Bluebell East Grinstead Open Weekend

Hello all,

I am very impressed by the progress made. Apparently the good people at Google who are responsible for Google maps are even more impressed. According to them the line from Kingscote is already connected to East Grinstead: http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&sour...1.115862,-0.016222&spn=0.040141,0.111494&z=14

Kind regards

Christoph

 

The latest update on the Bluebell "What's New" page - http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/whats_new.html - shows a graphic stating that there is funding remaining for 2.5 further weeks of excavation. Does this mean that additional funding has financed an extra half a week (as it was originally supposed to be for 4 weeks)? I will certainly make a donation before the end of the current work (and before gift aid changes).

I also intend to attend the EG Open Day in April. Anybody know how far down towards the tip the 4-VEP will go? Obviously, the line has been significantly extended since the last open day.

 

So now that the extraction trains have paused for the moment I would be interested in opinions on the process with a view to possible optimisation of the operation. Overall I think that the Bluebell did a great job in managing the situation. To optimise the cost it would seem logical to try to reduce the number of journeys needed of the spoil trains.

So some ideas.
Carry on with the same process that we used to remove the top layer of uncontaminated material to a.n.other Bluebell location using it's own resources. This would be along the whole length of the tip.
Can some form of conveyor (like used at power stations and coal mines) be used to transport this material along the site thus avoiding the hire expense of the specialised tracked vehicles?
Can the waste be screened to segregate the types of waste more effectively? As we have seen scrap metal and tyres are removed. Could the organic material be disposed of locally? I realise that this may still be considered as contaminated due to the mixed nature of the waste. I don't have in mind the sale of Bluebell Fertliser but adding this material to the top layer of spoil may reduce the quantity to be disposed of via spoil trains.
Rather than excavate the whole cutting right back to original level could only the single line be re-instated leaving the one side at half height but suitably stabilised. This would mean checking the drainage requirements etc. The shear angle of the side would need to take account of the unstable nature of the material.

So any other ideas.