Rother Valley Railway

I noticed on one of the FB rail groups a couple of the "Seasoned Complainers" are commenting. Other than that it looks reasonably possitive from the locals.

 

In fact, some respondents were enjoying the road closure due to the peace and quiet.

 

The overhead pictures on part two, appear to show a nicely surfaced pedestrian route.
But it appears to show one end of that path closed. Am I missing something?

 

Presumably this photo shows the path after tarmac had been laid, but before it had fully cured and was usable for crossing, so was blocked off.

 

Several more updates: here and here. (The latter one covers work elsewhere than on the level crossing.)

Noel

 

And another one: here. (It, also, covers work elsewhere than on the level crossing.)

Noel

 

I am told that there is a post on FB showing that the 4 slabs have been laid. There are a couple of blog entries showing the laying of the slabs and the fitting of the rails.

 

A few of my own, taken about half an hour ago. Poor light, but enough to see the status quo:

Bekijk bijlage 99835

 

All these updates are most appreciated. With the current heatwave affecting the operation of steam locos on the main line and many heritage lines, good news is in somewhat short supply at the moment, so the remarkable progress with the RVR project is giving a welcome lift, certainly to my spirits and no doubt to those of many others on this forum.

 

Thanks for posting those; very informative.

I see in the first image that the section of the rails 'inside' the slabs seem to have been given a silvery coating (probably Hammerite, or something like that). I assume that's to slow/prevent corrosion (especially on the section in the slabs, which are likely to stay damper, longer, than the exposed sections elsewhere). I'm wondering if any thought was given to trying to use manganese rails there, to reduce wear (and thus avoid the need to eventually replace them, in a hard-to-access location)? Although now that I think about it, a few slow passenger trains a day is unlikely to produce much wear!

Noel

 

Based on experience of a crossing in Southampton Western Docks I would guess that corrosion from road salt may be the real enemy. A different track system (more traditional British) but the rails were rotted out in about 5 years. ABP didn't stint on salt, mind.
Pat

 

I was wondering about salt, but guessed that East Sussex didn't use it; not much need down there, plus I gather world-wide people are much more cautious about using salt on roads for environmental reasons.

Noel

 

According to this article - Northbridge Level Crossing -4 The rails go in | RVRailway News - it's the glue used to fix the rails in place!

 

We installed the first of these level crossings at Rolvenden K&ESR on the A28 in 2017 it was a showcase for the Dutch manufacturer and did attract a lot of attention from Network Rail and the mainline companies. It's been totally successful from our point of view. Northiam was done around 3 years ago and now Robertsbridge.
https://www.railengineer.co.uk/revolutionary-level-crossing-on-kent-heritage-railway/

 

Nearly 10 years since the first one at Rolvenden in 2017.
How has it performed?
How is the road/slab bond, given the pounding of the tyres, and how is the slab/ sleepered track join, after nearly 10 years?

 

Rail embedded in the Concrete slab sealed with Edilon.
This has been in place on Br 8 at Pickering Station for about 10 - 15 years or so.
Very common on National network.

 

Thanks Noel

The 'silvery coating' you can see applied to the railhead and around other joints is in fact a posh masking tape to stop the glue poured around the rails and in the slab joints from sticking to where you dont want it to stick!

The paint seen on the side of the rails is associated with bonding of the glue used to hold the rails in place.

The rails we have used in the crossing are brand new as part of the small batch we purchased a while back and so we hope will last a lifetime!

Mike

 

A new K&ESR video featuring the Rother Valley Railway extension project you might like to see is at:



Mike Hart

 

Very interesting; thanks for posting it. It appears that corrosion actually is the main concern, not wear.

Noel

 

The Edilon Sedra embedded rail system is also being used by London Trams for replacement crossing. https://www.edilonsedra.com/system/embedded-rail-system/