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The connection still exists and is intact but it hasn't been used for about ten years. All the ammunition goes in and out by road as it is cheaper to do it that way. The branches inside MOD Shoeburyness are all heavily overgrown and haven't been used for a decade or more. This puzzles me as there is a national shortage of secure rolling stock storage and Shoeburyness would be the ideal location.
A very obscure and little known MOD railway has been taken up in the last 12 months. It was on Havengore Island - part of the Shoeburyness site - and was installed 30 years ago as part of Project Avocet. The narrow gauge railway went around half of the island but was cut back after a few years so that only served the munition facility there. They used curious wagons, V-shaped hoppers with circular lids that were pulled shut. The wagons went into the munitions facility and the remaining accelerant were steamed out at high temperature. I only ever saw the railway from the road and I don't think there are any photo's of it anywhere. A friend has told the me the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Railway are after one of the locomtives.
The site has been demolished and a new demilitarization facility is to be built but I don't think the plans have a railway in them. The planning application can be seen on the Rochford DC website at:
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