I’ve just found this clip of video on the BBC’s web site.
It just shows the sort of conditions that these trains of the 1970s can withstand. It also shows why they will never electrify this line between Exeter and Plymouth.
This other video shows the work going on to repair the line. Note the wall of shipping containers filled with ballast to give protection to the workings and properties by the railway line. But even these have been breached, as is reported here on ITV.
It’s all extreme engineering at its most way out. Hopefully the engineers will win, but it should lead to better techniques for the next set of problems.
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February 14, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Devon, Engineering, First Great Western Trains, InterCity 125, Trains |
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The Exeter to Plymouth line is one of the UK’s most spectacular railway lines. Or should it be was, as eighty metres of it have been washed away at Dawlish?
This report in the Exeter Express and Echo has some amazing pictures.
Brunel generally got his engineering right and seeing that the line opened in the 1840s and I can’t see any reference to a breakage of this nature before he didn’t do too bad.
But it does show how fierce the seas must have been!
Let’s hope that Network Rail had a plan ready for an emergency, such as happened last night.
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February 5, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Energy, Transport/Travel | Brunel, Dawlish, Dawlish Weather Problems, Devon, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Network Rail, Trains |
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It is being reported that the bridge at Dawlish station is being replaced by a new copy in plastic, because the steel work has corroded. You can get a measure of the conditions from this picture taken on the line through the station.
The South Devon Railway, on which Dawlish station is situated was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
So what would he have thought about the use of plastic?
Brunel was an innovative user of the materials he had available and I believe he very much used the best material he had at his disposal for a particular job. His prefabricated timber bridges could best be described as masterpieces.
So I suspect that his ghost is right behind Network Rail’s decision.
September 30, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Bridges, Dawlish Weather Problems, Devon, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Trains |
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I like this article on the BBC web site about how Totnes is trying to keep the coffee chains out of the town.
Perhaps, it’s because, my maternal grandmother, who was born just round the corner from where I live now, had Devonian ancestry and that’s where I get my stubbornness from.
August 7, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Food, World | Coffee, Devon |
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