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Lineside Vegetation - past, present, and future

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randyrippley

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They are not telling people to tie them down. They don't have the power to direct. They are ADVISING people to do so.




OK. Lets try and look at this rationally. To cut the buddliea off a bridge you are going to need to talk possession of the railway ( that is close it to traffic), turn off the electrics, erect suitable access towers, kit out the blokes with the right safety gear, safely do the gardening, perhaps patch up any damage, then clean up and dismount everything and get clear of the track to reopen on schedule. You are going to remove one plant per night!

For somewhere like the Neville Hill cutting you are possibly going to have to abseil to access some of the plants. Piece of cake that. Everyone is trained to do that.


Goats, they're the answer
Put an animal fence alongside the track and let goats browse the embankment and cuttings between the two fences.
Should keep any cuttings and embankments clear, and no need to give the goats safety gear
 
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Peter C

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What harm? What inconvenience?
Please see @alxndr 's post.
One problem with excessive vegetation that never seems to get brought up is access and safety. It's not unheard of to have to stop work due to there being simply no way of getting down the cess thanks to thick brambles, nettles, buddleia and bushes.

It's becoming increasingly common to have to get a line blockage "for walking purposes only". That's more strain on the signallers, more time lost, and is a massive pain when you need to get back but something more urgent is demanding the signaller's attention and you're left there for an hour or so essentially trapped by the vegetation. That's when people face the temptation to take stupid risks they wouldn't otherwise dream of.
 

hwl

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Do Network Rail have access to maps which show which railway lines are at greatest risk from high winds and potential tree fall, and if so, is there any way they could focus on those sections of line for hard pruning/felling of trees which present a hazard?

If such maps don't exist, would they potentially be of any use if they did?
Not just treefall but leaf fall and hence low adhesion too.

They have far more than just a simple map, full gis with Lidar overlay, tree species and all sort of risk management attributes.
 

DarloRich

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Goats, they're the answer
Put an animal fence alongside the track and let goats browse the embankment and cuttings between the two fences.
Should keep any cuttings and embankments clear, and no need to give the goats safety gear

I have often thought the same tbh! I THINK there is a site on the ecml near Peterborough where something like that has been tried. Sure I have sheep v close to the line in a double fenced enclosure
 

alistairlees

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Yesterday I saw, when leaving Victoria on a diverted southeastern train, several trees just after Brixton where the tree trunks were between the track and a retaining wall which was a couple of feet perhaps from the sides of the coach. In other words, in a two foot gap, and perhaps only one foot from the coach body side, there were trees (about 20feet high). They were basically growing in the ballast shoulder. I wasn’t quick enough to take an image. Our train scraped through many buddleia too. This must be a low priority route or something?
 

vlad

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Goats, they're the answer
Put an animal fence alongside the track and let goats browse the embankment and cuttings between the two fences.
Should keep any cuttings and embankments clear, and no need to give the goats safety gear

I've been on (preserved railway) trains that have had to stop due to sheep on the line. Is that part of the same solution? :smile:
 

DVD

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Yesterday I saw, when leaving Victoria on a diverted southeastern train, several trees just after Brixton where the tree trunks were between the track and a retaining wall which was a couple of feet perhaps from the sides of the coach. In other words, in a two foot gap, and perhaps only one foot from the coach body side, there were trees (about 20feet high). They were basically growing in the ballast shoulder. I wasn’t quick enough to take an image. Our train scraped through many buddleia too. This must be a low priority route or something?

Much of the South London line, especially in the Brixton area, is in a shocking state in terms of excessive plant and tree growth, both alongside the trackbed and along the viaducts. There is one particular tree (perhaps the one spotted by Alistair) which always grabs my attention. It is indeed growing in the ballast, the trunk looks to be perhaps six inches diameter, the tree is maybe eight to ten feet tall, it looks to be within a foot of the rail. It must have been growing undisturbed for several years.

More worrying is the buddleia in that area where the lines are all on viaducts. I know buddleia is fast growing but those plants have been there for many years and will surely eventually lead to significant structural damage. I appreciate all the obstacles to removing plants from the sides of viaducts but this stretch of line must be one of the worst examples anywhere.

Whenever this subject crops up I think of the tree at St John's. This tree was growing in the trackbed ballast between the fast and slow lines near St John's station near the Tanners Hill flyover. One weekend engineering works saw much of the adjoining track replaced. But the tree was left in place. Five minutes with a hand saw is all that would have been needed to remove it at least down to ballast level. It did eventually go.
 

Railwaysceptic

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More worrying is the buddleia in that area where the lines are all on viaducts. I know buddleia is fast growing but those plants have been there for many years and will surely eventually lead to significant structural damage. I appreciate all the obstacles to removing plants from the sides of viaducts but this stretch of line must be one of the worst examples anywhere.

It's not only on the South London Line. Railway brickwork all over London has vegetation sprouting from it. I assume at some stage Network Rail will spend vast sums repairing damaged structures; expenditure which could be reduced if they acted now.
 
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