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Reedham, Somerleyton, Mutford Bridges None Operational


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I'm sure Vaughan will correct me if i'm wrong here.

Were the swing bridges put in place for comercial river traffic, not pleasure craft.  I am pretty sure i am correct in this thinking, so there fore pleasure boats should be thankful, for any time the bridge opend to allow them safe passage.

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Would they have ever known? They might now if it gets noisier  

But a couple of sections were it gets a bit "lumpy" for a minute or 2 is that so bad?

if they complain tell them the trains will be cancelled when it's hot so the bridges can stay open for boat traffic.   

I reckon they might just be swayed. 

That way it's a win win.  

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8 minutes ago, Bound2Please said:

I'm sure Vaughan will correct me if i'm wrong here.

Were the swing bridges put in place for comercial river traffic, not pleasure craft.  I am pretty sure i am correct in this thinking, so there fore pleasure boats should be thankful, for any time the bridge opend to allow them safe passage.

That is a very important point that should be clarified: Are we entitled to expect the bridge to open as is currently understood or should we be grateful for the openings, with the understanding that the service for pleasure craft can be withdrawn at any time and without advance notice?

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I can imagine the clackty clack noise getting annoying for people living near the track but if they slowed trains down a bit the level crossing at OBN might not need to be down so long, Im sure ive discussed this somewhere before..

I know theres something about line speed and timetables etc etc

My broadband line is supposedly 76mb but it doesnt mean I get it!!!

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its several miles either side of the bridge were taking bot a few hundred yards. Plus im sure some where in the back of my head that rail has prescience over all other forms of transport. I know I have shut roads to traffic and pedestrians on a few occasions when was Linesman 

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Every year we have this problem... pointless moaning about it... they can’t be bothered to install the shorter rails... and they don’t give a monkeys toss if it knackers up the river and boaters... They can’t even bother to answer the vhf radio when you call them... 

It’s a shame good old Dr Beeching didn’t close it back in the 60s then we wouldn’t have this problem... Cut both bridges up for scrap...  use the scrap money to buy them bus... problem sorted... then everyone is happy...

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  Quote

"The bridges at Reedham on the River Yare and Somerleyton on the River Waveney have been swinging open for fixed-mast river craft since 1905. However, both require regular maintenance to keep them in full working order and are coming to the end of their useful life. They had worked with Network Rail for a number of years regarding the bridges."

 

So, if they have been swinging since 1905, that means the railway companies, BR and Network Rail have had 113 years to get a stock of spares in to keep them swinging smoothly. Victorian/Edwardian infrastructure is NOT a valid excuse.

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5 hours ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:

Every year we have this problem... pointless moaning about it... they can’t be bothered to install the shorter rails... and they don’t give a monkeys toss if it knackers up the river and boaters... They can’t even bother to answer the vhf radio when you call them... 

It’s a shame good old Dr Beeching didn’t close it back in the 60s then we wouldn’t have this problem... Cut both bridges up for scrap...  use the scrap money to buy them bus... problem sorted... then everyone is happy...

Oh yea everyone that commutes on those 2 lines will be delighted they might even celebrate and buy a big boat and .moor it in say brundall  

The game plan is to get people off the roads not onto them I thought folk knew that .

At the end of the day reedham bridge swung all day I know I was there so no restrictions to anyone or inconvenience to rail uses , I'll be I'm one of very few on here that used both the train from reedham and the river yesterday but hey iv a boat that will go under at all states of tide ,

Thing about it now when i moved here I decided to sell my 57' 5 yr old narrow boat as I figured that because of its length it wouldn't fit in and it was selfish to take up so much quay heading , where as I should have said stuff it at least I can get under the bridges n why give a dam about my boat causing others problems just because I decide to put in an area where its not really suited , maybe I should have brought a wide beam Dutch barge on the canals and then complaind the locks weren't wide enough and demand the whole infrastructure changing to suit me ? .

 

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2 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Oh yea everyone that commutes on those 2 lines will be delighted they might even celebrate and buy a big boat and .moor it in say brundall  

The game plan is to get people off the roads not onto them I thought folk knew that .

At the end of the day reedham bridge swung all day I know I was there so no restrictions to anyone or inconvenience to rail uses , I'll be I'm one of very few on here that used both the train from reedham and the river yesterday but hey iv a boat that will go under at all states of tide ,

Thing about it now when i moved here I decided to sell my 57' 5 yr old narrow boat as I figured that because of its length it wouldn't fit in and it was selfish to take up so much quay heading , where as I should have said stuff it at least I can get under the bridges n why give a dam about my boat causing others problems just because I decide to put in an area where its not really suited , maybe I should have brought a wide beam Dutch barge on the canals and then complaind the locks weren't wide enough and demand the whole infrastructure changing to suit me ? .

 

Who cares about those who use the train.... they don’t care about the poor sods who have boats... who can’t get through a stupid out of date rusted out old piece  of junk of 2 bridges....  why should people buy a smaller boat... if they want to buy a big boat they can... the bridge is supposed to be working at all times...  But it’s not...

Ricardo Get into the real world here... getting people off the roads will never happen... Thats why the government is pumping millions into bus routes and lanes and park and rides...

So your telling me there’s no bus services to any of those  destinations where the train goes to then.... ???  

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20 minutes ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:

Who cares about those who use the train.... they don’t care about the poor sods who have boats... who can’t get through a stupid out of date rusted out old piece  of junk of 2 bridges....  why should people buy a smaller boat... if they want to buy a big boat they can... the bridge is supposed to be working at all times...  But it’s not...

Ricardo Get into the real world here... getting people off the roads will never happen... Thats why the government is pumping millions into bus routes and lanes and park and rides...

So your telling me there’s no bus services to any of those  destinations where the train goes to then.... ???  

Normally I'd agree with you 100% except this morning I am using the train to Lowestoft.

O yes buses, have you ever noticed that every bus in Norfolk is almost empty 50 odd seats and only 5 passengers.... who is paying for this and does anyone care about the additional pollution?

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20 minutes ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:

Who cares about those who use the train

Many who's only form of transport is by train.

 

21 minutes ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:

they don’t care about the poor sods who have boats

Who says so have you asked any of them?

22 minutes ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:

the bridge is supposed to be working at all times

25 minutes ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:

Ricardo Get into the real world here.

Ricardo is in the real world sadly your not. Do you own a large boat then??????

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8 hours ago, Philosophical said:

That is a very important point that should be clarified: Are we entitled to expect the bridge to open as is currently understood or should we be grateful for the openings, with the understanding that the service for pleasure craft can be withdrawn at any time and without advance notice?

Please, if anyone has some spare time and knows where to look could they clarify the position here. Either way it would make interesting reading.

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43 minutes ago, Bound2Please said:

Many who's only form of transport is by train.

 

Who says so have you asked any of them?

Ricardo is in the real world sadly your not. Do you own a large boat then??????

No I don’t own a boat at the moment...

But if I wanted to buy a Big boat i would buy one...

Yes Iam in the real world thank you... 

 

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Why are we going down the road of fighting amongst ourselves on the size of our boats? A boat is a boat. We choose our boats to suit ourselves. And mine does require bridges to swing. But it was bought with its known limitations. The bridges not opening wasn't one of them, but then that's my stupid fault.

If I really can't expect the bridges to work then I would have to reconsider where I choose to moor. I would rather not though.

If the simple answer was put the summer rails on then why not? 

And the buses from where I live to Norwich are pretty busy. Sure not every bus is busy, but then not all the trains are either. 

And scrumpy makes a fair point about the roads. Didn't someone just spend a few million on the NDR?  Oh that will be to get the cars off the road then by making it easier for them ?

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14 minutes ago, Baitrunner said:

If the simple answer was put the summer rails on then why not? 

If that were that simple, it would take a plate layers gang about 45 minutes to do on each bridge. I havnt worked on the railway since 1987 as jumping out of the way of 100mph trains is a youngmans job. But now with H& S they shut it for even a simple failure. oh well progress is not always best.

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I would imagine that the worst case scenario would be that in the hot weather, the bridge will only operate at night. I take it that hire craft are not too tall to get under the bridge when closed, so it will be the large private jobs that will be inconvenienced.

Is that workable?

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1 minute ago, MauriceMynah said:

I would imagine that the worst case scenario would be that in the hot weather, the bridge will only operate at night.

In periods of hot weather, it can take 24 hours plus unless it rains, for the rails to contract back to average temperature lengths. So at times it could be a few days at a time that they expand preventing the bridge opening

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the bridges I am sure were well designed with summer rails in mind, this was the solution to the expansion of the track during the warmer summer months.

since then a decision was made to upgrade the track to the long welded type, both either side of the bridge (and presumably across the bridge as well) 

at this point surely a due diligence study should have shown that this would become a problem, as the continuous weld has more expansion at the open ends, as well as the bridge span expanding further. and that a change over to continuous weld rail would be contrary to the design parameters of the bridges, so presumably at this point National rail would have known that bridge opening was going to be an issue and should not have proceeded to replace the 60 ft rail.

I have been looking and I can find no modern designs for swing rail bridges - is this because with continuous rail they are no longer possible.

Indeed are all of the issues due to the mating of the rails at the bridge ends, or are other wear related issues coming to light as the bridges age (like the interlocking issue that Robin encountered with the road bridge).

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A stupid question on rail design and these welded rails. And I am going to make up some numbers here to keep it simple. 

If a 60ft rail needs half an inch gap for expansion,  does a welded rail of say 600ft need ten times this. So 5 inches using my figures?

i assume the real world expansion distance is a lot less, but the principle of multiplication must surely work? 

Engineers, physicists and mathematicians fill your boots ?

 

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