scrap metal

[ess]

cable theives steal cable to sell as scrap metal and seem to make money out of it. meanwhile there's loads of junk metal around the network and i wonder whether it could make some £££. For example at the old langley oil depot there's rails and the bottom half of an old train or tanker or something. who owns this stuff and could money be made by selling it?

it would look tidier too if someone took the time to clear up after deserting a depot!

 

[causton]

I know, the amount of scrap rails left at the side of tracks...

Is all this scrap metal deemed not worth the cost of removal or do the people 'up there' simply not know it's there?

 

[142094]

Probably would cost too much time and effort to plan, take possession of the line if needed, bring in a train to remove it, sort it and get it sent to a processing yard. If it is sitting there it isn't costing Network Rail anything and can be removed at any time.

I'm not sure how often litter picking occurs on mainlines, but I guess removing scrap materials could be carried out at the same time.

 

[Bald Rick]

I know, the amount of scrap rails left at the side of tracks...

Is all this scrap metal deemed not worth the cost of removal or do the people 'up there' simply not know it's there?

Mostly the former. Also much of it isn't scrap, but spares. So hands off.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Not so long ago, I opened a thread on the Traction and Rolling Stock sub-forum called "Two abandoned hopper waggons."

Not in my wildest dreams did I expect a total of 100 postings on the subject concerning abandoned and defunct waggons from Penzance to the far north of Scotland, that will never run again.

How much scrap metal do you think is in all these waggons?

 

[Old Timer]

Lineside "railway scrap" is generated in one of three ways.

1) Excess rail and sleepers that have been created by track renewals. Generally the root cause of this is the poor specification of the works. Sleepers come in wagons with 56 sleepers per layer, a total of 168 per wagon. Network Rail are completely incapable of understanding that track renewals lengths really need to be based in proportion so that there are NO spare sleepers. If a few spares are required then they can be carried in Bass wagons.

Once the wagon loading is disturbed, then unused layers need to be re-strapped - a loading job for which TRC staff are not certificated, and DBS loading inspectors will not deal with. Because they in effect cannot be re-secured they have to be off-loaded to the trackside and in theory recovered at a later stage. Of course this nevers happens because NR is always on a mission to "save" money and will not pay the costs of recovery.

A similar situation happens with rail where there is a reluctance to reduce the length of LWR from the normal length, thus the excess has to be cut, and at that stage there are no trains on site into which the rails can be loaded.

Lengths of LWR can also be seen where a job has been reduced in length or cancelled. This generally happens when the TOCs demand to run late trains thus preventing the full job being carried out. There is no "sensible" criteria against which running a late train is decided thus a train with only one or two people on can cost tens of £0,000s simply because the TOC insist on running the train when it would be cheaper to give everyone a taxi home, and indeed a free annual season ticket to those punters in some cases !

2) Some lengths of renewals rail are left as "maintenance spares" to replace defective rails. They can give the impression of being scrap, and at some point they will become scrap, but in the meantime they provide a local supply of short rail for dealing with rail defects.

3) Scrap is generated by the Maintainer when he carries out piecemeal renewals and replacements, however there is no money or time allowed for him to collect his rubbish, thus it gets left there. Tne recovery of scrap generated from maitenance is probably at the bottom of the Maintainer's interests in all honesty.

 

[Hydro]

3) Scrap is generated by the Maintainer when he carries out piecemeal renewals and replacements, however there is no money or time allowed for him to collect his rubbish, thus it gets left there. Tne recovery of scrap generated from maitenance is probably at the bottom of the Maintainer's interests in all honesty.

Re-railing sites generated the worst amounts, as you had the old rail strings plus ballast bags of old pads and nylons. There was no time at all to pick it all up after the job, but at least it was tidied into bags. The area I used to work on got quite good at scrap recovery, with the ballast bags being dropped at vehicle access points and sending the Hiab flatbed down to pick them up. Old rail was trickier, as you needed a T3, a couple of RRV's (one to crop, one to load) and a scrap train. That tended to hang around a bit longer due to resources being directed to more pressing maintenance issues. It got done eventually though. When I first started there there was incredible amounts of scrap all over the area, with nearly 60 tonnes of old rail in one location alone. Over a couple of years it all got tidied up as and when resources allowed.

The policy on spares was 60ft of 113A at every milepost on the mainline, with a small stock of 60E1 and 2 at the couple of areas it was installed. Spares are vital, I won't forget the time Ultrasonics picked up a bad railhead defect which required replacement in 36hrs...in 110lb FB. Try finding 30ft of that lying around. Some was eventually found but it was miles away at the other end of the block.

l

 

[The Snap]

cable theives steal cable to sell as scrap metal and seem to make money out of it. meanwhile there's loads of junk metal around the network and i wonder whether it could make some £££. For example at the old langley oil depot there's rails and the bottom half of an old train or tanker or something. who owns this stuff and could money be made by selling it?

it would look tidier too if someone took the time to clear up after deserting a depot!

Cable thieves steal cable because it’s relatively easy to take from troughing. Rail (of length) is substantially more difficult to steal; you'd need a flatbed truck or similar, and probably some kind of lifting gear.

Plus, I believe many scrap merchants are wary of accepting rail because it is only allowed to be delivered by specified carriers (ie: hauliers on behalf of Network Rail) who must have full certification and legal documents to prove it’s all above board. Don't get me wrong I'm sure there are some who'll take it, but I believe there are more stringent regulations and punishments on scrapping rail these days?