Brunels Line at Dawlish

Good morning everyone, it really is a rough day, just seen on tv Cornwalls railway service has been knocked out. The sea has taken a load of track ballast out and parts of a station platform. High tide is coming up. Weather girl just explaining rough weather right into Saturday.

Shame about the railway. It may put the moc kers on a pub friend of mine who is a train driver due to retire in a few months. He has been loudly hinting at work that he would really like to drive a 125 along that stretch of track that runs by the sea, one of the few routes in the area he has never driven. He was thinking that they might have taken notice

THERE IS A REPORT ON THIS LINK CONCERNING THE RAILWAY MIKE.
Cornwal, Plymouth, Torbay all cut off Railwaywise.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

it's actually 11:44, you need to get that clock seen to.

That railway track is part of the original GWR installation from the 1830/40s

Quote: Voltman wrote in post #25726

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it's actually 11:44, you need to get that clock seen to.

That railway track is part of the original GWR installation from the 1830/40s

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Everyone in the news is saying how serious the damage to the track is. It looks like the base is still there. If the sea recedes they could ram some shields in to make a dry area, remove the rails, then the wall can be cast in modern reinforced concrete and clad to look like the old wall, build the base back up to track level with ballast and re-lay the track. Four days work.

Incorrect. I saw this on the news earlier, the damage is extensive the ballast and foundations have been destroyed in places. Plus they can't think of a repair until the weather recedes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26044428

You could see in one place that the sea had taken away a small part of the support for the front of one of the houses. I must admit though, that I was surprised to see that there was an enormous depth of loose material below the track. I know there usually has to be ballast (though I have seen track attached to solid concrete ), but surely having such a depth behind a stone wall right next to the sea doesn't look too stable to me

After weeks of pounding the ballast had been washed away. But don't forget this structure was built by Brunel and he died 150 years ago. All that battering by the sea
Its a testimony to him it lasted this long. The local bus company's should do well out of this. This lot wont be fixed this year. If they bother to do it.
Network Rail say it will take at least four weeks to restore, If they do it in that time it will be a tribute to them.

I suppose It's not just about the repair but about how long any of it will last if the weather continues in this manner.
They will have to build a new line further inland. When was the last time that was done?

That line as I said was built by Brunel over 150 years ago. A new one inland would probably be impossible Just look at the fuss at the moment with the HST. When this line was built it was just stuck to the edge of the coast, all they have to worry about was a few fish. The thing is this doesn't affect London so nobody will care.
To build a new line inland would take a hundred years of consultation, cost Six billion quid, it would be five times over budget and the EU will insist it will be built by Germans using Italian Trains and powered by French electricity. The local population by then will all be Eastern Europeans and they don't pay to travel on anything so as a loss maker it will be closed down and used for keeping chickens in.

As far as getting to Cornwall is concerned, there was another line, and apparently it is still there other than a short length which has been lifted. It would still have to be engineered for high speed trains but not as bad as building from scratch.

The trains probably aren't very fast down there anyway, they are so near their destinations.

I have just consulted my Bradshaws 1907 Railway Map and have found that there were lots of tracks down there, including a route from Exeter that loops around to the north before going down to Plymouth, where it joins the main line again.

Some of those were part of Brunels plans