Rother Valley Railway

I believe the ballast for the Northiam to Bodiam section of the K&ESR (reopened in 2000) came from a quarry in the west of Scotland by ship to Rye Harbour then by lorry.

 

https://rvrailway.blogspot.com/2026/09/bridge-19-iii-early-sep-26-update.html
Its been a while since I've been here. News and life is moving so fast on this Railway.

(No feet were used this side of the fence wire).

 

This is a good recent summary by Alasdair stewart in the SA magazine.
https://rvrailway.blogspot.com/2026/07/phoenix-116-rvr-project-latest-by.html

 

I seem to remember Cornwall. West of Scotland would mean the boat sailing round lands end?

 

When I worked for Railfreight Construction, I recall that there was a Quarry on the West Coast of Scotland, I think it was operated by Foster Yeoman.
It was a 'glory hole' quarry. A shaft had been sunk, and an adit from the foot of the shaft, leading directly to a conveyor for loading ships.
There was neither road nor rail facility for moving the stone.
Stone was quarried at the top, crushed then sent down the hole in the middle.

Place was known as Glensanda.

That may have been the source.

 

Yeoman Bridge and one of her sisters used to deliver to Southampton Western Docks from Glensanda. They got around, anywhere from the North Sa to North America.
My only query about this is this: could Rye handle a ship this big?
Pat

 

Glensanda is the one. Reserves of 450 million tons of pink granite. Railtrack used to have it delivered to Southampton and Hoo Jct. Quarry only accessible by boat or by donkey.
Pat

 

If the ballast is coming in via the network, its origins are pretty much immaterial.

 

The OP might have only been wondering if the original report ("I believe the ballast ... came from a quarry in the west of Scotland by ship to Rye Harbour then by lorry") was accurate, about Rye.

Noel

 

When we built the first extension, from Bodiam headshunt to just short of Udiam Farm, the stone did indeed come in to Rye Harbour. Then it was brought by lorry directly to a convenient location on the works. I was there one day we ballasted, and there was a less than amusing interlude in the day when the lorries disappeared for stone, and only reappeared some two hours plus later! Apparently the drivers went for a leisurely lunch, and hadn't thought to tell us they would be doing so! The second section, Udiam through to Junction Road, the stone was delivered in advance to Wittersham Road, and the class 33 went and fetched it, brought it back to Bodiam, and the class 03 then pushed it out onto the extension. Long waits aside, they were fun times.

 

They have a Web-site here; the written content is mostly the usual useless marketing pfaff which could have been written by a particularly bad AI (Douglas Adams was clearly wrong about who'd be first on the B ark; the author of this lot would have a good claim to the head of the line), but there are a number of useful and informative images.

Noel

 

Blog Update today on Bridge 18

I think that a new bridge span has been fabricated but the abutments need replacing.

 

Yes; there is a series of posts about this bridge; an earlier one shows the start of the replacement span being fabricated.

Noel

 

I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the logistics of getting the deck to that location plays out.
Are there any other major structures between this and bridge 12, does anyone recall?

"The life expired abutments are now waiting processing into sub base material for the trackbed. Nothing is wasted here by R-R-R. Everything is valuable when you're working on a tight budget."
HFS looks down, and says "Amen to that"

 

We had some of this delivered to the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway about twenty years ago, I think. I remember the pink ballast, but I don't think we had a lot, as I am sure someone said it came from BR as part of the Barnstaple to Exeter re ballasting, and it was down to someone somewhere who managed to divert a couple of lorry loads to Woody Bay at the time.

 

You are correct the Northiam to Bodiam ballast came by small coaster in to Rye from Dean Quarry on the Lizard Peninsula. There were plans at the time for the quarry to be developed in to a super quarry but it eventually closed in around 2005.

 

The stream of updates has resumed, with the lengthy Section 5d, Section overview - i. Another, Section 5e, seems to be underway. (Maybe he's away for a moment, accumulating more of those amazing pan/room shots!)

Noel

 

Sometimes I can't keep up with all this progress, not wishing mine or anyone else's life for that matter, away, but is there a rough date when work starts on the second Level crossing this year?

 

Date not agreed yet but I have heard, early 2027. The place to check is One Network for scheduled road closures. Nothing is shown yet, indicating that ESCC and Highways England have not agreed a traffic regulation order.