Preservation's greatest civil engineering achievements

With the Bluebell extension finally completed, I've been musing on other great engineering achievements of the heritage railway movement. The Ffestiniog deviation is the obvious one, along with the recreation of the Welsh Highland, and Bridge 30 on the NYMR, but allowing that every yard of track laid by every group is a great achievement, what other works particularly stand out?

 

Kidderminster SVR station site to me is a noteworthy example of civil engineering - a medium-scale GW terminus from scratch.

 

The Norton Triangle - funded by the West Somerset Railway Association.

Steve

 

In 150-200 years time the bridging of the GCR gap....

 

Oooh claws!

 

To my mind, the Bluebell's Imberhorne Cutting and the Ffestiniog Deviation stand head and shoulders above all the others due to the sheer size and complexity of the jobs undertaken. Sure the Welsh Highland was a big job, but it had serious funding behind it, whereas Bluebell has raised all the money, and project managed the job using volunteers with some paid contractors. I'm sure there will be bigger and more ambitious schemes in the future, but i doubt they will have such a large volunteer input both from the funding throught to the actual work.
Daniel

 

I'd agree with the above examples.

Maybe a lot smaller scale but managing to save the Liverpool Road complex from demolition in the late 70s against all the odds stacked against them at the time. The Civil Engineering was proving the buildngs were, contary to British Rail's claims, structurally sound and just required some TLC. The civils restoration of the site taking a further 15 years.

 

Assuming they succeed, restoring the Rother Valley Railway gap from Robertsbridge to Junction Road including a level crossing over the A21 road will be a significant civil engineering achievement. Just look at the pictures of all the work done already on the bridges immediately east of Robertsbridge and the work in progress on a proper station for Robertsbridge. That clearly also has deep pockets behind it somewhere.

 

NYMR Bridge 30 for sheer difficulty, but for scale I think the Bluebell work at Imberhorne needs to be up there.

Agreed also, award of merit to the GWSR for embankments, and the SVR for flood repairs in 2007.

46118

 

I think it reasonable to say that almost every reopening, rebuilding, substantial repairs etc count as achievements in their own right, often political and/or financial as well as in an engineering sense, but I would have to say that I would consider the Ffestiniog's deviation as the greatest - a completely new section of railway on a grand scale, through hard rock, a tunnel, the engineering to get it past the power station, and much of it remote and inaccessible and lots done by hand. This is not to take away from any of the other tremendous achievements mentioned above (and others), just my view on the greatest, as opposed to the great!

Steve B

 

With all due respect to all the projects mentioned, I don't think any of them compare with the Ffestiniog Deviation. Who else has blasted a tunnel, for example? Moreover, most of the work was done manually by volunteers, whereas Imberhorn Cutting, the SVR/GWSR repairs and the NYMR's Bridge 30 were largely carried out by contractors whilst all the various extensions have involved little more than relaying on an existing formation. The Welsh Highland involved more work but again that was mostly done by contractors.

 

That's not quite true in the case of Imberhorne cutting. As I understand it, the drivers of the various diggers in the cutting were contractors, but everyone else was a volunteer, including the project management. If you take the whole extension from HK, then there was also the re-instatement of New Coombe Bridge, the repairs to the tunnel, repairs to Imberhorne Viaduct, repairs to Kingscote station and building afresh EG station, as well as a mainline connection to consider, most of which involved volunteer labour where possible.

Different projects need different skills (though the need to raise money, and the need for good project management is a constant!) If it is ultimately successful, I think the Rother Valley extension will be a tremendous achievement, but a lot of the really significant problems will be less about civil engineering (significant though those challenges are) , and more about finding a way through the legal, bureaucratic, administrative and political thicket needed to cross the A21. That's a completely different skill set to digging out a cutting or repairing / replacing / building a bridge, though no less challenging for that.

Tom

 

I think all the three projects mentioned, Bridge 30, SVR flood repair and GWSR embankment repair did include substantial elements of volunteer input from the respective railways p-way and civil engineering teams, but otherwise yes, contractors were involved, frankly for a volume of work that would be beyond volunteers, particularly given that each of these projects needed to be completed within a defined timescale. Certain elements of the work are going to require specific skills and safety cases, which contractors will have available, whereas volunteers would need to train for, assuming indeed that a given railway could muster sufficient volunteers.
I think also we tend to forget about the planning of these projects. Someone has had to sit down and map out exactly what is done in what order. This was particularly apparent with Bridge 30, given its difficult location, and the limited availability of the large rail-mounted crane made available to them.

 

As an NYMR supporter I'd be the first to applaud Bridge 30 as a huge achievement but I don't think that the most rabid of supporters could realistically claim it is up there with the greatest of what the heritage movement has done. Imberhorn cutting is a fine achievement, but there wasn't much creation involved and that is true of all the other candidates cited, they are all recreations or reconstructions of existing infrastructure. Even the WHR line acros the Britannia Bridge is a reinstatement of the cross town route.

The comments about the planning and politicing before work began hold just as true for the Festiniog deviation as they do for others (there were major problems for them to overcome) and this project led to the construction of a mile or two brand new railway, something that has yet to be repeated, at a time when nothing omparable had been attempted. It was the first major civil engineering project by a heritage railway and its success showed others what could be done. THat is why, for me, it remains the undisputed champ!

 

The involvement of contractors might have as much to do with today's health and safety culture as much as available skills and manpower. I cannot imagine the deviationists on the Ffestiniog getting away with what they did then in todays much more regulated environment! Using contractors doesn't take away from the achievements - someone has to plan and organise the work, and it has to be paid for. These themselves are significant achievements.

I also had in mind the Severn Valley's flood repairs, and those on the G&WR, and other similar works. What makes them special to my mind is that they weren't deliberately planned years ahead! To achieve what they have done in response to a crisis is highly commendable.

All of which, coupled with the other things mentioned on this thread, just goes to show what the preservation movement is capable of.

Steve B

 

Quite agree

 

Surprised no ones mentioned the "ski jump" on the East Lancs, tram line obliterates the original trackbed and no deviation possible due to being a built up area, someone comes up with the idea of a bridge and fierce gradients either side to get up to it.

 

Re Bridge 30.
I was on site and I am not a contractor.
As in all fields if you do not have the skills to do a particular job you find someone who can and that nowadays is generally a contractor.
Consideration had been given to using the NYMRs own crane capability but the lifts involved were just beyond the limits of the 2 NYMR Steam Cranes so the offer of the use of the KIROV was taken up. Even then that crane could not complete all the lifts required again due to the weight of lift at the radius involved.
Were possible as much of the work that could be done in house was done by the railway staff and volunteers.
This situation has been in place before Br 30 and continues now.
Pickering Station roof was largely contractor but project managed by volunteers.
Bridge 7 again contactors brought in for the specialist work but all trackwork done in house.

This situation will be repeated on various railways all over the country.
If you are time limited on a project or do not possess the skills what are you to do?