Lineside litter, debris and detritus

[Christmas]

I recall reading on this forum some time ago that Network Rail were embarking on a programme of clearing old rails, sleepers and other rubbish left behind after engineering works.

Just looking around the network from any train reveals just how much junk is left lying around, it must run into thousands of tons. Quite apart from the eyesore that it creates, it's also bad for wildlife. I think that whilst engineering works are taking place that in each gang there should be a designated person who is responsible for not only clearing the site after works but also clearing out litter and other rubbish that finds itself on the railway.

Even this small start would go a long way to improving the appearance of our lines. Did Network Rail begin the programme of clearing scrap?

 

[AndyHudds]

Just outside Morley station, there most be 20 big bags of ballast or whatever is in them that have been there 15 years, untouched and unused, what a waste. They have been there so long that nature has taken over them. I wonder if they'll be removed and used whilst the replacement station is under construction, they haven't as yet.

 

[Amlag]

Just outside Morley station, there most be 20 big bags of ballast or whatever is in them that have been there 15 years, untouched and unused, what a waste. They have been there so long that nature has taken over them. I wonder if they'll be removed and used whilst the replacement station is under construction, they haven't as yet.

There are many thousands of dumpy bags of ballast lying all over the national Rail Network, a very high number are left over for years from jobs where often the amount of ballast needed for a particular job was misjudged / over ordered. These dumpy bags have a limited life before they start to degrade and they just get ‘forgotten‘ and the contents wasted and the bags left to litter the lineside.
Invariably the bags of ballast are taken, not by rail, but by large lorries, often over long distances, to a lineside access point, unloaded, and then taken by road railers with trailers to site where the ballast is planned to be used.
The system of using dumpy bags of ballast has resulted in increasingly expensive ballast far too often being wasted, compared to rail based transport throughout from quarries to work sites which was the standard procedure until the Rail Privatization in 1994 and the gradual implementation of outsourcing of Contractors, labour and materials for infrastructure works.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Yes. I have wondered at those single use one tonne (ish) bags sat there for years. I suspect they are single use because my builders merchant will not take them back as they are not allowed to re-use them. So they are just a plastic waste booby trap.

I see abandoned lengths of rails getting buried in ballast. I see embankments where the top of the embankment is higher than the rails due to discarded ballast overgrown with weeds and bushes. I wonder what the effect at the foot of the embankment is - is someones fence getting knocked over or their garden invaded.

But when I read the thread title I thought of those patches of domestic waste piled up on the railway side of the fence. I see big piles of various rubbish (prams/mattresses/fridges etc) that the bin collectors will not take just outside some peoples gardens. So its obvious who is dumping - an obvious place for a temporary camera, just leave it there for six months and then charge the person in the pics for ALL the rubbish.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Yes. I have wondered at those single use one tonne (ish) bags sat there for years. I suspect they are single use because my builders merchant will not take them back as they are not allowed to re-use them. So they are just a plastic waste booby trap.

I see abandoned lengths of rails getting buried in ballast. I see embankments where the top of the embankment is higher than the rails due to discarded ballast overgrown with weeds and bushes. I wonder what the effect at the foot of the embankment is - is someones fence getting knocked over or their garden invaded.

But when I read the thread title I thought of those patches of domestic waste piled up on the railway side of the fence. I see big piles of various rubbish (prams/mattresses/fridges etc) that the bin collectors will not take just outside some peoples gardens. So its obvious who is dumping - an obvious place for a temporary camera, just leave it there for six months and then charge the person in the pics for ALL the rubbish.

Regarding the bags, I'm guessing one use is indeed the case. I was sat at a station the other day waiting time and was watching some workers on a closed road in the adjacent depot. They were laying ballast by suspending the bag from the arm of a road rail vehicle, which was being driven slowly distributing the ballast after a worker had pierced the bottom of the bag several times with their shovel. Once they'd laid what they needed, the bag would be removed and crane pick another up from the flat bed wagon of bags coupled to it, and repeat.

Regarding the domestic waste, this has become even more so apparent on my patch where large scale tree cutting has been taking place. Where people had launched them over their fence into what was decades worth of thick undergrowth, it has all now been trimmed around and revealed for all to see.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Regarding the bags, I'm guessing one use is indeed the case. I was sat at a station the other day waiting time and was watching some workers on a closed road in the adjacent depot. They were laying ballast by suspending the bag from the arm of a road rail vehicle, which was being driven slowly distributing the ballast after a worker had pierced the bottom of the bag several times with their shovel. Once they'd laid what they needed, the bag would be removed and crane pick another up from the flat bed wagon of bags coupled to it, and repeat.

Regarding the domestic waste, this has become even more so apparent on my patch where large scale tree cutting has been taking place. Where people had launched them over their fence into what was decades worth of thick undergrowth, it has all now been trimmed around and revealed for all to see.

Gosh, of course, the managing of the vegetation has probably revealed what others thought they had hidden. Makes for a dangerous job if you have to cut bushes growing out of or through old metal and glass etc etc.

 

[Annetts key]

Yes, Network Rail has from time to time had tidy up programmes. But unfortunately, soon other higher priority engineering works knocks these out. And then, more used / new / other peoples stuff starts collecting again…

Even when the contract for works includes removing redundant equipment, because apparently no one on Network Rail are responsible for doing site visits to check, the contractors often get away with not doing a very good job. Leaving tripping hazards for staff for years to come.

 

[D821]

For about 10 years, there used to be a dinner plate sat on the embankment next to the Liverpool-bound line at Birkenhead Park station.
It always used to make me smile when I saw it; I used to wonder who brought a dinner plate to the station and how they managed to launch it across the track and land it unbroken on the other side.

 

[Meerkat]

Anywhere where it is obvious that a homeowner is chucking stuff over the fence NR should erect the ugliest high fencing they can find.

 

[D821]

Anywhere where it is obvious that a homeowner is chucking stuff over the fence NR should erect the ugliest high fencing they can find.

All of Birkenhead.
I expect the Wirral line I'll be getting a trackside clean soon with the Open coming to the Royal Liverpool.