Perforated Third Rail

[Morpethcurve]

Saw this today at Portslade. How much more can it take?!



Morpethcurve

 

[Cowley]

That’s quite surprisingly bad.
I suppose there’s not much actual weight on it from the shoe collector, or is there?

 

[swt_passenger]

That’s quite surprisingly bad.
I suppose there’s not much actual weight on it from the shoe collector, or is there?

Just the inherent weight, I don’t think there’s any additional pressure such as springs.

 

[Cowley]

Just the inherent weight, I don’t think there’s any additional pressure such as springs.

Yes I suppose so.
Is the 3rd rail pictured, something that you’d see quite often in 3rd Railland (it’s not really my area, I’m just interested). And is this bit of conductor rail still used?
Seems quite far gone to be seen on the national network in this day and age.
I wonder what other bits of completely worn out infrastructure are still in daily use around the country, there can’t be much can there?

 

[A Challenge]

There appears to be no disused track around Portslade, just the two running lines and no crossovers

 

[randyrippley]

Many years ago I walked down the entire length of the Snaefell Mountain Railway, and much of the "Fell" rail used for braking showed identical, if not worse, corrosion. In places it was totally collapsed. Even though the rail carries no traction current I presume there's enough residual/induced current to enhance the rail rotting.
You can see the same effect on bridges on electrified lines, for instance the safety rails on Carlisle bridge in Lancaster corrode at a remarkable rate due to the inductive effects of the 25kV

 

[edwin_m]

Many years ago I walked down the entire length of the Snaefell Mountain Railway, and much of the "Fell" rail used for braking showed identical, if not worse, corrosion. In places it was totally collapsed. Even though the rail carries no traction current I presume there's enough residual/induced current to enhance the rail rotting.
You can see the same effect on bridges on electrified lines, for instance the safety rails on Carlisle bridge in Lancaster corrode at a remarkable rate due to the inductive effects of the 25kV

As far as I'm aware electrolytic corrosion is only an issue on DC electrified lines, and only where the current joins or leaves a conductor. So probably more of a concern on the running rails, as these are less well insulated from earth. I suspect the corrosion in Lancaster would have more to do with salt being blown in from the sea.

It is however a worry if a rail used for braking is corroded away and therefore liable to disintegrate if needed in emergency.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Saline - estuarine environment Lancaster etc. not likely to be electrolytic corrosion unless some idiot has coupled two dissimilar metals together. I have seen idiotic coupling of copper and steel duh 0.34 volts - - 0.44 volts gives a driving voltage of 0.78 volts more than enough to cause electrolytic corrrosion.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

That’s quite surprisingly bad.

There was one like that opposite platform 4 at Epsom that was in such a state for several years; it was finally replaced a couple of years ago.

 

[Dr_Paul]

In all my years of travelling on third-rail and fourth-rail routes around London, I've never seen the web on a conductor rail like that. It's like one of those Swiss cheeses.