Island Line flooded - 25/10/2023

[Chris125]

10 years later it has happened again - Monktonmead Brook, which the railway follows from Smallbrook Junction, has once again turned the railway into a river, flooding the track and depot and filling the tunnel to the brim as can be seen on Railcam. Track washouts and damaged rolling stock appear inevitable.

 

[Ashley Hill]

flooding the track and depot and filling the tunnel to the brim as can be seen on Railcam.

Is there a link to that camera,I can’t find it.

 

[Chris125]

Is there a link to that camera,I can’t find it.

 

[Gloster]

At least the staff at Esplanade have had plenty of experience in organising replacement buses and taxis in recent years. But, no doubt, they will still be cut to improve the ‘passenger experience’.

 

[ainsworth74]

Blimey! If you go back to around 0900 (use the clock on the top left of the image) you can clearly see that it's totally flooded up to the level of the road alongside. That's going to take a while to drain and then inspect to make sure it's suitable to for use again!

 

[Towers]

Can’t help but wonder if the D Stock will be as ruggedly repairable as the 38s seemed to be when they were submerged on previous occasions!

 

[AndrewE]

Blimey! If you go back to around 0900 (use the clock on the top left of the image) you can clearly see that it's totally flooded up to the level of the road alongside. That's going to take a while to drain and then inspect to make sure it's suitable to for use again!

The only clock on mine says "Watch later!" Where is the one you are referring to?

 

[Bletchleyite]

The only clock on mine says "Watch later!" Where is the one you are referring to?

Just hit play on it and you can see, just under the big drip on the lens, the canal, sorry, railway in the bottom right.

The clock is at the top left.

Edit: ah, there are several cameras, just wait for it to come back around.

 

[ainsworth74]

The only clock on mine says "Watch later!" Where is the one you are referring to?

Apologies, start the video playing and then the camera footage includes a clock at the top left. Or if you watch live it will eventually cycle through to a camera which shows the railway canal.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Can’t help but wonder if the D Stock will be as ruggedly repairable as the 38s seemed to be when they were submerged on previous occasions!

Hopefully none of the electronic stuff that might need replacing is Vivarail specific, though perhaps GWR would flog them parts from the units they now own.

 

[Crossover]

Just hit play on it and you can see, just under the big drip on the lens, the canal, sorry, railway in the bottom right.

The clock is at the top left.

Edit: ah, there are several cameras, just wait for it to come back around.

It's a PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) camera I think?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Anyone able to post a screen grab?

 

[bspahh]

Anyone able to post a screen grab?

This is from 10.34 this morning:

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is that the ferry terminal at Ryde?

 

[aliceh]

Here's a picture of Ryde tunnel showing the water level almost reaching the very top of the arch. Also, watching the pictures on BBC news, it seems a fair amount of debris and mud has washed across the track at the southern end of Ryde Esplanade station.


(from https://twitter.com/martin466004/status/1717134021082194377?t=4EZ1yPwnedp17YfGq3rb4A&s=19)

 

[Gloster]

This is from 10.34 this morning:
View attachment 145367

The building in the centre is the hovercraft terminal. The sheet of water just this side of the railings is the entrance to Ryde Tunnel.

 

[Backroom_boy]

Here's a picture of Ryde tunnel showing the water level almost reaching the very top of the arch. Also, watching the pictures on BBC news, it seems a fair amount of debris and mud has washed across the track at the southern end of Ryde Esplanade station.


(from https://twitter.com/martin466004/status/1717134021082194377?t=4EZ1yPwnedp17YfGq3rb4A&s=19)

Wow that's pretty spectacular!

 

[DarloRich]

Here's a picture of Ryde tunnel showing the water level almost reaching the very top of the arch.

chuff and blime! Deploy the snorkel

 

[DelW]

Anyone able to post a screen grab?

This is a screenshot from 9am today. Note the van driving through water bottom right. The "canal" diagonally across the foreground is the railway cutting, heading into Ryde tunnel to the right.

 

[swt_passenger]

In the BBC South article linked below the second photo clearly shows the significant amount of rubbish floated down the cutting, as was mentioned by @aliceh in post #15 earlier. That’ll take a while to “litter pick”.

There’s also another photo showing water at rail height through St John’s station, but that may not be at its highest point. I suppose the D stock is slightly higher off the track than the 38 stock.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight: Roads flooded in amber rain warning

On the Isle of Wight many roads are impassable and trains are unable to run with flooded lines.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[fandroid]

The Isle of Wight has been hit hard overall by flooding, not just the railway. For some reason I get a news feed about the IoW. The main road between Ryde and Newport was closed due to floodwater at Wootton Bridge.

 

[Gloster]

The Isle of Wight has been hit hard overall by flooding, not just the railway. For some reason I get a news feed about the IoW. The main road between Ryde and Newport was closed due to floodwater at Wootton Bridge.

So I gather. As the buses weren’t running I decided not to try to get to Newport as it would have involved wading through the flood water to get to the nearest bus stop with a service.

There was also flooding in Ryde around the tunnel area and there are concerns about the supply of clean water, particularly in the south of the island.

 

[Skymonster]

Heartbreaking to see. Just two weekends ago we were on the Isle of Wight: Island Line, Steam Railway, Bus Museum, Wightrider, etc. It was a glorious weekend for mid-October - a bit chilly first thing each morning but wall to wall sunshine. Now the Island Line is (at least in part) under several feet of water, the Steam Railway has been affected, and the bus museum has lost a lot of stock and some electrical items to the deluge. How things change - what we did, we couldn’t do if it had been this coming weekend. It’s a lovely island - sure it has some socio-economic problems but it’s a wonderful part of the UK. I really hope everyone affected gets back in their feet again quickly.

 

[fandroid]

There's another flood warning out for the island. It's specifically for the eastern end, including Brading and Sandown, so the railway is likely to get another load of flood damage on top of the last lot.

 

[Towers]

Heartbreaking to see. Just two weekends ago we were on the Isle of Wight: Island Line, Steam Railway, Bus Museum, Wightrider, etc. It was a glorious weekend for mid-October - a bit chilly first thing each morning but wall to wall sunshine. Now the Island Line is (at least in part) under several feet of water, the Steam Railway has been affected, and the bus museum has lost a lot of stock and some electrical items to the deluge. How things change - what we did, we couldn’t do if it had been this coming weekend. It’s a lovely island - sure it has some socio-economic problems but it’s a wonderful part of the UK. I really hope everyone affected gets back in their feet again quickly.

That is sad, no damage to any of the museum’s fleet I hope?! How badly has the IOWSR been affected?

 

[penrithsteve]

Fortunately there's been no lasting damage to the IWSR. The track was flooded at Long Arch on Wednesday, which meant that we couldn't operate that day. Following a line inspection that afternoon we were safe to operate for the rest of this week.

 

[Towers]

Fortunately there's been no lasting damage to the IWSR. The track was flooded at Long Arch on Wednesday, which meant that we couldn't operate that day. Following a line inspection that afternoon we were safe to operate for the rest of this week.

Excellent news

 

[D365]

Hopefully none of the electronic stuff that might need replacing is Vivarail specific, though perhaps GWR would flog them parts from the units they now own.

The systems engineering was done at Long Marston but most/all components were bought in from dedicated vendors.

 

[hermit]

The whole line is now shown as out of action until the end of Wednesday 1 November.

There is local speculation that the extent of the flooding on the railway and houses in the Ryde area was the result of the Environment Agency being slow to erect flood barriers on the day. However, the amount of rainfall does appear to have been pretty exceptional, with the north and centre of the island being hit worst.

 

[pompeyfan]

The whole line is now shown as out of action until the end of Wednesday 1 November.

There is local speculation that the extent of the flooding on the railway and houses in the Ryde area was the result of the Environment Agency being slow to erect flood barriers on the day. However, the amount of rainfall does appear to have been pretty exceptional, with the north and centre of the island being hit worst.

I’ve also heard it was unfortunate timing in that the heavy rain coincided with a rising spring tide so when Monktonmead Brook was filling up with the heavy rain, it had nowhere to flow out to.