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19 Jan, 5 tweets, 3 min read
⚠️ You may have seen our friends @Se_Railway and @TLRailUK explaining that there won't be trains between #Gillingham and #Sittingbourne tonight from 2100 (9pm) because of a landslip. Well, here's what it looked like from track level this morning.... /1
... the slip is in a cutting just outside #Newington station and was discovered when trees turned up closer to the track than expected. Here's the top end, and you can see the top layer of soil had given way and slid down towards the railway. /2
We kept trains running today at 20mph as the slip was in no danger of continuing onto the railway, but we're coming in early tonight to shore it up. That's why there's rail replacement buses and why you'll need to check before you travel this evening. /3
We're sorry for the disruption, but we hope you appreciate why we have to do the work. Incidentally, we're often asked why we don't like trees on cutting sides and this is a fine example of why that is - their weight is not good for steep slopes dug by Victorian engineers! /4
If you want to understand more about landslips and how climate change is giving us a major challenge in the South, this blog is a great place to start. It was written last year (the slips mentioned in it are now fixed) but the problem remains the same...:
networkrail.co.uk/running-the-ra…

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Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
21 Jan
🌧️ As you might expect given the horrendous conditions overnight, we have more news from #Newington landslip and it's not good. We're not going to manage to open the line today at all. Here's a statement from our director, Fiona, and a short thread (on top of the last one...). Image
We've removed 280 tons of spoil already, with more being loaded into a train all the time. Bags of ballast (stones) are being laid in a wall to protect the railway. However, the soil - a silty clay - is still moving. /2 Image
It's a deep cutting, cut 13m down into the hills around #Newington , and the slip site is around 30m long, so it's not a small job to keep on top of. For us to be able to run trains safely we need to know that the soil is no longer moving and we're not there yet. /3
Read 6 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
20 Jan
🌧Unfortunately, our hopes of reopening the #Newington landslip early on Thursday have gone with the wind that's battering our team there. The best we can hope for is around 0900 and @Se_Railway + @TLRailUK are putting plans in place for passengers in the early morning. /1
This pic from the train collecting the spoil shows what our temporary solution to the slip looks like, and although we're confident we can get this done early tomorrow we aren't confident enough that it will totally stop the earth movement. /2 Image
So we're going to monitor the site for a bit before trains run and open when we are sure it is safe. At the moment that's around 0900 but we would strongly advise passengers to check before they travel, as the weather is awful and the spoil at the site is saturated. /3 Image
Read 5 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
20 Jan
🌧️ We're sorry to say that despite working through the night, the landslip at #Newington has defeated our best efforts and we won't be able to get the railway open again today. The rain has kept up and continues to soak the spoil, which slips as fast as we can cart it away. /1 Image
We're bringing more equipment to site now,on top of the digger you can see here working overnight, to reach further back into the slip and remove the soil that keeps sliding towards the railway. /2 Image
The good news is this is what geotechnical engineers call a "transitional failure" which is effectively the failed top layer of soil surfing downhill on the lower layer. That means once we cart the spoil away and put a row of ballast bags in place to protect the line... /3
Read 5 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
8 Jan
⚠️ We're really sorry for the disruption around #WaterlooEast and @NetworkRailCHX this morning, affecting @Se_Railway passengers. In the early hours of this morning we found a broken rail - a dramatic one as you can see - on one of 4 tracks in the area. /1
Here's the line we've blocked, through platform B. Our signallers are routing trains through the open lines and others are being diverted to Victoria this morning while we fix the problem... /2
We've plated over the break on each side (this picture is before we did the job!) which will allow trains to run over the break slowly. We'll come back in after hours to weld a new section of rail in and the line should open soon. Many thanks for your patience this morning.
Read 4 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
7 Jan
⚠️ We're really sorry that @Se_Railway passengers in #Lewisham have had a disrupted morning after an electrical fault caused a train to lose power near #TannersHill. This picture shows the problem clearly. ⬇️ /1
Traction power supply cables are attached to the live rail using metal bolts called lugs. In this instance something has caused an arc to start and it's burned through the lug and cut the power to the line. A train was approaching at the time and it was stranded as a result. /2
This screenshot shows the location when the train (called 2U56) was trapped on the line between #Lewisham and #Nunhead. We worked with @Se_Railway to rescue passengers using a side-to-side evacuation bridge between trains, and they were taken back to Lewisham. /3
Read 5 tweets
Network Rail Kent and Sussex Profile picture
24 Nov 20
Sorry to say we've had a problem between #Robertsbridge + #Battle on @Se_Railway's #Hastings line all morning - and it is likely to continue for the rest of the day. The issue is a cable fault around Mountfield (pictured) 1/
The cable is 37-core - which means 37 individual strands - and the fault is affecting 2 level crossings, 4 signals and 7 train detection circuits in the area below. It's a 600metre length cable and we have a team of 7 on site trying to narrow down the failure. /2
Our cables on this route are hidden in troughs so the team is walking the line looking for obvious external damage. It may not be obvious - it could be inside the sheathing - so they are also testing each "core" to see which ones are misbehaving. /3
Read 5 tweets

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