Back to work

Usketeers on Wednesday 16th September.

Down to two men last Wednesday. Yours truly away on a working week, and Jules with a minor medical issue. Paul and Dave ran with the baton!

 

 

 

As the internal frame of the little cabin at Gotherington is rotten at ground level, we have rooted around the railway for some replacement timber that doesn't break the bank. In fact the bank account is empty...

Thanks to our supportive friends at C&M we were allowed to take one or two of the timbers that used to make up the original Building & Services shed, from which C&M used to operate. It was taken down a while back, and the best bits of timber put to one side.

Here is Paul, cutting one to length. This is so that it would fit in Dave's car ! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrived on site, the first job was to cut the timbers to the length that was actually needed.

This will be one of the new corner posts. 

 

 

 

 

 

The old corner posts will remain in situ, but as the bottoms have gone, new extensions bolted to the inside will support the weight of the cabin.

 

This is how it was done.

The new (old, now well seasoned....) piece is attached to the inside, and bolted through the good part of the old corner post to secure it. 

 

 

 

PWay on Wednesday 16th September.

A small gang was out at Hayles - just south of the road bridge - jacking and packing some dipped joints. 

The lifted joints were then packed with our Robel hand tampers.

Two of our Robels are currently inoperative. Luckily we have four in total, so work could progress nonetheless.

We are now approaching the winter closed (well, not completely) season, and our winter work project is looming.

We haven't circulated any firm plans yet, but it looks like a refurbishment of Cleeve Station Road bridge is on the cards. 

 

 

 

We're always interested in wildlife along our line. In fact it's a bit of a green corridor. No housing estates, roads, or many humans. Anmals quickly get used to the passing of an occasional train.

 

So what caught our eye last Wednesday? It's visible in the LH photograph, but if you can't see it, we've ringed it in green on the right.

 

It was a little toad.

 

One interesting wild animal event that occurred right in front of Yours Truly a few years back was a rabbit hopping by along the trackbed, right in front of us as we munched on a sandwich. It was hotly pursued by a stoat. 

The rabbit suddenly did a U turn, came back in our direction, was startled by a track ganger sitting on a concrete bin, and dived into the undergrowth.

The stoat left empty handed (or empty pawed). 

 

We forgot who took this picture of the Black 5, but it's a magnificent animal.

Thanks, whoever. 

 

 

 

 

A look over the fence - Rother Valley Railway.(RVR)

An old stomping ground of your blogger is the K&ESR. Our volunteering began there in around 1974, and although living abroad for most of this time, we joined in the relaying of all the sections to Bodiam, over the many years. We were invited to join the RVR relaying gang for another working week.

The RVR is the final push, from Bodiam to Robertsbridge Junction, on the London-Hastings line. In the early days the Minister of Transport denied them this last section, as it crossed the A21 and cars must not be hindered. That view has now changed, and a level crossing is now permitted.

 

This is the project. If you'd like to help with a donation (we did) then the details are on the poster.

 

 

The current site access is off Junction Road, a bit beyond the current terminus of Bodiam. We're in the valley of the river Rother, 500 years ago still a sea arm from the channel, and today still susceptible to regular flooding.

Several WW2 pill boxes can still be seen, such as this unusual circular one. 

 

 

 

Track had actually been laid a few years back beyond Bodiam, right down to the former level crossing over Junction Road.

 

 

 

Until a few months ago there was a stop block here.

Then the river Rother, just a few yards to the left, gnawed at the embankment, and now the rails have been lifted again to permit access to machinery for piling. 

 

 

Behind the camera, on the other side of the road, the line continues, and for the moment, gives access to what will be a run round loop. This is a convenient point between the only other run round opportunities at this end, Northiam and Robertsbridge.

After a few 100yds the line crosses Austens bridge. It was the most modern on the line, but was found by the RVR to be part demolished. It's now refurbished, and provides a handy barrier to unwanted site access.

 

 

 

Just beyond that is another bridge, number 24. It's an odd one, as the bed under it is dry. It's needed here for flood alleviation, pressure relief in case the valley floods - again.

 

 

 

Col Stephens built the bridge with parallel RSJs on concrete abutments. As they were beyond further use, a new bridge on similar design principles had to be used (to avoid a new planning application). With its central pillar, that now looks just like a turntable, in the middle of nowhere. The river Rother is just behind it, by the dark trees.

Looking back towards Bodiam, the 'turntable' bridge 24 is currently isolated. The trackbed beyond it leads back to Junction road and can't be relaid for the moment, as it is used for access. Austen's bridge can just be glimpsed.

In the foreground, however, is the start of the relay that we came to work on. At this point several 100yds have already been laid, to form the through line of a run round loop. 

 

 

 

This is the through road as we found it on Monday 14th September, the start of the working week. We're looking towards Robertsbridge here.

Earlier relaying started at the other end of a long S curve, at Salehurst. It had reached into the distant trees to the right of the 360.

 

 

 

The start was so far away that two volunteers offered a taxi service, in their increasingly muddy cars. While the area is muddy, the trackbed has been given a dry base layer, which was compacted. That worked well, as when laid, the sleepers were basically all on the same level, so avoiding the problem we had with alignment on the Broadway extension, where we started with an 8inch new ballast layer. (which was a bit irregular)

 

 

 

 

Here is a distant shot of the previous rail head.

Some ballast was put down in the foreground, as this is a user worked crossing. 

Unlike as on the Broadway extension, where sleepers and rail were bought out on an as needed basis, on the RVR all the sleepers and rails were laid out to one side a year ago. 

 

The preparation work needed to make this trackbed useable again after 50 years should not be underestimated. It was huge really, they've been at it for months. 

 

An example is this drainage ditch, which had an enormous tree stump in it. All the drainage needed reviewing; none of the (substantially sized) cross drains were usuable any more. All had to be dug out, and replaced with new abutments or head walls. By the run round loop there were big piles of earth from the clearing operations, and these were being dumpered out across the site, where they just disappeared in the ground.

The trees on the right mark the shore of the former sea arm; the flat field was the bottom of it. The K&ESR spends much of its way running alongside this old shore.

A similar area exists on the left, before another old shoreline appears. 

 

 

 

The start of the working week was here, half round the S curve emanating from Salehurst.

The first job on Monday morning, as others were still arriving, was to clip up the last panel laid.

To give readers an idea of the scale of the job, there are 112 Pandrol clips on each panel. 

 

 

 

The target of the working week was 20 panels, and to meet up with the already laid through road of the run round loop.

Are you doing any mental arithmetic yet? 

For 20 panels, that's three volunteers pulling and hammering in 2240 Pandrol clips, after adjusting each sleeper for height and exact position. 

 

 

 

 

The modus operandum was similar to how it was done on the Broadway extension, except that the K&ESR was single track of course.

A single 360 was used (we had Stevie Warren in his JCB) and the rails were half laid in, then the rest of the sleepers, then the rails fully laid in.

 

 

Something that slowed down the process - we were hoping to do four panels each day over the 5 day week - was the need to cut the rails.

 

 

 

The rails were second hand, and many had also been cut into 30 ft lengths to make removal easier. This meant that every rail had to have both ends trimmed. This trimming was also required as we were working on a curve.

 

 

The RVR gang had made themselves special blocks for supporting the rails when they were first half laid in. The two cut outs underneath allowed the blocks to fit over the Pandrol hoops on the sleeper, while the top had a steel strip, which allowed people with bars to slide the rail more easily.

 

 

 

At the end of the first day we had indeed laid 4 panels, so that was a relief. The weather was kind to us.

The picture shows the extent of the first stretch laid, about half way along a field. 

 

 

 

 

 

A trolley with materials followed us, but the majority of the heavy stuff was already in place along the trackbed, in dumpy bags.

Every other joint would be welded, but that still left a lot of fishplate hole drilling, which fell behind rather. 

A thicker, angle iron spacer was used for gaps to be welded, while a thinner, Dexion spacer was used for future fishplates.

Pandrol clips came in big bags. They were all mixed up, so a mixture of standard and smaller e-clips was used. These fitted in reverse order, which needed getting used to.

 

Setting the sleepers in a straight line was achieved by using a length of rail along one side.

This was pulled along to way points marked out by a surveyor earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

Correct sleeper spacing was achieved by the use of three specially made sleeper spacers. Three were used, so that the bump from placing the next sleeper didn't move the other ones.

The sleeper spacers, made of lightweight aluminium, were lifted out of the cribs by another home made gadget, the hook in the foreground. That saved your back - someone had clearly thought about this.

 

How did we do then? Check out part two in the next blog.