Bluebell Northern Extension - so what's occurring then?

All very interesting but does any of the above tell us anything about what is happening on the extension?

 

Lets rejoice that soon trains will again run from East Grinstead to Sheffield Park. It hardly matters that one or two of these may be diesel.

And I'd welcome a Thumper at the Branch Line weekend. This is what would have become standard power if BR had never closed the line in the first place.

 

Depends on your view of the extension! To my mind, the extension project is more than just earthmoving and laying rails; it encompasses fundraising, timetabling, loco operating, compliance, marketing etc - i.e., no point having a railway line if no-one turns up. So all those issues are part of the Bluebell extension...

But anyway, assuming you mean "what is happening with the infrastructure?" - I posted an update a couple of pages back, mentioning earth moving, signalling and the first inbound excursion - and funnily enough, everyone ignored the first two stories and jumped on the third. :smile: But preparations continue. If you study John Sandys Flickr site, or Robert Philpot's site over time, you can see that the clay pile is going down, and the sections of trackbed (especially at the southern end) that have been fully graded are moving towards each other. There has been a lot of work stabilising an old landslip on the up side just south of Imberhorne Lane bridge. There is still an earth bridge in the middle of the cutting that helps with vehicles that need to move from one side to the other; I assume the team will try to leave that in situ until as late as possible.

That said, photos of diggers moving up and down aren't the most thrilling. I think the next really significant step will be when the roadbed is graded throughout its length; at that point we will start to lay track. As I understand it, this will take place from north to south with ballast bought in by rail - I think the Bluebell has enough rail and sleepers already to hand. I haven't heard a date for that but I'd assume tracklaying in earnest should start well this side of Christmas.

Finally, if I can be permitted a small indulgence: my great grandfather was a labourer involved in building the line back in the 1880s. Subsequently he was employed as a ganger by the LBSCR, rising to be the ganger in charge of the line between Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes, where he was killed in an accident. But going back to the construction of the line: I wonder just what he would have thought of current railway building methods, with only a small number of people on site but many heavy machines: in 1880 no doubt there were hundreds of labourers but almost no machinery. The vast effort expended by the Bluebell to excavate one cutting, repair a viaduct and lay two miles of track certainly puts the efforts of those labourers in context.

Tom

 

A fascinating piece of family history there Tom

 

Wasn't there a piece about that incident in Bluebell News recently or was that a similar incident. But very interesting story about your Great Grandfather. As far as I'm aware I only have one relative who worked on railways which was my Grandad who worked as a Signalman at Haywards Heath but not in Steam days.

 

Indeed there was - Autumn 2011 Bluebell News if you want the full article, or I might one day publish it here. One of the sons (also Thomas James) was listed as a railway porter somewhere on the 1911 census, but I am not yet sure where - possibly Horsham. He was killed in the Great War along with two of his brothers.

Tom

 

BBC report BBC News - Bluebell Railway to complete extension by March

Patrick

 

A few months back the plan of record seemed to be that a) a few more spoil trains might be needed to take some remaining waste north, then b) a few trains might be needed to take residual clay down to the Ardingly triangle. Since then the regrading seems to have consumed a lot of material. Does anybody know whether a) and/or b) are still required, or are we now looking at the end game? If so that would be a huge credit to the engineers and planners who must have saved tens of thousands on the potential cost of moving all that extra material.

 

After April of this year, I don't think there was ever a plan to remove any more waste north - the tax implications would have been huge, even just for a week or so of trains.

As for spoil south - I haven't heard of a change in plan, so I assume there will still be a requirement for that, though I guess they will try to "dispose" of as much spoil in Imberhorne cutting and its approaches as possible. There is a need for some spoil at HK to build up the embankment towards the re-instatement of Sherriff Mill viaduct, whenever that happens.

And with regards cost: yes, the team have done a fantastic job in saving money. By my estimate, the digging of waste was something like £1.3million cheaper than originally estimated, some of which was accounted for by leaving a bit of waste in situ, but mostly was down to removing by rail (£24 per ton) rather than road (£37 per ton). Without that saving, we'd be something like £1.8million short now had money come in at the same rate, not to mention the huge tax liability that would have arisen as a result of still having a tip half full of waste; and we certainly wouldn't be on track to open next spring.

For those people who like this sort of thing, here is the latest (13 Sept) photo update from John Sandys: NEP Photo Update, Thursday, 13/09/12 - a set on Flickr. Careful study shows that you can see the same excevators from both bridges. Robert Philpot has a slightly later update that demonstrates the same point.

Tom

 

Looking at the shots of the narrow cutting.
I assume that the Left hand slope with the "Batter Boards" is now at the final profile.
Is there any requirement now, due to the angle of the slope, for the the actual slope to be netted to prevent loose material falling?
Will a similar treatment be required on the Right hand slope in due course?
Is the cutting now at its final width at the bottom?

 

Purely as an interested observer and tenner for the tip donater, with no professional or official authority whatsoever (other interested observers are available) I would venture the following answers, given the angle of repose needed on embankments and cuttings etc...
I would think netting would be essential.
I would imagine the same for the RH slope.
No, I think the width will have to be greater unless all that they will run will be narrow gauge or Hastings Units!
Of course, a tunnel would be another matter!

 

Can't definitively answer Ploughman's questions about width. However, interestingly, the rocks seen at the base of the cutting on the eastern side have been there since it was originally dug and there are no plans to move them or blast them away. Assuming the western side of the cutting is now at its final profile, I assume the width shown is what it will finally be. I think the photos are deceptive and the space is more than it looks - check out the size of the digger and see how small it looks. Note also the multiple lines of digger tracks on the flat ground in the foreground - that space is considerably wider than a digger, so I'd assume plenty wide enough for a single track formation with associated drainage cess etc. That said, it does look like it narrows past those rocks, but the western side also curves out of sight. But realistically, I can't see why you would go to such lengths to profile the western side unless that was the final profile, and that profile left sufficient space. It will only be single track, of course, not the original double track.

With regard netting - my understanding (from a year or so ago, but I haven't heard differently since) is that the sides will be covered with a geo-textile membrane that will stabilise the sides until such time as vegetation grows up to do the job naturally.

Tom

 

Another update has gone on to Philpots web site today. Looking at the exstension things are starting to take shape with a new LED signal now being installed.

Bluebell Railway Northern Extension - Latest Pictures

 

It's the KC down home repeater - ie gives an indication of the aspect of KC53 which is the 3-aspect down home signal. Technically the new signal is not a distant, but functionally it does roughly the same job.

Tom

 

You will note that the latest Philpot photos show that the clay placed into the base of the cutting to maintain the 1:60 gradient has raised the track level to a point where the rocks are much less of a problem.

Rick

 

Latest from Chris White:

See also the Bluebell extension page which has aerial photos of the tip (from 10 days ago, so more progress since then) and of the viaduct.

Tom

 

The sponsored walk through the cutting ( "Track Trek" on 30th September) has been postponed to 18th November, per the main Bluebell website, due to the wet conditions. However, unwittingly or otherwise they have now set themselves a tight target, in that the website says that track will have been laid and drainage completed right through the cutting by that date. They must be confident about final clearance over the next few weeks. Somewhat difficult to tell from the images, but there does look a fair bit of material still to move before "breakthrough".
I hope the weather doesn't spoil this for them.

 

A quick clarification on the Bluebell Yahoo Group...

To be clear: whatever the message says the track will not be laid in time
for the 18th November, but it is hoped to have the ballast laid by them.
Usual caveats about the weather.

Regards,

Nigel
TT Organiser

 

I see no mention of track on the website. It says permanent way. Now, what is permanent way? It would have been better saying trackbed.

 

I think the intention is to delay to a point where we can be reasonably confident that the route will be safe to walk on even if it is wet; that means that full drainage arrangements need to be in place and, I would assume, at least a first layer of ballast. That is the planned commitment by 18th November.

Without wanting to belittle the effort (or indeed the cost of materials) needed actually to lay track, I think what is clear with a project like this is that you have a huge amount of work with very little apparently happening; and then a whole lot of apparent action in a short period. Laying track looks dramatic and makes it look like huge progress is happening, whereas grading the trackbed, digging drainage ditches, laying S&T cables, erecting the odd signal post etc is actually much more work but doesn't show much visible progress. Rather like restoring an engine - you spend an age scraping away rust and restaying a boiler and machining a million and one fittings and from the outside nothing seems to be happening; then suddenly in three months you go from a heap of parts to a finished loco and everyone is surprised when a locomotive suddenly appears fully fledged!
Tom