Just to be clear, as well as wearing safety boots, you guys who can't seem to do what my boots let me do, even carrying tools and boxes, you do actually know how to walk safely in potentially slippy conditions? Concentrating on placement, taking your time, etc. Because if not, well yes, you might as well be wearing crocs or even a pair of ordinary hiking boots, for all the good a decent pair of safety boots will do you on ice, oil or plant material.
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When walking along track, why shouldn't you step on sleepers?
- Thread starter blimmo
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RailUK Forums
Ah, yes I imagine some of the ones from the 1960's might be a bit fragile by now !
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I remember as a child looking from the train they always looked like little pathways !
I've only had to walk track once. If memory serves, the extent of the briefing was to walk along this line or that line and NOT any further that that one, and to not stand on the rails. I don't think they mentioned sleepers at all.
We also hadn't been given any instruction on cess or 4 foot. I think we all trundled down the 4 foot to where we needed to be. I remember coming back that way and thinking "I need to move over soon, because there's point work ahead" and then doing quite a big step over the running rail and third rail.
I think I did have a bit of a slippery moment on one sleeper, but the ballast wasn't entire comfortable to walk on either.
I think all in all, it is an experience I am happy to have only needed to do once, and am not in a hurry to repeat
We also hadn't been given any instruction on cess or 4 foot. I think we all trundled down the 4 foot to where we needed to be. I remember coming back that way and thinking "I need to move over soon, because there's point work ahead" and then doing quite a big step over the running rail and third rail.
I think I did have a bit of a slippery moment on one sleeper, but the ballast wasn't entire comfortable to walk on either.
I think all in all, it is an experience I am happy to have only needed to do once, and am not in a hurry to repeat
edwin_m
Veteran Member
The same applies to walking in the fourfoot if stepping from one section of ballast to the next. If I recall correctly it's too short for a normal step but trying to step over two sleepers would be too far. This is one reason why the cess is safer, but only if a clear cess exists.
You need to be looking down when walking on the track. At one time patrollers would do this on live track, but these days it would be very unusual to be on a track when trains are running.
Presumably your tiled floor doesn't have 2 bits of iron sticking out of the floor that could crack your head open if you fell on it!
Do safety boots give better grip than walking shoes or boots?
When I was told to walk down the line that was the only instruction I got! It was about 40 years ago.
Peter Sarf
Established Member
Yes I think sleeper to sleeper is too short a step for my long legs but skipping two sleepers is too far. The cess makes more sense as does not interfere with ones walking rhythm except if there are too many obstructions there.
ABB125
Established Member
I imagine that some decent safety boots might give better grip than walking boots (and vice versa). But I don't think a generic statement could be made to that effect...
(Anecdote alert) I once did a weekend of walking in the Peak District in (really cheap) steel toes rather than walking boots because I picked up the wrong pair. I had no issues. Other experiences may vary.
Annetts key
Established Member
Yeah, I was told similar, don't walk on the rails, sleepers or ballast, and don't walk on the troughing. I so wanted to say, what, am I suppose to (insert appropriate coloured language) fly then...!
In the good old days of BR, along some lines, there were the remains of the cess path. This was a fine gravel rather than ballast sized stones (the old guys told me they were once so good you could ride the company supplied bicycles on them). And by far, was the best and easiest place to walk. The trouble was, it was rare for the railway to maintain them apart from along published walking routes (mostly along or near depots). They often got covered in spent ballast, earth from the sides of the cutting or old/new sleepers, rails and other items were left on them. Or some contractor would lay a new SCT route on top of the path because that was easier than digging a trench to put the SCT in (the lids of the SCT are or were supposed to be level with the surface of a path).
If the line was re-laid (or ballast "cleaned") using modern ballast machines that normally meant the path was toast.
Side note: during some works these days, there is a requirement to provide a cess path, so in some places they are making a comeback.
Where there was no cess path or it was overgrown, in practice, if the troughing route (officially surface concrete troughing - SCT) if actually concrete, in good condition and free of overgrowth was my preferred place to walk.
If having to walk along the four foot, and the sleepers were concrete with the tops clear of ballast and they were not slippery with moss or whatever, that's where I walked.
Otherwise I used to walk along on the ballast. If in the four foot trying to make sure I stepped on the ballast between sleepers and not on the ballast that was on top of sleepers. As loose ballast was just as deadly as a slippery sleeper.
Officially called SCT where I worked - see above.
We used to get ear ache from the cleaner when we trampled dirt, oil or grease in...
As well as wooden sleepers being slippery or having excessive tar on them, the other problem was that as they rotted, many did so from the inside leaving them normal looking normal. Until you stepped on them, then the now very thin bit of good wood on the top would give way dropping your foot into the rotten core and maybe tripping you up in process... For some reason, these sleepers rotted more in the middle than the area under the chairs.
BR tried various designs and types of troughing. By far the worst for walking on was the grey plastic type. That was extremely slippery when wet or worse, when it was icey. More than once I've taken a tumble. And over the years, the plastic became brittle, so the lid would give way under your weight.
The concrete type, the short length (half a metre in length I think) design doesn't have metal reinforced steel rods. So if either the lid or the U-shaped base cracks...
The longer type (all one metre in length) does have metal reinforcing. So broken bases (U -shaped) is less common. However, the edges of the lids don't have metal reinforcing. So a part of the edge of a lid can either already be damaged or missing, but with the lid looking normal until you step in it, you don't know... Or very occasionally it can break when you step in it.
Oh yes, especially if they spend a lot of time in the shade, like in cuttings.
Normal walking on them if the better concrete type does not cause damage. Most of the damage is done when the lids are not fitted correctly. Especially if whoever is doing it just drops them down instead of carefully lowering them. Or when they are tight, using brute force.
The railway supplied safety boots have varied in quality over the years, some bad good grip, others had very little...
The modern polymer type can cause you to build up a static electricity charge, which you get to know about when you then touch an earthed metal object (such as a metal fence)!
There have been various sleeper spacings used. Some of the older standards happen to be close to my natural stride. But the modern sleeper spacing for main lines are too close together for me. So I have to "quick step"...
Not always - see above. Also note that the safety boots required have to have a steel plate in the sole to protect your foot against shape things like nails... So the boot is less flexible.
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Parham Wood
Member
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- 13 Jun 2011
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In the 70s I did surveys which involved walking long distances along the track in West Wales, the Marches and some Welsh valleys. I preferred to walk in the cess where it existed and where is was still fine stone. However in many places the cess was either uncompacted ballast stones which were totally uneven and impossible to walk on or it had been taken over by the ballast shoulder so no cess at all. Walking in the four foot was the only option and it was rare that the ballast in the four foot was smooth enough to walk on, so sleepers it was with care. Yes you have to walk with shorter strides than normal. One technique was to step half on the ballast and half on the sleeper which stopped slipping. I would not liked to have walked in the four foot on third rail lines as getting out of the way of a train could involve stepping over the third rail rather promptly. Fortunately my only experiences of third rail was in South London where a good cess was maintained. I was never given any instruction about not stepping on sleepers, only about not stepping on rails or putting one's foot between the switch blades.
Not often of course, but once upon a time there was the Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway.....!