Rother Valley Railway

Is tthe span of bridge 25 of any historic importance?

 

I am inclined to the bridges would have either been replaced or required very heavy repairs, 'damage' or no 'damage'.

 

Lets not pussyfoot around anymore- that damage to Austen's Bridge, and Bridge 25 was quite deliberate, and "scorched earth" was the only possible motivation for it, One does not lug flame cutting gear and a jackhammer through agricultural land for a spot of "casual vandalism" although as Dead Sheep says downthread, the work would quite possibly have been necessary anyway.
Nonetheless, whoever is responsible, their behaviour is abhorrent, and absolutely indefensible.

 

Hope that the vandalism ceases once the restoration is eventually complete but a linear rail line always remains vulnerable to such attacks, and given the strength of local opposition there must be a chance of continuing disruptive tactics the use of which some politicians support of course.

 

But surely acts of wanton vandalism would reduce any support local opposition might have had, And the support shown at the open day by locals, would indicate that the opposition to the railway was not as strong as made out, but the railway has shown itself to be a good neighbour in its dealings, and that action, was shown to have been a futile act, because the bridges will be repaired, / replaced, and track laid over them, and I'm sure that any further such acts, will result in arrests by the police and appearances in court,

 

In addition the removal of the spans of Bridge 25 would require heavy lifting gear and Transport - again over agricultural land. Looking at the damage to Austens' Bridge the debris would have found its way into the Rother - I wonder what the view of the Environment Agency is.

 

Were any laws broken in the removal of the structures as it was after the ministers report , but before it became legally binding,? Does the RVR have any right of redress against the what was then landowners, at the very least, it meant that the RVR could not be very co operativive with the landowners over rights of way, only allowing what is legally necessary and then being very bloody minded about it, if it so wished, Unless of course the land owner took the money and ran, I'm assuming this was the land owned by the woman on social media who was very abusive over ecological matters, wildlife etc, then she allowed someone access on her land, with heavy equipment cause the very thing she was so against.

 

I know nothing of this beyond what's been posted on here. I will just observe that when bad things happen, it is sometimes better to just roll with it than get focused on who did what and what action can be taken against them.

 

Exactly - this all happened around a year ago and this is the first time that some detail of the 'damage' has appeared. Plans have been made to repair/replace. We don't know any more detail and we really don't need to know

 

The less speculation the better. Can we just leave it as it's not there.

 

Local resistance is hardly a militia. There were a couple of land owners, who didn't want trains running through their farms. That is perfectly reasonable. The rest of it is passive aggressive, tutting then returning to their Chablis. There have been no threats of attacks, no sign of attacks at Robertsbridge station itself, beyond the extremely occasional stupidity of youth. There is no ongoing vandalism at present.

 

Regardless of bad feelings or questions of morality the land, and the bridges, remained the former landowners' property to do with as they wished until RVR exercised their powers under the Order. Until that moment RVR didn't know the condition of any of the structures, since they'd had no access to survey them.

The railway was closed in '62 and track lifted 10 years later so, compared to many other abandoned railways, it's a bonus if any bridges at all have survived fit for further use after six decades of moribund. In the section between Robertsbridge Stn and Northbridge St. RVR had to replace four bridges (using refurbished 1904 South Eastern Railway spans, obtained following Network Rail renewals near Staplehurst).

 

Any ongoing issues of potential trespass and damage can be deterred by the use of motion-sensitive hidden trail cameras. I use these in my wood to protect my milling machinery from damage and theft. It is remarkable what they have picked up over the past two years, but they are successful, and for a cost of less than £1000 for four. It is important to publicise that they are there and that they are in use (even when they aren't) because the deterrent effect is far more important than evidence gathering after the event. If anyone did lug heavy equipment onto site without permission they might be nervously awaiting a private prosecution today, but if they knew they would be filmed doing it again they may not have done it at all.

 

I believe that RVR has similar equipment already - in fact the blog says there is an external security company with cameras. I am sure that they have something in mind for when work is completed.

 

There is a further post in the RVR blog here - showing work on the Bridge well under way. It would seem that when the bridge was being 'damaged' in June 2023 a significant amount of the bridge found its way into the River Rother.

 

I’m glad Austen’s bridge is repairable since it was the last major Civil Engineering project by the old KESR Co. in the 1940s not long before nationalisation. The bridge replaced a Col. Stephens structure which must’ve been even more worn out than all the others.

 

It certainly looks like a very robust piece of work. Thank heaven for having Playfoot's expertise on hand.
As an aside, does anyone know why RVR's blog posts often don't appear in chronological order? and like this latest one, say it was posted 3 weeks ago when, just the day before yesterday it wasn't there at all? Just always struck me as an oddity.

 

Perhaps there is a 'creation date', but not available to the public until approved by a board member?

 

Maybe. Hadn't thought of that.

 

I must confess that I had assumed that was the case.