Network Rail's Linear Scrap Yard

[najaB]

...they see OLE and new trains, and they can go 'oh - that's why Network Rail did that, I now get a seat on the train in the morning and don't have a 45 minute wait to come home at night'.

Alternatively they drive to work so instead complain about how NR is ruining ancient views, lowering property values, etc.

 

[Philip Phlopp]

Alternatively they drive to work so instead complain about how NR is ruining ancient views, lowering property values, etc.

Is probably the right answer - it's nice to find old photos and sometimes show them to householders, to say 'this is what you're missing' though. There's so many routes and spots which you think would look terrible without trees, but looking back 40 years, are actually fantastic.

There are times when it's the trees and not the railway line itself which are visible, by removing the trees, lines can actually disappear back into the landscape, restoring the original vista, that the builders intended when negotiating with an Earl or Duke 150-175 years ago.

 

[Harbornite]

And despite it being enormously overgrown as it is, the railway still manages, somehow, to run something that resembles an actual timetable in leaf fall season.

I would imagine distributed traction has helped considerably there, after all multiple units tend to be more resilient in the face of degraded conditions.
We also have to consider the opinion of people living near railway lines - whilst you may go on about how the railway has rights to do all these things, it is not wise to always take up all of your rights. After all the railway only survives become of massive support from the public purse, if you make enemies in the electorate you may eventually find yourself in a position where the taps are no longer turned full on.

That's not really the right attitude to have, it suggests that passengers should accept the delays caused by leaf mulch on railheads and this can lead to complacency. This should be avoided, hence why the linesides should be cleared of vegetation, not to mention the other problems associated with it, such as blocking the driver's line of sight and the risk of injury to P way staff. Also, I was of the impression that multiple units struggle more than locomotives in these conditions because they are lighter.

 

[D Foster]

However trackside fires are a rarity now.
Is it really worth keeping it cut back?
Even leaving aside that railway lines have become important linear nature reserves, it seems like pointless-makework.

Ummm? You mean that the lineside is where foxes and rats can safely proliferate?
Okay - so foxes have become sacred animals (despite being the probable linear spread of canine parvo virus...) but rats?
I don't recall off hand which rat carried disease it was but we all got told to advise our GPs that we worked on track so that they would be aware to watch out for symptoms - which could include eventual blindness IIRC.

Other than cats there aren't many animals that use the "reserve". Birds to some degree yes. (We had a breeding pair of peregrines between the Brighton Main and the Quarry for several years - possibly dining on rat).
Badgers and rabbits undermine anything they get near and cost a fortune to sort out. The rabbits also devastate neighbouring crops and/or get myxomatosis - which is the most disgusting way for anything to die...

Oh - and there's the holy Great Crested Newt. Thou shalt not disturb!

Neighbours (human) Never, ever, ever known to tip all their unwanted junk over their back fences... No! That would never happen...

Just as matter of interest... How come no-one ever seems to complain about the substantially clear banks along the motorways?

As for limited track access... I'm not sure whether it was politicians or TOCS that demanded that passengers should be able to whiz to and from Scotland at all hours - taking away available track occupation time. Judging by sightings of near empty trains the overnight passenger for these thraisn was always an endangered species.

 

[Taunton]

I'm not sure whether it was politicians or TOCS that demanded that passengers should be able to whiz to and from Scotland at all hours - taking away available track occupation time.

The night services nowadays are a small fraction of what was traditionally there a generation and more ago, and I believe the WCML at least had its busiest occupation overnight. Trains for newspapers, mail, parcels, huge quantities of freight, and the multiple sleepers mixed in with it all. Likewise the West of England line - trains through Taunton could certainly be heard as a continuous procession all night, and at summer weekends freights had to be cancelled to fit in the extra overnight services from London and the north. There were some intermediate signalboxes which were only manned for the overnight shift.

With all this, trackside looked immaculate compared to today. Just look at any series of old steam-days photographs to show it.

 

[Philip Phlopp]

I don't recall off hand which rat carried disease it was but we all got told to advise our GPs that we worked on track so that they would be aware to watch out for symptoms - which could include eventual blindness IIRC.

Weil's disease.

The major projects in tunnels and cuttings now seem to do routine screening of workers just to make sure things are all in order.

 

[najaB]

With all this, trackside looked immaculate compared to today. Just look at any series of old steam-days photographs to show it.

Because there was a pragmatic, operational reason to keep it so - which justified the massive amount of labour required.

The cost of labour being so much higher now than it was then means that it's just not a good use of limited resources to keep the trackside clear for purely aesthetic reasons.

 

[D Foster]

The cost of labour is certainly higher now (and quite right too!).

However; we now have power tools and subtle things like on-track machines with flails.

I have happy memories of the largest Unimog (road-railer) I have ever seen doing some flail work from about 01.30 at Rock Ferry. The beast could take out everything up to 15inch trunks. The thing was a monster. The noise was phenomenal...
All the surrounding blocks of flats lit up like Christmas...
For some reason no-one came to complain though... I think it was something to do with the half-dozen very large chain saws that started on the bigger stuff...
In a few hours a good length of embankment was stripped bare - except for several metres each side of and including a crop of Japanese Knot Weed. No-one went anywhere near that.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The night services nowadays are a small fraction of what was traditionally there a generation and more ago, and I believe the WCML at least had its busiest occupation overnight. Trains for newspapers, mail, parcels, huge quantities of freight, and the multiple sleepers mixed in with it all. Likewise the West of England line - trains through Taunton could certainly be heard as a continuous procession all night, and at summer weekends freights had to be cancelled to fit in the extra overnight services from London and the north. There were some intermediate signalboxes which were only manned for the overnight shift.

With all this, trackside looked immaculate compared to today. Just look at any series of old steam-days photographs to show it.

Hmmm... A very good point!
It just seems an awful waste when work gets messed about for empty or nearly empty trains go whizzing by.
Perhaps the services are better advertised now and more used?
Personally I can't see any attraction to hurtling either way in the dark in a seat when a sleeper could be available... Okay - cheapness perhaps - but I like my body to arrive un-battered.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Talking of battered...
Somewhere in the 1990s I switched trains to what turned out to be a Eurostar - somewhere a little south of York I think. (Sorry - I don't make notes). I was amazed! The train was smooth as silk! I have never had such a comfortable journey - not even in a plane.
AFAIK there was a whole load of fuss about Safety Case while they sat in sidings for ages and didn't get used - on most of the mainland - while they hurtled through the Tunnel and France with no issues...???
If they came back - WCML in particular - I would make a lot more journeys by train!

 

[Harbornite]

Birds to some degree yes. (We had a breeding pair of peregrines between the Brighton Main and the Quarry for several years - possibly dining on rat).

Peregrines don't eat rats. The females hunt pigeons while the males hunt smaller birds such as waders and Starlings. Other than that, your post makes complete sense.

 

[D Foster]

Peregrines don't eat rats. The females hunt pigeons while the males hunt smaller birds such as waders and Starlings. Other than that, your post makes complete sense.

So the pictures I have of a peregrine eating pigeon on the track (mobbed by crows) near Nottingham will be of a female?

 

[Harbornite]

So the pictures I have of a peregrine eating pigeon on the track (mobbed by crows) near Nottingham will be of a female?

Are you sure it wasn't a Sparrowhawk? Anyway, both species have females that are larger than males, so the females tend to go for larger prey.

 

[HSTEd]

That's not really the right attitude to have, it suggests that passengers should accept the delays caused by leaf mulch on railheads and this can lead to complacency. This should be avoided, hence why the linesides should be cleared of vegetation, not to mention the other problems associated with it, such as blocking the driver's line of sight and the risk of injury to P way staff. Also, I was of the impression that multiple units struggle more than locomotives in these conditions because they are lighter.

And how much will all of this cost?
For minor gains in reliability its going to get very expensive very quickly.

 

[Deepgreen]

Are you sure it wasn't a Sparrowhawk? Anyway, both species have females that are larger than males, so the females tend to go for larger prey.

Deleted.