Having just returned from a trip to Britain and France, travelling by
rail in both countries, I was once again struck by the generally tidy
appearance of the railways in France (and on the continent generally)
compared with Britain. Apart from the ubiquitous litter and junk on the
right-of-way in Britain, there appears also to be a considerable amount
of engineering debris left on the lineside---odd pieces of rusty rail,
tangled cables not stowed in their concrete culverts, unused sidings
disappearing into thick undergrowth, disintegrating old rolling stock
etc.  Who is responsible for this mess? Even as scrap metal, this
superfluous material must be worth something.

> Having just returned from a trip to Britain and France, travelling by
 > rail in both countries, I was once again struck by the generally tidy
 > appearance of the railways in France (and on the continent generally)
 > compared with Britain. Apart from the ubiquitous litter and junk on the
 > right-of-way in Britain, there appears also to be a considerable amount
 > of engineering debris left on the lineside---odd pieces of rusty rail,
 > tangled cables not stowed in their concrete culverts, unused sidings
 > disappearing into thick undergrowth, disintegrating old rolling stock
 > etc.  Who is responsible for this mess? Even as scrap metal, this
 > superfluous material must be worth something.



Network Rail..............who can't even follow their own self imposed 
rules that state any lengths of removed rail left adjacent to a running 
line must be at least 6 metres in length in order that they can't be 
moved manually [by the local vandals] !

Mark F


BTW  What disintegrating rolling stock did you see [and where?] as it 
may be a candidate for preservation?

In message <tFLQe.2561$Ys5.2141@newsfe7-gui.ntli.net>, at 22:06:17 on 
Mon, 29 Aug 2005, mark  remarked:

>What disintegrating rolling stock did you see [and where?] as it may be 
>a candidate for preservation?


There's a row of tankers (and a few other assorted items) at Cambridge 
station. North of Peterborough station there's so much old and battered 
stock lying around it's difficult to know what's abandoned, and what's 
just old and battered stock lying around north of Peterborough station.
-- 
Roland Perry

"John"  wrote:


>Having just returned from a trip to Britain and France, travelling by
>rail in both countries, I was once again struck by the generally tidy
>appearance of the railways in France (and on the continent generally)
>compared with Britain. Apart from the ubiquitous litter and junk on the
>right-of-way in Britain, there appears also to be a considerable amount
>of engineering debris left on the lineside---odd pieces of rusty rail,
>tangled cables not stowed in their concrete culverts, unused sidings
>disappearing into thick undergrowth, disintegrating old rolling stock
>etc.  Who is responsible for this mess? Even as scrap metal, this
>superfluous material must be worth something.



I blame Virgin.  They started all this with their tiolet problems.

;-)

Roland Perry wrote:

> North of Peterborough station there's so much old and battered 
> stock lying around 


Some WAGN 317s stabled ready for peak working? :-p

In message <43144b2e$0$1293$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>, at 
13:04:01 on Mon, 29 Aug 2005, Darren  remarked:

>> North of Peterborough station there's so much old and battered  stock 
>>lying around
>
>Some WAGN 317s stabled ready for peak working? :-p


No, the EMU sidings are all south of the station; the stuff to the north 
is old diesel engines, snowploughs, assorted other non-passenger stuff.
-- 
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry"  wrote in message 
news:caEM4shLCFFDFA85@donald.internetpolicynews.co.uk...

> In message <43144b2e$0$1293$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>, at 
> 13:04:01 on Mon, 29 Aug 2005, Darren  remarked:
>>> North of Peterborough station there's so much old and battered  stock 
>>> lying around
>>
>>Some WAGN 317s stabled ready for peak working? :-p
>
> No, the EMU sidings are all south of the station; the stuff to the north 
> is old diesel engines, snowploughs, assorted other non-passenger stuff.


The snowploughs (ex Class-40 bogies IIRC) are still 'in use' and two of the 
locomotives, former Gatwick Express 73s, belong to GBRf.

-- 
*** http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/ ***
Rich Mackin (rich-at-richmackin-co-uk)
MSN: richmackin-at-hotmail-dot-com

In message <bb_Qe.2266$w4.97@newsfe5-win.ntli.net>, at 14:37:59 on Tue, 
30 Aug 2005, Rich Mackin  remarked:

>The snowploughs (ex Class-40 bogies IIRC) are still 'in use' and two of the
>locomotives, former Gatwick Express 73s, belong to GBRf.


So it's OK if the debris "belongs" to someone??
-- 
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry"  wrote in message 
news:vL1QsIvOYHFDFAa9@donald.internetpolicynews.co.uk...

> In message <bb_Qe.2266$w4.97@newsfe5-win.ntli.net>, at 14:37:59 on Tue, 30 
> Aug 2005, Rich Mackin  remarked:
>>The snowploughs (ex Class-40 bogies IIRC) are still 'in use' and two of 
>>the
>>locomotives, former Gatwick Express 73s, belong to GBRf.
>
> So it's OK if the debris "belongs" to someone??


I'd hardly call two stored locomotives and the snowploughs 'debris' - this 
is not what the OP was referring to.

-- 
*** http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/ ***
Rich Mackin (rich-at-richmackin-co-uk)
MSN: richmackin-at-hotmail-dot-com

I'm fed up with all the surplus crap (bits of rail, rail fixings, old oil 
drums etc.) lying by the side of running lines, particularly when I have to 
walk lineside within falling distance of a 750V rail! One trip in the wrong 
direction and it's good night Vienna. Apart from being a severe tripping 
hazard, it is unsightly and a ready supply of weaponry to the local punks. 
Mind, I was amazed to see recently where some guys had been cutting back the 
trees from the lineside, they'd laid out the cut branches in neat lines and 
secured them together with staples and thick guage wire. No doubt an attempt 
to prevent the pondlife lobbing branches onto the track and / or passing 
trains.

Mind you to really see how to dump crap properly I suggest you look in the 
roof void of any station building that has been rewired!

Paul

> Mind you to really see how to dump crap properly I suggest you look in the 
> roof void of any station building that has been rewired!


Recently removed 14 plastic sacks of rubbish from above the false 
ceiling of a ticket office which is nothing unusual even though it was 
only renovated 5 years ago....................a little disturbing to 
find 43 [yes we counted them] empty whisky bottles amongst the trash. 
The suspected consumer of the 'beverage' is no longer employed by us 
thankfully.

Mark F