Ooops! TOO Light!!!

[BroadScot]

Its that time of year!   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-34797519

Iain.

[Chelsea14Ian]

Its great along with wrong kind of Rain/Snow,to hot etc etc.On Fridays watching Ice road truckers weather don't stop them.-40 thats t-shirt weather.

 

 

Ian

[stumpy]

It's been fun here watching the local Facebook pages go into meltdown - apparently the busses are as much use as a chocolate teapot and can't go to Westerfield (one of the stops on the Ipswich - Felixstowe route) as there's no room for them to turn round! You really couldn't make it up!

[grendel]

I was watching the program about the trains, and the only effective snowplough, with over 3 million miles on the clock, dating from 1960

[jeffbroadslover]

I cannot understand why, in this modern world, if since the introduction of a 5p charge, supermarkets can supply a carrier bag that rips as soon as you put something in it, why can't Network Rail develop a tree with leaves that disintegrate on contact with a metal rail.  !         Problem solved !

Jeff 

[Baitrunner]

I heard slippery rails last week had caused delays on a line somewhere in the country. 

I thought they had fitted blower tubes to the trains just in front of the lead wheels to blow the leaves clear. Must be cheaper than repairing a set of train wheels?

[JawsOrca]

A radio station down here has been doing a daily update on this (and has been seriously taking the you know what).. One day it was "They can't find enough trains" yesterdays one was "They found the trains but they are the wrong ones".. guess this is what they mean.. surely every autumn is the same? The same tree's shed their leaves unless it's such a short window of problems and as there's hardly any routes it just not worth the hassle.

 

[TheQ]

No,    locomotives or Diesel Multiple Units, have never been fitted with a blowers, they are fitted with sand tubes. that is when a locomotive or DMU has wheel slip, sand is released to enable them to regain grip. However Steam locos has  wheels generally between 4 and 6 feet in diameter. whereas a DMU they are around 3 ft in diameter, so a lot more spin has happened before regaining grip hence the damage.

 A DMU driving carriage weighs around 30 tons

 A steam loco of the type that would have pulled equivalent amount of carriages may have weighed 60 tons

[Baitrunner]

Maybe they should fit blowers then?

it is funny how a little old leaf can stop a 30 ton train. Gonna get some on the car for the next MOT 

[Hockham Admiral]

Why on Earth don't AGA use the DRS Type 47's for the first run of the day? They weigh in between 115 and 125 TONS each and would surely flatten out any leaves!

http://www.directrailservices.com/news-articles/2014/08/12/drs-hauls-passenger-service-for-abellio-greater-anglia/

[BroadScot]

38 minutes ago, Hockham Admiral said:

Why on Earth don't AGA use the DRS Type 47's for the first run of the day? They weigh in between 115 and 125 TONS each and would surely flatten out any leaves!

http://www.directrailservices.com/news-articles/2014/08/12/drs-hauls-passenger-service-for-abellio-greater-anglia/

Because that WOULD be too sensible John!  I totally agree with your thoughts. 

 

Iain.

[grendel]

I think the flattening of the leaves to mush is part of the problem - its slippery mush

[BrundallNavy]

The main problem is Network Rail use to use a product called sandite, a mixture between sand and wall paper paste and was quite effective at breaking down the leaf mulch. Now they only use high pressure water to clean the rail head the problem comes when the wind blows the leaves back onto the rail nothing can then break it down it just get squashed more and more into a slippery slime.

It's been a nation wide problem this year with the smaller branch lines with lots of trees on route sufferering the most. High winds have also compounded the problem with most of the trees loosing the leaves  a lot quicker this year.

i just have to change the wheels and carry out the checks instead of supping tea !!!

Doug.

[jeffbroadslover]

Maybe another answer is to change from Michelin to Goodyear !

 

Jeff