Railway stuff
 

Traveled on the train a few times the other week and was amazed how much steel rail lines are left along the rails - usually between the tracks.

Is this old stuff or new stuff waiting to be put in? If so why is it stored there and allowed to rust away, if its old stuff, why not just take it away

Also, what the little sliding gauge things that appear next to the rack at the base sections of the platform. They are present every 6 foot or so and have about 4 settings?

Just curious

The steel rails are brought onto site for a replacement programme when they can have a possession of the line, which is often when it's closed for something else. They may stay there for a while before being fitted, but would have been stored outside anyway.

The sliding gauge things are for cant and to measure track movement.

I did wonder once if there was a viable business model in clearing the railway of old junk. Some of it is clearly left for a very long time if not outright abandoned. Old rails, sleepers, tooling, cabinets and tunneling/conduits. There are often large foliage growing through some of this stuff showing it's very old.

They are supposed to clear it inside a decent timescale, since some of it has been used before by vandals to derail train etc.
Sadly, since the UK government tasked them with fencing it all off, making it harder for vandals to get to it, they have gone back to their old ways.

I found a 2" long piece of the East Coast Mainline at a level crossing in Ranskill, Notts, and spent time grinding the end flat, it is now used as a bookend.