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If you look into the subject of Track Workers it's quite a tricky one. Just last Christmas there was an uproar (not that that's anything new) about the substantial overruns of engineering work. Subsequent investigations showed that a significant number of people who were expected to form the track gangs just didn't show up, causing the carefully scheduled work to fall behind.
Given that the pay is relatively poor, the work hard, and it's the Xmas holidays...it's hardly surprising that a worker forsakes the offer he's had from NR and goes off to get better money on the door of the Blue Oyster Club - he won't break into a sweat and he might even 'pull'. That's the danger of casual labour - Casual is what you get !
I would imagine that the cost would be prohibitive of having an in-house workforce that was big enough to cover all the engineering projects (which always happen simultaneously during holidays).
I agree that there would be great benefits - When possessions aren't required these people could form track gangs and be responsible for their own stretch of track. Test Trains like the Yellow Banana check many criteria of the ride, but they don't check the Pandrol clips and they can't beat the Mark 1 eyeball.
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