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Folkestone-Dover sea wall wash-out


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Network Rail's media department have published something new, dated today:

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/railway-detectives-piece-together-history-of-dover-sea-wall

 

Engineers from Network Rail and its contractors Costain have turned detective to tackle the challenge of fixing the damaged sea wall at Dover...

 

While Network Rail has excellent records of many of its Victorian structures, the Southern Railway – which existed from 1923 to 1947 - did not keep many documents on the work it undertook at the site on Shakespeare Beach in 1927...
Edited by eastwestdivide
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Network Rail's media department have published something new, dated today:

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/railway-detectives-piece-together-history-of-dover-sea-wall

So all is explained - they definitely haven't yet worked out how they're going to deal with it on a permanent basis because they don't yet really know enough about what is underneath the site.

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Mmm, the earlier Time Team references not too far from the truth perhaps.

I also wondered about the relevance of "While Network Rail has excellent records of many of its Victorian structures" to the current GW electrification, but that's another story. Perhaps true for a certain value of 'many'.

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Mmm, the earlier Time Team references not too far from the truth perhaps.

I also wondered about the relevance of "While Network Rail has excellent records of many of its Victorian structures" to the current GW electrification, but that's another story. Perhaps true for a certain value of 'many'.

Perhaps true for a certain value of 'Victorian"?  The problem there seems to have been more to do with the signalling cables laid in the 1960s onwards.

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Perhaps true for a certain value of 'Victorian"?  The problem there seems to have been more to do with the signalling cables laid in the 1960s onwards.

From what can be seen on the ground I would suggest the biggest problem that have had on the GWML has actually been the very mixed geology of the railway through the Thames valley.  I think there have been three cable strikes and with the possible excepting of one of those (and a possible 4th which might or might not be connected with electrification works) they occurred on the Crossrail works are - albeit still on the GWML.  The important thing is they would have had a far better understanding of the geology if the records from BR days had not been disposed of.

 

I wonder if the same thing happened in respect of this job where the SR and BR SR records were all disposed of in the early days of privatisation which is a time when vast amounts of civil engineering days was dumped by Railtrack/the private companies which took a lot of it?

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Realtime Trains shows a freight from Dover Priory at 21.25 to Hoo Junction Up Yard formed of a diesel loco plus 1600 tonnes. No idea if this is it.

It is the only one down there,on the beach. Thank you for the info.

 

But, are they allowed to leave early, or do they have to stick to the time,to slot in between passenger services ?

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It is the only one down there,on the beach. Thank you for the info.

 

But, are they allowed to leave early, or do they have to stick to the time,to slot in between passenger services ?

They could call Ashford for a route earlier, if they're ready, but whether they'll get one is at the signaller's discretion. I'm surprised the train is shown as 1600t, as it's an empty working, isn't it?

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Timed for 1600t doesn't mean it is 1600t.  Whoever put it on the system probably just used the same load in both directions.  If it sets out on time it may therefore run a bit early later in its journey, if it doesn't catch anything else up on the way. 

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They could call Ashford for a route earlier, if they're ready, but whether they'll get one is at the signaller's discretion.

 

I'm surprised the train is shown as 1600t, as it's an empty working, isn't it?

 

I did not count the wagons, 20-25, arrived all loaded with grade chippings.

 

On arrival, the rear 6 were unloaded, then filled with spoil,dug out in the passed week.

I should think, as I left at 1400hrs, only approx half the wagons, would return loaded.

 

http://youtu.be/Z83OCLseK3o

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From a different angle,

 

The nearest machine,is unloading,into 4x4 trucks, to be taken,up near the tunnel mouth;s,tipped on the down line,

to be ready,to back fill the up line, when it's spoil,is dug out.

 

The furthest machine, is,loading the "empties", with old spoil.

 

I have to keep these videos; relatively short, due to uploading time's and my camera battery life,during upload,to youtube.

 

http://youtu.be/YuZiQdWrET4

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