Building the New Line

An Overview.

Earthworks commenced for the new line during May 2014.

The ground was very poor, being largely clay based, hence rock hard when dry but like a quagmire when wet and prone to flooding. To combat this the track bed consists of a trench 30" wide by 9" deep. Into this is laid a semi permeable Geotek membrane and then backfilled with 6" of crushed concrete which is tamped. Then 3" of ballast is laid and levelled. The track panels are laid on this and once the level and alignment are correct the final ballasting is completed. A laborious and time consuming process but this has proven to be a very robust solution. We have also dug drainage ditches to prevent flooding.

Once our 40' container and stock had been transferred to the new site we rebuilt the yard and gradually laid track back towards Ropley Station were we built our new Ropley High Level Station using mostly reclaimed materials from the old site.

Just 11 months after we started we ran our first DOWT event at the new site during Easter 2015, a very proud moment indeed!

The drop down sections show the various stages of construction.