An option for Devon - raise the rails when necessary?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I was interested to see the following:

Mr Porter said that if the water got any higher, the authorities would have to consider temporarily raising the road above the flood levels.

at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/8375875.stm

and it got me thinking. If a road can temporarily be raised, why not put the railway line along the Devon coast on hydraulic rams so that it can be lifted clear of high tides in the future?

[plymothian]

And the stations and tunnels?

[grahame]

And the stations and tunnels?

The tunnels can be put on put on rams too, and the stations can be ferrytituted from Starcross while the water level is high.

Seriously, though, this is the lighter side.

[Phil]

I suppose another thing about the hydraulic rams is, their fleeces would presumably soak up a lot of the water...

[jakemonkfish]

what about trains on stilts like the Volks electric railway

[plymothian]

Ok, how about amphibious trains?

[Btline]

I suppose another thing about the hydraulic rams is, their fleeces would presumably soak up a lot of the water...

Groan.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

they could drain the sea 

[signalandtelegraph]

I was interested to see the following:

Mr Porter said that if the water got any higher, the authorities would have to consider temporarily raising the road above the flood levels.

at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/8375875.stm

and it got me thinking. If a road can temporarily be raised, why not put the railway line along the Devon coast on hydraulic rams so that it can be lifted clear of high tides in the future?

I though that hydraulic rams are 'non standard' and are not allowed (at least thats what they said when they got rid of the Westerns, Warships and Hymeks!)

[Andy]

In the days of privatised rail, wouldn't it be a case of hydraulic EWeS rather than rams? 

[Henry]

 Build a tunnel, loosely based on the channel tunnel.

 Entering the sea off the coast at Exmouth, across the estuary then following the coastline along Teignmouth.
 Then following the river Teign as far as Hackney marshes where the tunnel can end approaching Newton Abbot station.

 To make the tunnel cost effective not only could you run 3 lines ( 1 up, 1 down and emergency crossover), you could also
 make the scheme wide enough to accept two lanes of cars.
 Allowing car, or maybe bus, journey times to be probably less 30 minutes.
 Of course the tunnel would have to be a toll road to offset the cost of building, but would probably be self financing in
 probably 2 to 300 years.

[signalandtelegraph]

How about this, or would it be a bit big for the Exe estuary? Has the advantage that you could have slip roads to the existing stations!


http://www.cbrd.co.uk/histories/euroroute/

[grahame]

what about trains on stilts like the Volks electric railway

Glad this isn't the Dawlish suggestion ... a side shoot from my research

[Bmblbzzz]

I suppose another thing about the hydraulic rams is, their fleeces would presumably soak up a lot of the water...

But you can get them for pennies in Argos.