February/March 2011

IMPORTANT I intend to keep the captions here the same as they were when first uploaded to this web site. Some captions have been overtaken by later events or developments but were honestly written with the information at the time. To alter them might be seen as "altering history".

This page records my pictures of the Bluebell Railway's attempt to reconnect the 9 mile long existing line with the main railway at East Grinstead in Sussex. If you are not familiar with the Bluebell area then it's a little complicated so here is my (very simplified) explanation. When the Bluebell decided to try to reconnect it was faced with a virtually clear but heavily overgrown track from its existing terminus at Kingscote to the main line at East Grinstead - just two miles away. The problem was that more than 30 years ago as a young man I watched as one cutting was filled up with 100 thousand tonnes of domestic waste. This was accomplished by waste wagons backing up to the edge of the old cutting and then simply opening up the back and dropping their waste over the side. Other waste arrived by road and was very basically sorted then pushed over the edge by a sort of pump device. I am aware that some people give other descriptions of the way it was done but I was there and together with my late father we watched the work being done! They did not even bother to remove the ballast from the old track - indeed some old sleepers were left behind and buried under the first tippings.

After much provocation and delay after a trial by road, the Bluebell decided to remove this waste by rail which meant that they first had to build a line south from the main line railway at East Grinstead to the tip face. Next they transported trains of wagons to the tip face, filled them with a digger and transport it all away to another dump - this work continues. So there are really at present two Bluebell Railways - one is the original track running to the south of the blockage and a second line over half a mile long running south from East Grinstead to the north of the tip located near Imberhorne Farm. The Bluebell passenger station at East Grinstead was rebuilt and opened last year - this has confused some people as it was not really made clear that the new station did not serve any others! We hope the two lines will be rejoined soon with a new golden spike as used by the early American railway pioneers. This page records work removing the waste by rail. To see the pictures in more detail just click the small view below.
 

Warning! Keep out of the cutting. There is a footpath on a bridge that crosses the line. Best use that to see what is going on. At present the footpath is extremely muddy and Wellington boots are to be recommended. There is NO PARKING anywhere near the work so if you have not made arrangements with a local resident as I have then you will have to walk. Please do not park on the nearby private ground or block entrances. The local residents have enough to put up with so let's give them some space. OK.

Obviously when the work progresses it will eventually be visible from the next road bridge that crosses the line 300 metres further on.

The line now extends under the recently repaired bridge. You can almost see to the other end of the tip, it's behind the blue pile of earth and tyres almost 300 metres away in the far distance. To the left of the trees just above the wiggly orange fence.

From the picture above we have extracted the pile of tyres that marks the far end of the tip and shows where the railway hopes to end up. It is NOT a straight line however, there is unfortunately a substantial bend to the right and left which adds to the amount of waste to be removed. We hope the Bluebell have taken this into account!

On the 16th February work is in progress for the next extraction phase. If you want to look wear wellies - the public footpath is very wet!

This is the end of the line on Feb 16th - next week, who knows? (see below)

But there is still a mighty long way to go - the next phase of extraction starts tomorrow afternoon. A further 6 foot section of track awaits the newly cleared space.

First day of the next extraction phase and at the tip everybody is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the wagons. Incidentally if you want to see how far work far work has reached then the digger is removing some of the top soil and it is near (but not touching obviously) the power lines that are visible in the high definition picture on the previous page. This also gives some scale to the work. For the avoidance of doubt the power line is protected by plastic lines that have been set up to prevent machinery coming into contact. It's all quite safe!

Looking the other side of the bridge more rail sections await fitting, just like a Hornby 00 railway but minus the fishplates!

With 9 of the wagons deposited in East Grinstead platform, looking from the other end beside the tip we see the half rake of 9 wagons reversing slowly onto the new siding but what else can we see?

There was extra ballast in the wagons assigned to the first filling so these have to be emptied first before any proper work can start. The wagons are huge, in fact designed to hold up to 66 Tonnes each. It would have been helpful if they had been the design that could be easily emptied of ballast onto the line from the side, but these just had a small door for sweeping out. These wagons have to be emptied from the top, bring over the rail mounted crane.

Just one more picture of the wagons to show how really huge they are. Just think of a full size passenger coach, take off the roof above the windows and fill with rubbish. I reckon you could get 300 (friendly) people standing up together in each one!

The loco dept at the railway needs rags to light and clean the locos. I wonder if they know there is an unlimited supply at the end of the line?

At the other side of the bridge everybody is ready and the driver even took an early lunch, but the wagons are still being emptied. It being nearly 4 p.m., getting dark and rain falling your correspondent had to return home. By the way that is NOT one of the rubbish wagons behind the road-railer, they are just a little bit larger!

An extra picture and my explanation of the loading. The black plastic shown above was laid down so the three wagons could be reversed into the newly made space. These wagons are then filled from the side with the long load digger, the plastic protecting the ballast from waste falling over the side. It was the same three wagons that were to be filled first that had to be emptied of ballast. This started quickly as the crane just lifted each load out but eventually the rail mounted crane had to travel with each load which explains the extra delay. At first the onlookers could not understand why things went as they did, but the reason was that if different wagons were filled first the crane would have been "trapped" at the far end of the line nearest the tip. I have been told that the siding is soon to be turned into a passing loop. This, if true, would make further extraction work easier.

This is my last picture taken as I left the site on the first day with still a lot of work to be done before the line was clear to allow tip detritus removal.

On arrival on Thursday it was obvious that a good deal of rubbish had "disappeared" since Wednesday.

Another view before work on Thursday and one thing is becoming apparent to my untrained eye. that is that on the eastern side the cutting looks as though it is a virtually vertical rock face.
This will add to stability but perhaps increase the amount of rubbish to be disposed of? I am talking of the lighter coloured stuff top left of this picture.
On the right it can be seen there is a more gentle slope.

Work quickly commences loading up. This picture can give some scale to the operation. If you look carefully you can see some red and white poles which are marked in 1 metre divisions. The pole with the triangle marks the top of the tip and you can see where the rails should go. Multiply and work it out - it's a long way!

On Friday of the first week at last some lights have been installed and are pictured here. Behind you can see the "rock face" alluded to earlier. There are car tyres in the nooks, and rubbish strewn about but from looking on the ground it certainly looks solid to me. Any experts out there?

These tyres have been unearthed in the previous 24 hours. There is a much larger pile at the other end of the tip.

At last my pictures can give a scale to the whole operation as in the right hand corner are two workers! Small, aren't they? No, but the tip if huge!

Another view of the shunter waiting to stop the first rake of wagons from crashing into the wall of rubbish gives more scale to the operation.

This picture taken from the public footpath shows work from a skew angle. The buildings in the distance are part of the Council refuse department that is to be closed for improvements this summer. If you look closely you can also see the pole for the electricity wires that cross what is quickly returning to being a cutting. These lines are clearly visible on the large overhead picture so again help to pinpoint the work area. You can see that operations are now well south of these.

Same view but closer shows a small mountain of capping removed for excavation. I was not able to get across to the edge of the path so these two pictures were taken for me with a long lens. This view - along with many others - will soon be obscured by vegetation. It might be cold in winter but the season still has its advantages for photographers!

Now again looking roughly south from the bridge we can see how far extraction has extended in the past week. I have to report that despite the amount of rubbish removed no extra rails have been laid yet.

and deposited into the siding. The train then returns the empty trucks to have the next rear two quickly filled with more "muck". After that it's start all over again, and again, and!

Wednesday 2nd March and new plant has arrived. An extra digger plus what I will call a "snow cat". these machines work backwards as well as forewards and were used in the last extraction.

Three diggers at work One gets the rubbish, which passes it to the second, which in turn passes it on to the third. This digger places it for loading later in the day.

Just one more for now. I will sort the site out later in the week and remove some of the duplicate pictures.,

Finally a rant. When you visit the site you have to walk down a public footpath. Some people don't bother - they drive which blocks access and upsets the neighbours.

This picture taken from the public footpath with a long lens shows work from a skew angle. The buildings in the distance are part of the Council refuse department that is to be closed for improvements this summer. If you look closely you can also see the pole for the electricity wires that cross what is quickly returning to being a cutting. These lines are clearly visible on the large overhead picture so again help to pinpoint the work area. You can see that operations are now well south of these. The distance between the electricity poles and depth of the cutting sort of remind me of Horsted Keynes where there are similar wires high above the steam trains.

Three diggers at work now. One gets the rubbish, which passes it to the second, which in turn passes it on to the third. This digger places it for loading later in the day.

Work on Thursday seems to be tidying up the work of the first two weeks and making room for an additional rail section - possibly for the weekend gang. The present line which has remained unaltered from the start terminates in the centre of the picture, so an additional length of perhaps 20' might be squeezed in to below where the blue digger is now sited? This would be the real ground "gained" by the present dig.

A little closer showing work removing some of the capping pile. This small "alcove" that the digger is teetering on is shown on the Ordinance Survey map and is the grey blob on my map, this shows how accurate the cartographers were in those days.

Please see the videos for a much better impression of the work.

On the right of the bridge is the tip and looking back on a sunny third Monday we can see the access via a public footpath.

On Thursday of week 2 looking from the western side of the tip we can see a huge pile of tyres that have been separated from the other waste. These are near the domestic waste plant so are easily accessible by road. Not unconnected perhaps?

The area in the foreground is to be used as part of a temporary waste plant during renovations to the larger waste site. It will be a hive of activity every weekend in the summer and is not recommended as a vantage point!

Incidentally this is the very place where the waste was initially sorted before being dumped over the side into the then disused cutting. Later on I witnessed the dust carts reversing here and simply emptying their loads straight over the edge. The waste was unsorted at this point. There is a waste vehicle abandoned immediately below this point. The rumour is that it became stuck in the rubbish, but from the angle that it lies we think that the driver simply forgot to apply his brakes when off loading. Picture snapped from moving vehicle.

It looks to me as though the line behind the blue digger, with the pile of topping on top, will form the end of the present phase of work. This face is represented by the red line on the overhead photo on my index page, the position of which is very approximate as I could only see from one side. The capping on the very top could quite easily be spread down over the end to reseal the tip. There were just 9 more trains to go in this phase.

IF work were to stop here - and I agree there are lots of "if's" - it would represent a running line end being about 200 feet from the south face of Hill Place bridge, A total "gain" of about 120 feet.

All my figures are speculative and will be replaced with the exact figures when these are released by the railway.

I'm pleased to see that metal is now being sorted out presumably for reclamation. There will be a lot more of this sort to come when the tip proper is reached as people were allowed to throw anything into the pit. Many people - including me - would think that it would rust away after all this time, but school science lessons tell us that to rot it needs oxygen and there is limited oxygen 6 metres or more down! Another thing unearthed is several telegraph pole size pieces of wood, these have turned coal black - interesting!

The metal things with holes on the front are NOT washing machines - they did not look like that 40 years ago, these are in fact old water tanks.

From personal experience watching the original interment when people were allowed to throw anything they liked over the edge I know there are other odd and old bits and pieces buried there.

It's rather like now when rubbish is dumped into those huge skips and carted away, it was just left here so along with garden waste is the odd diamond ring!

Another piece of metal joins the reclamation dump.  This is corrugated iron roofing which of course normally rusts away very quickly. Another sign that the lack of oxygen has caused less deterioration than might be expected. If it had been left on a roof it would have completely disintegrated by now.

It is interesting to see that after just a few days in the air much of the reclaimed metal has changed colour to rust red.

It's much easier to show the operation in moving pictures so I am uploading videos to YouTube. The links are below. Sorry they are only short and 4:3 but show what is needed nevertheless. Yes they are all similar, but I don't know of any other easy way to show the progress of the work.