The Final Push - progress on the Bluebell Railway's extension to East Grinstead - Feb 2013

[@phaasch]

I think everyone involved with this, particularly the people on the ground, deserve some kind of national recognition for what they have achieved. Working 7- day weeks in trench warfare conditions, snow, wind etc is one of, if not THE very pinnacle of railway preservation and a testament to the grit of the British character. Heroes all!

[@jonboyradio]

Greetings all - appreciate all the 'feedback', video clips, news and this feedback. The Staff, crews including the contractors and members all deserve highest commendation for and, up including today for a job well done. Happydaze and keep up the good work. Happydaze from down-under :) Jon

[@BluebellRail]

The good thing about our tip is that there was no industrial waste, and no methane discharges. The tip filling the cutting at the old Newick and Chailey station site a few miles south of Sheffield Park has printing industry waste in it, and vents methane, so we're very lucky to have had one of the most inert tips in the country to deal with.

[@BluebellRail]

Steve, it's an interesting mix of unotted plastic and metal, and about 50% compost, so it wouldn't burn well! The latter train-loads of waste removed actually went to a site where a sorter was able to separate the compost from that which needed to go to landfill. That saved us probably £40,000 in disposal costs. Burning is not an option, without sending it to a proper waste disposal incinerator, such as recently built at Newhaven.

[@BluebellRail]

As Chris says, the safety verification includes sign-off by independent experts. The rubbish is well consolidated, having been there at least 35 years, and is pretty stable too, being a mix of plastic, metal and compost; not a homogenious material like soil, but something with significant structural stability due to the interlocking and irregular nature of its contents. We've taken a lot of professional advice on this, so are as confident as anyone can be that it will all be absolutely stable.

[@BluebellRail]

We spent several million pounds, all raised though our fund raising, and removed 90,000 tonnes of waste, most of it by rail, before the April 2012 imposition of Landfill Tax credit. The remaining waste would have cost many millions more to remove from site, so we have permission to retain it on site, which is what we are doing. See the 2011 News Archive, on the Extension News page on the bluebell-railway(dot)co(dot)uk web site.

[@MrRichUK]

I live near the WCML and, on occasion, a laden coal train lumbers by. It generates low frequency vibrations which reach my house half a mile away. Have you considered the seismic effect of a heavy locomotive and its train passing through the cutting? It is steep & deep; the west bank is piled high; the trackbed is formed on the rubbish. Resonant energy input levels can cause instability in unconsolidated material. Are you content all transits will be safe under all conditions at all times?

[@BluebellRail]

patrick lavers - Not sure where your comment has disappeared to - but here's the reply! "Will the track through the cutting be single track at first and then made dual track in the future or will the track be permanently single." There are numerous places on the extension (the viaduct, the cutting, two narrow stretches north of Kingscote where the land owners have refused to sell their half of the trackbed, and further south at New Coombe Bridge) where it is not possible to install a 2nd track.

[@B_W3604]

Can someone explain what is there for the American flag at the end of the video? O.o

[@BluebellRail]

So we are not able to install a second track. To do so (even allowing for the viaduct now being too narrow to operate slam-door stock over as close to the edge as original) would cost about £10Million, and if we had that £10 Million (which we don't) there'd be much better things on which to spend the money.

[@dfcvda]

fantastic.

[@NJPurling]

What happened to the scheme for taking the waste out by rail? Was it impractical to do it right to the breakthrough point?

[@stevedn1]

A pity to see so much of this human sludge that should never have been tipped here by a short-sighted council still remaining. Is there any way to reduce its volume i.e. by burning it? I can't help but notice that despite having been here for more than 4 decades, it has still not fully rotted. I dread to think what sort of things, including CFCs were thrown into landfill by 1960s planners.

[@BluebellRail]

If you listen to the commentary and read the captions, it's clear - it refers to the ability for American tax-payers to contribute to the project through the American Fund for Charities.