Talk:Hastings Line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Trains Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
	See also: WikiProject Trains to do list
	This article lacks sufficient references and/or adequate inline citations.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale. (assessment comments)
Low	This article has been rated as low-importance within the Trains WikiProject.
	This article is maintained by WikiProject UK Railways.
	This article needs a map. Please work with the Maps task force to create and add a map to this article. Once the requested map is added, remove the Mapneeded parameter from the {{TrainsWikiProject}} template call on this page to remove this map request.

	Kent Portal This article is within the scope of the Kent WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to the county of Kent in South East England. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the assessment scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.)
Low	This article is on a subject of low-importance for Kent-related articles.
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need. WikiProject Kent tasks: Kent WikiProject and Portal Here are some Kent related tasks you can do: Focus (top priority) articles: Kent Refine/polish: Ashford Expand: List of Members of Parliament in Kent .More... NPOV: .More... Citation needed: See Kent Citations needed .More... Cleanup/Copyedit: Kingdom of Kent .More... Expert attention: Merge/Split: .More... Wikify: .More... Stubs: See Kent geography stubs articles (merge?), .More... Requests: Geography of Kent, Government of Kent, Sport in Kent, Culture in Kent, Betsom's Hill, Godinton House, List of fire stations in Kent .More... Other issues: Collaborate: .More... See also: Kent pages needing attention Note: These articles may overlap with those on other related lists. If you would like to make a change, either do so yourself, or make a suggestion. view • edit • discuss • history • watch

Hastings article mentions about problems with the loading gauge - this should be added to this article and explained / expanded upon here if anyone knows anything about it --84.68.63.54 14:04, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

further investigation leads me to believe that a tunnel somewhere between Hastings and Tunbridge Wells had a low height on it (there are only a one or two tunnel on my OS map). When the line was finally electrified in the late 80's/early 90s (to 750v DC) this was overcome, presumably by going single track in the tunnel but no site I've browsed mentions it - they could have re-bored the tunnel but i doubt it. --Pickle 18:20, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Both the statements above are incorrect - see my rewrite - and there are seven tunnels. In addition the statement that the line to Tunbridge Wells was electrified in the interwar years is totally wrong. The nearest electric trains got to on this line was to Sevenoaks. Diesels worked the entire line through Tonbridge until electrification in 1986. Even the main line to Dover was still steam until after WWII. And the single track through the tunnels is not quite true - the two lines (up and down) are interlaced. Peter Shearan 10:30, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Nice work on this page, at the time i didn't many sources to look up, cheers ;) Pickle 12:58, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Interlaced track

According to this thread, there is considerable doubt about the tunnels having interlaced track. The claim needs a solid third-party citation, or to be removed. --88.110.235.235 16:57, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Long thread with some intresting details....

This bit on tunnels is also very intresting ;

... Mountfield suffered a partial collapse in the early/mid 1970s, and was singled by 1975, being laid on concrete slab track which also helped strengthen the foundations. For a while after the collapse there was single line working, before a closure of about six to eight weeks to single line. When the line was electrified the layout at Mountfield was amended with the trap points being removed, and

signals moved back.

Wadhurst, Strawberry Hill and Somerhill all singled between April 1985 and January 1986. Grove Tunnel at Tunbridge Wells was laid double slab track, owing to clearances being tight to prevent movement of the track. ... - [1]

Have in incorporate it soon Pickle 18:56, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

There is no interlaced track in the tunnels on the Hastings line - the single track tunnels all have "conventional" single track. I'm not 100% sure reference to Mount Pleasant Tunnel should be included - the Hastings Line to most people is the line between Tonbridge and Hastings and does not include the continuation on to Ore. Purists might argue that the two tunnels either side of St Leonards Warrior Square station shouldn't be included - they are not part of the actual Hastings line being built as part of the LBSCR Hastings - Eastbourne line, rather than as part of the SER Tonbridge-Hastings Line. There's several things amiss with the list of tunnels - running south from Tonbridge, the tunnels are Somerhill Tunnel* (almost immediately after the Hastings line branches away from the main line), Wells Tunnel (immediately to the north of Tunbridge Wells station), Grove Tunnel (immediately to the south of Tunbridge Wells station), Strawberry Hill Tunnel* (not far south of the site of the former Grove Junction), Wadhurst Tunnel*, Mountfield Tunnel*(which was singled long before the others and as not as part of the electrification of the line), Bo Peep Tunnel and Hastings Tunnel. (Not all of the tunnels sre singled as the article states - those marked * are the single line tunnels). Incidentally Hastings Tunnel is to the west of Hastings station and not the east as implied in the article - it adjoins the eastern end of St Leonards Warrior Square's platformsDamnedfroggy 21:22, 20 January 2007 (UTC).

The article covers the services runing from the London terminal to Hastings (and beyond to Ore) *AND* "Tonbridge to Bopeep Junction" ie Network Rail code "SO170" Pickle 23:36, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Interlaced track suggestion

If you ride on the line every day you cannot edit the article to tell us whether the lines through the tunnels are single or interlaced as this falls foul of our no OR rule. However, would someone who owns the 1066 DC DVD referred to in the article watch it to check, then edit the article appropriately, quoting it as a source? I am not enough of a railway fan to do this but someone must have a copy of it. Britmax 18:29, 26 March 2007 (UTC)