Rother Valley Railway

You speak for yourself! I’ve no doubt that most of ‘us’ knew exactly what he was saying.

 

Thank you, Howard. It does sometimes feel that while most of us on this forum are FM, Mr Hitch, or radio Cassandra, is on AM

 

FM? Gricers are normally on 1500 metres longwave.

PH

 

I thought Longwave, and Medium wave & Shortwave were designations of frequency range. AM & FM (amplitude modulation & frequency modulation) are the methods used to transmit the radio signal on a given frequency. For example, both US & UK CB radios transmitted on a frequency of 27Mhz, but the US ones used AM while the UK ones used FM. So it's possible to be both Longwave and FM

 

The Telegraph article seemed a lot more balanced than the Mail one.

 

CB frequency, more commonly known as childrens band.

 

Yes, that was one of the problems with the UK CB scene. Too many kiddies who thought it was fun to dead-key, play music and interrupt other users conversations by cutting in with swear words.

 

Test Match Special isn’t on until 24th May.....

 

No Blowers this year. Sigh. The Times They Are a-Changin...

 

It is wrong to suggest these landowners are squatters. BR sold the railway land after lifting the track, and it is the owners’ right to refuse to sell and to oppose compulsory purchase via any democratic; legal or PR means available to them.

I’m a RVR supporter and I want them to succeed but, as I also said in the L&B thread, I’m glad it is not too easy for the government; the council; a railway company or anybody else to take away somebody else’s property. The RVR must keep on making a very good case that it is in the public interest; follow the planning and TWAO processes correctly and patiently; and deal fairly and respectfully with those who are not pleased to see them coming and have every right to say so.

 

The Daily Hate being hypocritical and one sided? PH deliberately trying to rile the natives and then crying foul the nanosecond he is called out? Well well well...

*BREAKING NEWS* The Pope's Catholic and bears 5H17 in the woods.

 

Merely objecting to a piece of personal abuse. Miff has set out the situation re RVR land acquisition perfectly. People adjoining a projected tourist line have every right not to be enthused as to the prospect.

PH

 

On the whole, A level physics topics such as the electromagnetic spectrum are far more interesting than standard NP spats between members!

 

Everyone needs to calm it down , the very last thing the RVR will want in any public appeal will be screen shots from here being used to undermine the case, and to give support to the hoade family, both parties will at some point have to talk and see if there is any common ground , or way that re instating the railway can be done that causes the land owner the minimum amount of problem for instance, can the route be changed to move it to the edge of a field or a corridor of ajoining land be purchased to allow the line to be re-laid on a new formation? if all talks prove fruitless, then that just leaves one option, but it has to be done very carefully not in a way that leads to having a very angry neighbour.

 

Absolutely.

It may be too much reading between the lines, but I get the impression that those discussions have been tried and failed.

 

Then in that case, the RVR will have to show that it has gone that extra mile, gone over backwards to try to reach an agreement , that it isn't the antagonist in this, that its the land owner who is not wishing to come to an agreement .

 

The suggestion that there could be a steam railway connection in mind by the RVR seems at odds with their present stock which appears to consist of diesel shunter type locomotives.
http://www.rvr.org.uk/locos.html

 

They have publicly stated, on their web postings, that once the line is connected they will ask the K&ESR to operate the line.

(Edit: and when trains were operated at the new station a few years ago, they were transferred in by road from the K&ESR and of course back again)


That is why they have paid approx £500 000 towards the cost of the carriage sidings and storage shed at Rolvenden. The only steam loco owned by the RVR is of course "Charwelton" which is currently being stripped down at Rolvenden for fairly major repairs.

The diesel shunters at Robertsbridge Junction are all that is needed for occasionally moving the stock around as it is worked on, or indeed when a section of track needs to be cleared for hiring out to a contractor who wants to test a new tamper for example, or for training purposes. There would be no point keeping a usable steam loco idle at an isolated station site.

 

Do you mean aside from the Manning Wardle 0-6-0 at the top of the list?

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The main thing to consider is, would Robertsbridge benefit from the reopening of the line and it linking back up to Bodiam?

The answer of course is yes if one goes by the usual economic/business case of a heritage operation. Which is for every £1 spent on the railway about £2.70 is spent within towns, villages and the immediate vicinity of the railway's area.

A line going from Robertsbridge to Bodiam would be beneficial to the public at large as well, as it would mean they could on-train at Robertsbridge, and then enjoy a shorter (and cheaper!) train trip to Bodiam before detraining to enjoy the castle. Then they could either go on to Tenderton and enjoy the full line, or head on back into Robertsbridge to spend money there, or head on to pastures new. It would also mean the KESR enjoys a mainline connection, and access to the services provided there. Which would further limit the need for car trips to reach the places along the line.

As the rail corridor does appear unused, it makes you wonder why the family is holding out. Elsewhere in the country, you can see the old track bed is used, be it now as a farm access road, or has even been slowly obliterated to be turned back to agricultural land, those situations are far harder to justify putting trains back on it as it's clear the land is utilised differently. Here though, it's odd.

 

Thank you for putting it into perspective.