and Gradient Profile, the conjectural level section near EG is the tip, starting and finishing at the two bridges. So the new profile is basically like that, but with 1:60 starting about 1/3 mile south of the first bridge and running to a peak inside the tip, then descending at 1:60 until some way north of the second bridge.

Tom

 

I've looked back through the thread and I can't find a reference anywhere that connects to this comment.

I presume it is a joke of some sort?

Would you be able to enlighten me, please?

 

Just the kind of trolling that decreases the signal to noise ratio and makes you wonder sometimes why you bother trying to keep the forum updated on what is actually happening, when in reality many people already have a fixed narrative in their mind about this project that they will stick to regardless of the facts. But as the Mods seem to disagree with me, i.e. this is not trolling, it seems such comments are now fair game on this forum.

Tom

 

Yes, quite. I, for one, appreciate the time you take, Tom, to give informed reports on so many aspects of life on the Bluebell. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying "thank you".

Steve B

 

Thanks Tom.

I assumed that there was something provocative in the comment.

I find your updates very useful so keep them coming, if you will!

Regards

 

Yes Tom please keep posting updates, yours are very informative and useful! I assume the comment was regarding Robert Philpot's website where he commented on the waste being spread out the other week then moved back again? Which I guess from reading around was part of the drying process? I am day off Thursday so am going to pop over and see what I can see!

 

Tom,

I'd like to add my thanks to those of others who have appreciated your updates.

 

I too would like to thank you and all others who provide news about progress on the works going on.

 

Indeed, Tom's updates from the Bluebell on a wide range of topics is very interesting and informative and is greatly appreciated.

 

Interesting developments yesterday at the tip. Looks like preliminary work has started on track laying.

Bluebell Railway Northern Extension - Latest Pictures

 

Looking at the final photo on Philpotts latest edition. He is wondering about the final height of the clay.
Alongside the drain concrete rings there appears to be a construction level board, these are typically set out at finished formation level plus 1 metre.
you would then need to add depth of bottom ballast and the construction depth of rails, pads and sleepers. total depth probably in the order of 600mm.
That to me would put final rail level just below the top slab of the concrete manhole.

 

Today they were working away at the very southern end of the tip, looked like they were laying drainage and track but it was far to far away to get a picture or even see properly! No activity at the northern end, I saw the construction boards and was trying to work out what they meant, time will tell I guess. I suspect that the formation is still to rise quite a lot before its finished.

 

I know the Bluebell's "need to know" policy has been debated at some length previously,but how nice it would be if the Bluebell website could actually TELL us roughly what is going on at the moment. I've just checked it,the last update actually relating to the cutting progress was 19 June(5 weeks ago)and that consisted of 2 small photos and 2 lines of print! For an organisation apparently desperate for donations that really is woeful.

I too am very grateful to Tom for his informative updates,but surely someone in the railway could spend a few minutes doing a brief update?

 

To be fair there hasnt been much progress to report on, but with better weather and work back underway i see an update has been posted.

Chris

 

My earlier post was badly timed! Thats a good and comprehensive update and excellent news that things are progressing. If we could just have something similiar every couple of weeks that would be such a good thing. And if nothing much is happening,due to the weather or any other reason,well just tell us that and the reasons why, and I think people would be glad to hear that.

 

Also worth noting that that update is broadly the same text (it has a few additions) to what came out on the Bluebell weekly email about 5 days ago, and which I posted here at the time. I'm not going to try to second-guess our webmaster, except to say he is also a volunteer and also has a day job, and it is not a 30 second job to prepare, format and upload an update along with all the images etc. I'd imagine that explains a 4 or 5 day delay to get it online.

Anway, that's as maybe. A few words about the Billingshurst signal box, more for interest than immediate imminence. It is thought to date from 1868 and is an early Saxby and Farmer design. It is also a listed building, as a rare survivor (underneath the lower panelling), of a "stilts" box, which were such a characteristic design on the LBSC in the last century. In these boxes, there was no conventional locking room as we would understand now - instead, the locking was incorporated in the frame on the upper level, and the signal and point operating rods and wires projected through the bottom of the box, which was open and supported on wooden posts. Later on, most such boxes had the lower half boarded in, as at Billingshurst, to create a useable lower room.

It is fairly well known that at some point, the Bluebell would like to resite the current SP signal box to the north end of platform 1 from its current site near the booking hall. This would ease congestion at busy times on Platform 1, (removing a bottleneck that seems to stop passengers getting into the front two or three carriages of long trains!) and return the station to its original appearance . The current arrangement dates from the 1930s, when SP box was closed and the levers were moved, as a ground frame, to their current location; and the 1960s, when the Bluebell enclosed them to give the signalman some protection. So it might seem logical to use Billingshurst box in connection with that scheme. Unfortunately, it is too short (i.e. insufficient space for all the levers we would need) and the listing precludes any extension; hence it will eventually go to EG essentially as a bit of "set dressing". The actual signalling in connection with the extension at EG will, as has always been the plan, be ultimately operated from Kingscote (currently KC south, eventually KC north). It is too early to say what long term use it will have at EG - lots of people (myself included) have ideas, but until it comes that is speculating a long way into the future.

Tom