Redundant Rail in 4ft and Trackside

A question merely out of curiosity. Why is there so much redundant rail left in the 4ft on the UK network and also trackside. My local station has had some lengths of rail in the 4ft between the platforms for about 3 years now and I see it frequently when I travel.

What's it for (presumably it's old rail lengths that have been replaced) but does it ever get taken away? Presumably it's scrap or can it have a second life somewhere?

TrackWatch said:

A question merely out of curiosity. Why is there so much redundant rail left in the 4ft on the UK network and also trackside. My local station has had some lengths of rail in the 4ft between the platforms for about 3 years now and I see it frequently when I travel.

What's it for (presumably it's old rail lengths that have been replaced) but does it ever get taken away? Presumably it's scrap or can it have a second life somewhere?

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Some's just waiting for the next maintenance cycle for recovery, some's been dropped early before a possession, some's strategic spares in case unexpected replacement is needed. In the latter case it's easier than having it all at a depot somewhere which may be many miles from where it's needed and difficult to extract in the event. In all cases it's not going anywhere in the meantime.

It's not unusual for former main line rails to find a second life in sidings for many years, or even on preserved lines.

Spartacus said:

Some's just waiting for the next maintenance cycle for recovery, some's been dropped early before a possession, some's strategic spares in case unexpected replacement is needed. In the latter case it's easier than having it all at a depot somewhere which may be many miles from where it's needed and difficult to extract in the event. In all cases it's not going anywhere in the meantime.

It's not unusual for former main line rails to find a second life in sidings for many years, or even on preserved lines.

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You will find that this is largely scrap arising from maintenance and spot renewals as the track renewal contractors are contractually required to recover all scrap and actually do a pretty good job. As you say maintenance will leave some 60ft rails for strategic use and of course material is largely always unloaded before activity so its there for the planned works.

My travels around the network show varying degrees of lineside cleanliness but what I observe between Purley to Norwood/Selhurst (Brighton Main Line) is piles of scrap rail that are just that and have been there for well over a decade. Some will say access is difficult in this area its not as its multi track and has regular cyclics it also has quite reasonable road access even into the centre of the Selhurst triangle yet it just sits there. Id also say there are well over several hundred tatty ballast bags dumped all over the line side as well with majority deteriorated so much they couldn't be lifted out now. Also its what you cant see from the invasion of buddleia that hides some of it. The root cause is how little resource NR maintenance now have and getting out track defects will always take priority of course. The answer would be a dedicated team but that costs money which NR doesn't have enough of now so i dont see it improving.