^As it happens, I was in London yesterday, and out of curiosity I took a minute to peek at the track around Florence and Highbury, which is right next to the road so accessible without going anyplace one shouldn't go.
I was mostly looking for stampings on the rail to indicate age etc. In fact, there weren't any real markings. Enough of the tieplates were dated 1955 that I would think that's a good indication of when things were last changed out..
I pretty much immediately noticed a substantial 'ding' in the rail. This particular rail had been shifted so the 'ding' was on the outside, so it's not a safety defect per se. But that, plus the level of wear on the rail tread, would tend to indicate that the rail is pretty close to end of life. Similarly, the ties were consistently worn and cracked.... no sign of any tie renewal in the past while. Note as well the yellow temporary speed restriction sign, which ran all the way up to Clarke and Oxford. Ballast looked clean, but not as deep as one would see on a heavier main line.
CN runs its track defect detector vehicle up this line fairly regularly, so I'm confident things are safe, for the speeds allowed. But this is not in the shape that one would want for an intercity passenger line. Whether ML intends to put money into the line right away or not, one can't expect a very attractive service to appear until the line gets a good rebuilding.
- Paul
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