Rother Valley Railway

The actual track laying won't take that long, its the ground preparation that will take the bulk of the time, The section to Salehurst, should be fairly straight forward, the track bed is still as it was left after the track was lifted, Of course drainage will have to be made good and largely brought up to modern standards, communication and signalling cables laid in trenches in the cess. beyond Salehurst, the track bed was removed so a new embankment will have to be made ,and allowed to settle, then of course there is the track bed to the A21, So its entirely possible that there could be track reinstated from Junction Road, to Salehurst, and level crossings in at Junction rd, and Northbridge street, with track laid to just before the A21, then that crossed when the land has settled enough to join up the last section. I don't know if the plan will be to bring in ballast trains, once the link is made, or some ballast to be dropped at Wittersham rd, to ballast as far as Salehurst, and then the final bit a ballast train comes in off NR, to do the final drop.

 

The section towards Salehurst has been left to go wild - so the environmental investigation will be more time-consuming that the part where the embankment has been removed. You are right about the drainage.

There is a large tree in the trackbed immediately to the East of North Bridge Street which I noticed when I walked down there a couple of weeks back. There is a bridge just past this which will need assessing and remedial work.

 

If you can bring ballast in by the trainload it gets much cheaper. I would think there would be a good case for getting everything done to the top of the bottoming - drainage, ditches and culverts, ducts for cabling, bridges, all earth works - and then laying the rails with enough ballst under the sleepers for the tamper not to disturb deeper before tamping the track up through the ballast as it was brought in by railway. In paricular to reckon to cover any unexpected subsidence with extra ballast rather take extreme care any earth works were compacted well enough to put buildings or points on.

 

I am pretty certain that I read that RVR have the ballast which is stored 'somewhere' Certainly the track is stored at Robertsbridge and Nortiam. I assume members will get more information in the next Pheonix which will be distributed shortly.

 

Yesterday the filling of the loco shed site was completed. A job well done by our contractor. Next will be hard surfacing the newly in-filled shed site with recycled crushed concrete.

 

Many thanks for that, Mike. That really is an impressively executed piece of work. Whats with the ramp at the far end- is that for future maintenance access?
I'm going to start the "estimate the tonnage" sweepstake at 30,000t!

 

Thanks Mike for the pictures and update.

 

A further update on the RVR Blog today - click here This consists of aerial footage at RVR East - Austen's Bridge to Bodiam.

 

My Copy of 'The Phoenix' arrived this morning. Much of the news is covered by Mike Hart's posts to this thread. There are lots of other items of interest.

 

Update on the RVR blog yesterday - see here - There is a video about the environmental mapping which seems to have started in September. Good to see some preparity work being carried out 'on the ground'.

 

I think parts of the line will have had this done earlier. But the railway did not have access to all of the line until the order was confirmed.

 

The Ballast for the reinstatement of the Northiam to Bodiam section came as a shipload from Cornwall to Rye Harbour where it was stored on the quayside by our friends there.
It was then moved by road to Northiam by local hauliers in their less busy times. I believe this worked out a lot cheaper than any rail option.

 

Interesting. I wonder whether ballast might come by rail for 'the missing link' now that Network Rail access is available? If so, this would mean starting at the Northbridge Street end rather than the easier to work Austen's Bridge end. I say easier because the embankment must be rebuilt at the western (Northbridge Street) end. Of course, all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

 

Ideally work will start from the Junction rd. end, with a temporary single road diversion and lights, around the crossing site, to enable the crossing to go in, then once in, track can be laid to join it up, then track laid to Austin's bridge, and on towards Salehurst, as each section is cleared and prepared, ballast for this section could be brought in by road and stored at Northiam then a final drop and tamp done when the line is finally joined up through out. with ballast and tamper coming in off NR.

 

Given the KESR fleet of in house Tampers and Regulators, why would we need one from NR?

 

You need to clear the formation first, then lay bottom ballast, probably by use of HGV tippers.
Repair or renew bridges and other structures.
Only then can you consider relaying of track, ballasting up then tamping.
If use is to be made of the KESR machines then if they need to be moved by lowloader expect a commercial charge,at a guess £2k per move.
Unless they start from the KESR end.

 

Looking at what has been achieved to date I would hope that the decision makers have enough commercial understanding to choose the most cost effective solutions which aren't always apparent to others and not always the most obvious ones.

 

The K&ESR track machines regularly go on holiday to other heritage railways in the south and new machines often come in for calibration and training before going out on the mainline. We regularly hire in locos and coaches from other railways in the big scheme of things, its not an issue.

 

The K&ESR / RVR are blessed with some very experienced and sensible railwaymen (and others) in all disciplines in house and as advisors. It is one of the features that makes being a K&ESR Trustee / Director such a joy.