Network Rail timber

[harrythecat178]

I travelled from Cardiff to Newport on the train yesterday and saw several gangs at work trimming back lineside trees on flat ground using chainsaws and tracked chippers. On the areas they had finished, there were regular piles of 3 foot lengths of 6-8 inch timber, about 12 lengths in a stack and were banded using pallet banding. These stacks have been there for a good few weeks.

What happens to these stacks, are they loaded by grab once the total job is complete ? It seems a lot of work to cut them so short and band them. Would the contractor then dispose of the wood as he saw fit?

Once we had gone through the tunnel, and were heading for Bristol, I saw other areas that had been cut back some years ago and the firewood sized wood appears to have been just left there

Do I assume that each job specifies a different way to leave the larger diameter wood

[openspaceman]

I travelled from Cardiff to Newport on the train yesterday and saw several gangs at work trimming back lineside trees on flat ground using chainsaws and tracked chippers. On the areas they had finished, there were regular piles of 3 foot lengths of 6-8 inch timber, about 12 lengths in a stack and were banded using pallet banding. These stacks have been there for a good few weeks.

What happens to these stacks, are they loaded by grab once the total job is complete ? It seems a lot of work to cut them so short and band them. Would the contractor then dispose of the wood as he saw fit?

Once we had gone through the tunnel, and were heading for Bristol, I saw other areas that had been cut back some years ago and the firewood sized wood appears to have been just left there

Do I assume that each job specifies a different way to leave the larger diameter wood

 

Once they are cut, stacked and banded they probably stay till they rot. The reason for banding is to prevent them being thrown onto the line.

 

It is seldom possible to get stuff off track in a normal possession but occasionally a Road Rail Vehicle and trailer can take material out to an access point. I have loaded a train of 8 wagons, with an engine at each end, with whole trees loaded in 20 ft lengths in the past but with a max speed of 4mph in the worksite and 18mph for the rest of the possession it's very pedestrian.

 

More normally for work done in normal running the adjacent landowner will be asked if he would like to dispose of the arisings.

 

When access from adjacent land is negotiated harvesters will operate over the fence but it's amazingly difficult to organise as many adjacent landowners are not enamoured with the railway from past experience, so hand cutting, stacking, banding and rashing up become the order of the day.

 

As you may imagine this makes subsequent access and working more difficult.

[harrythecat178]

Seems a waste of good firewood to me, but I understand the logic, thanks for explanation

[hamdogg]

Once they are cut, stacked and banded they probably stay till they rot. The reason for banding is to prevent them being thrown onto the line.

 

 

 

It is seldom possible to get stuff off track in a normal possession but occasionally a Road Rail Vehicle and trailer can take material out to an access point. I have loaded a train of 8 wagons, with an engine at each end, with whole trees loaded in 20 ft lengths in the past but with a max speed of 4mph in the worksite and 18mph for the rest of the possession it's very pedestrian.

 

 

 

More normally for work done in normal running the adjacent landowner will be asked if he would like to dispose of the arisings.

 

 

 

When access from adjacent land is negotiated harvesters will operate over the fence but it's amazingly difficult to organise as many adjacent landowners are not enamoured with the railway from past experience, so hand cutting, stacking, banding and rashing up become the order of the day.

 

 

 

As you may imagine this makes subsequent access and working more difficult.

 

 

What he said!! I were on a night shift on rail last night, we basically chip as much as the chipper will take!! Saves messing around with timber

[openspaceman]

What he said!! I were on a night shift on rail last night, we basically chip as much as the chipper will take!! Saves messing around with timber

 

Pretty difficult to get a chipper to a worksite in normal running nowadays. Did you have to have a RRV on hand to transport the chipper?

 

10 years ago you could track a chipper down the cess/4ft, get 4 or 5 blokes to lift a whole sycamore butt end onto the chipper and track forward spewing the whole tree back beyond the cess, 13" and down gone in minutes without being further touched by hand.

 

Now ALO makes working within 7 metres next to impossible during normal running.

[bluebedouin]

It's an age old law that they have to be left for steam trains.If the coal was getting low they could then stop at the stacks & take them on for fuel.Obviously,as there are very few steam trains these days,they're just left to rot.

Edited January 11, 2016 by bluebedouin

[Joel77]

We call them ECO PILES on London Underground, same as already said we chip as much as poss and Eco the the rest, last job we had apron 20 tonne of hard wood we had to move off the embankment and dumped it next to an acsess gate but left it on site as it would cost to much to move it

[hamdogg]

Pretty difficult to get a chipper to a worksite in normal running nowadays. Did you have to have a RRV on hand to transport the chipper?

 

 

 

10 years ago you could track a chipper down the cess/4ft, get 4 or 5 blokes to lift a whole sycamore butt end onto the chipper and track forward spewing the whole tree back beyond the cess, 13" and down gone in minutes without being further touched by hand.

 

 

 

Now ALO makes working within 7 metres next to impossible during normal running.

 

 

Well it was a Saturday night possession, so just drove the mog and chipper down the track on rail running gear 👍🏻

[treequip]

It's an age old law that they have to be left for steam trains.If the coal was getting low they could then stop at the stacks & take them on for fuel.Obviously,as there are very few steam trains these days,they're just left to rot.

 

There is a law that the people who owned the land and by default the timber on it have to leave the wood for themselves????? What law is that then

 

There is a whiff of urban myth bullshit about that

[openspaceman]

Well it was a Saturday night possession, so just drove the mog and chipper down the track on rail running gear 👍🏻

 

Nice, sounds a bit QTS