Rother Valley Railway

I like the choice of brick - the colour is random. It would look like a new house in a housing estate if all the bricks were the same.

 

Very impressive - a new landmark building for Robertsbridge and a great facility for the railway.

But it also somehow reminded me of this:

"I suppose you know what we mean by a station, it has a corrugated roofing; it is not a Clapham Junction"

(Col. Stephens, giving evidence at the 1905 public inquiry for the K&ESR’s, never built, Headcorn-Maidstone Extension.)

 

Yes, the brick choice is very good. Anyone know what it's called? I am planning a project it would look good on.

 

The architectural style of the new station building at Robertsbridge is designed to follow the same style as the Colonel's station building at Tenterden - including the 'corrugated iron' roof covering. The roof covering we used on the toilet block part of the building erected a few years ago, and now the rest of the building compiles with modern building regulation and looks much as what is on Tenterden building - but with what's around 8 inches of insulation bonded onto the underside of the steel covering. Here they are - delivered to Robertsbridge station yesterday! Mike

 

How far is ity from Robertsbridge to Bodiam?

 

3.1/2 mile

 

Have we established the (minus) datum for the buffer stops at Roberts bridge Junction yet Mike?
I'm not sure where the original zero was either the mainline junction or the KESR/ mainline boundary I guess. The replica 3 1/4 miles post is opposite Bodiam station building.
I remember finding the pre-preservation (br?) 2 1/2 mile post in the woods before Udiam Farm with Mark Younge during the rebuild. It was only the second one I've seen.

 

Paul. The 3.1/2 miles Robertsbridge to Bodiam station I quoted was simply the old general mileage description used by BR. The actual distance from the buffer stops at the new Robertsbridge station to the RVR land boundary short of Bodiam station is 5.399km (3.355 miles). The distance from there to Bodiam level crossing is another 265m so making the new Robertsbridge station buffers to the level crossing circa 3.519 miles (assuming my metres to miles conversion is correct!). Mike Hart

 

Or indeed (subject to correction) - 3 miles, 4 furlongs, 1 chain and about 2 rods (which I guess is the way they'd have measured it at the time of construction - using real chains too) - Mr H.
I think I still have one somewhere....
James

 

Ah, that warm, analogue sound you can only get from old measurements!

 

For anyone with an hour and a half to kill...

 

I'm fairly sure the pre-preservation concrete mileposts aren't BR - they're nothing like anything on the rest of the Southern Region. As a complete guess, I wonder if they date from the W H Austen period (1931-48)? Austen was responsible for the concrete lampposts at Tenterden Town, which don't look very "period" but are a genuine survival from the old company. Incidentally, there were some concrete mileposts put in during the early years after reopening which seemed to o have come out of the same mould as County Council public right of way markers of that era.