£80,000 worth of metal track stolen from railway
 

Thieving Toe-Rags to say the least.

A lot of stuff to move around and a quote from this new link – “It's been done to order. They obviously wanted specific items and stepped over other items to get to them. We don't think it's for scrap”.

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/ne...ave.5214448.jp

Three things confuse me.

One, who would steal railway equipment to order in such an organised way? As far as I recall, the Mafia don't run many railways, and the only people with any practical use for any of this stuff outside of scrap value is Network Rail, a tramway, or another heritage railway.

Two, what sort of a plonker leaves anything in the open air when it's only insured for a fraction of it's value? Forgive me if this seems harsh, and perhaps there was no other alternative, but that's just horrid and without justice.

Thirdly, why would Network Rail stop producing things that are required to run a basic railway? At the very least, wouldn't the products they've stoped producing be replaced with an alternative that does the same job? I don't think they woke up one day and decided they don't need brace plates or signals anymore?

Perhaps I am just confused but it's 1+1+1 = 9 to me.

I wonder if any of it is traceable? This may be European stuff instead of UK sculpted fittings!!

The problem is that the Police expect that "honest scrapyard people" will tell them if someone tries to sell them this stuff.

Not so sure this kind of people exists!

It could possibly have been fittings for bullhead rail that were stolen?
Nowadays, I assume that Network Rail's suppliers only provide fittings for flat-bottom rail.