Oil drenched tracks... where have they gone?

[NightatLaira]

Not so long ago, (I'm talking 10-15years ago) at major hubs where lots of diesels would run (York, Man Pic, New St, etc) the tracks would always be drenched in thick oil and tar... I'm talking about a depth where you could see the footprints of the trackworkers preserved in, and it used to have a wonderful smell.

You just don't see that anymore. Is this because modern diesels have become less messy and drop less oil? Was that more a function of 47s, Valentas, 37s, which used to be much more common? Or are tracks just tamped a lot more than they used to?

 

[Adam_Harrison]

In Hartlepool we have some lovely oil covered tracks where the DMUs stop

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Is it not the case now that the large stations once very prone to this now ensure matters are taken to present the travelling public with a better image in environmental terms.

 

[AlterEgo]

I don't think it's a case of cleaning and housekeeping. For example, I'm sick of seeing faeces and toilet paper in the four foot at stations - Darlington bay platforms a major culprit. Foul.

 

[Schnellzug]

Is it not the case now that the large stations once very prone to this now ensure matters are taken to present the travelling public with a better image in environmental terms.

I don't know about that, given all the junk and paper and etc that you see on the tracks, thanks to all the Health & Safety rules there are that prevent people picking up litter without a complete engineering possession ...

 

[NightatLaira]

That's another thing you used to see a lot more of back in the day - rubbish

In the 80s my brother and I used to play a game called 'count the coke cans' at Coventry station along the 4 foot. We'd keep spotting new ones, there were so many.

 

[OuterDistant]

I love the "oily ballast" smell, it's a proper railway smell!

 

[Yew]

Somewhere near me there is a lot of aily ballast.... maybe its nottingham? or maybe worksop?

 

[ChrisCooper]

I don't think it's the trains. A new AWS magnet has been put in at Loughborough for the platform extension and within a short time (before it was even in use) it was covered in oil. The only trains regularly stopping at the northbound platform are Meridiens, infact when HSTs (with modern VP185s) do stop the from powercar is well passed the magnet anyway.

One issue might be the switch from wooden to concrete sleepers, especially at stations (big stations where speeds are low tended to keep wooden sleepers much longer). Wooden sleepers would absorb the oil wheras concrete do not, so it washes off the latter easier. Wooden sleepers also were soaked in creosote to preserve them, which added to the tarry appearance and smell.

 

[Schnellzug]

I love the "oily ballast" smell, it's a proper railway smell!

ay... that and creosoted sleepers.
And the subtle tang of Valenta exhaust.
Those were the days....

 

[sprinterguy]

I have certainly noticed that over the last five years or so that a lot of railway stations have been presenting a much more "polished face" to passengers and that the four foot is now often quite well presented and devoid of oily deposits. As NightatLaira so rightly says, just ten or fifteen years ago pretty much every station seemed to have a thick coating of oil between the rails and that distinctive, pungent (and highly nostalgic!) aroma that was a mix of "oily ballast" and diesel fumes.

It's not just at rail level that this improvement has been apparent: I can remember in the nineties that a lot of major railway stations (and quite a few of the minor ones too) were quite grimy in general, with platforms, overall roofs and ticket offices being enveloped in a coating of dark grey dirt. A lot of photos I've seen from the seventies and eighties show that this was even more so the case back then, so I suppose it was something of a hangover from steam days when a coating of dirt over most surfaces was inevitable with steam locos belching out smoke and soot. It's very pleasing to see that Britains' railways have now finally shed this stigma and the appearance of many stations seems to be much more carefully managed.

Mind you, Birmingham New Street still exhibits all the distinctive hallmarks of a station of yesteryear, with oil soaked sleepers and ballast and the heavy aroma of diesel fumes and oil: It's not as bad as when claggy Crosscountry 47s would be sat idling away for ages between duties under the Pallasades, but still...

 

[Sadsmileyface]

I don't think it's a case of cleaning and housekeeping. For example, I'm sick of seeing faeces and toilet paper in the four foot at stations - Darlington bay platforms a major culprit. Foul.

Certainly in Scotland, in the past ten years, initiatives such as SQUIRE lead to the TOC really pushing Network Rail to get tracksides at stations cleaned up. SQUIRE meant that every station gets litter picks every day, less junk falls onto the track.

Add to that electrification and CET tanks installed on the 158s and the rest of the fleet (with the exception of the 156s) already equipped with retention tanks, and you generally see a whole lot less toilet waste on tracks.

 

[NightatLaira]

and you generally see a whole lot less toilet waste on tracks.

Perhaps in Scotland but Manchester Piccadilly's platforms have long since been cesspits! makes my stomach turn thinking about it...