Working close to railway track

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Urban monkey

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I'm looking for a bit of advice if anyone can help. I've got to put a scaffold up next week on a house in London. The trouble is that the house is only 3m away from the railway boundary wall. The scaffold will be 6m high. Now I'm sure I have read somewhere that you can't put scaffold up within a set distance of the track without permission even though it's on private property. Can anyone confirm this. I don't want to risk a big fine just to make a few quid. I'm probably worrying for nothing but any info would be appreciated..
 
If the scaffold is higher than the distance from the line then you need clearance from railtrack to erect the scaffold. If you are unsure then ring raiktrack stating your intentions and they'll give you the best advise.
 
Think you have to be 1.5 times height away from tracks...
 
Close to the track

If the scaffold has the potential to harm, persons, the rail or traffic, then a form 2& 3 design must be obtained ( i.e. Bespoke design submitted to and approved by network rail)
 
Try peeing on the line from the top lift. If your bell end doesn't short circuit, you are in the 'safe zone'.
 
Think its 3 m away mate done a job (possesion) on the tracks and the face of the scaffold had to be 1.5m away from the track, during normal shift ie trains still going past we wasn't allowed within 3m of track so you should just be ok fella

However we were puting up a birdcage only 2 lifts but boomer may have a point if u can double check with NR, better safe than sorry UM ;)
 
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They want to do a site visit with me providing Risk assessment and method statement to them. They said a 6m high scaffold would require a site visit if within 10m of the track. It's becoming a headache cos I scaffold during the day and do everything else after work. Means I'm gonna have to have a day off to meet them cos it's 40 miles from me yard. Might not be worth it now. Thanks for the info tho cos I was tempted just to put it up.
 
When you meet the network rail guy he will give you pages and pages of paperwork
called BAPA forms (google network rail BAPA) the cost we had was £8K for one job and £10K for another, your design which they will insist on will have to be checked by a third party and then sent to Network rail to verify, this can take 4 to 5 months to get the final ok, your insurance company will have to be informed as if an incident occurs you could be liable for every minute the line is out of action and its thousand's of pounds per minute.
We are in the South West and it could be differant in your location but I doubt it,
Leave well alone is my thoughts
 
Urban monkey said:
I'm looking for a bit of advice if anyone can help. I've got to put a scaffold up next week on a house in London. The trouble is that the house is only 3m away from the railway boundary wall. The scaffold will be 6m high. Now I'm sure I have read somewhere that you can't put scaffold up within a set distance of the track without permission even though it's on private property. Can anyone confirm this. I don't want to risk a big fine just to make a few quid. I'm probably worrying for nothing but any info would be appreciated..
Click to expand...

I was on a railway job for bam nuttell last year n there was a scaffold on either side of a live track for a new bridge crossing it. I'm sure the jobs were to be no closer than 3m to track (all tubes flush etc) so if your job is 3m from the boundary fence/wall then you must further from the track?

I could be wrong, but that's how I remember it.
 
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