LEAF BUSTERS! Network Rail run RHTT (Rail Head Treatment Trains) across much of the UK rail network to clear leaves off the railhead during leaf-fall season. On the line past my house a pair of EWS class 66 locomotives top-and-tail a water cannon train every day except Sunday. This applies high pressure water jets to the rail head in specified places where leaves can cause poor traction. Today I photographed the train passing Ruskington on the UP (northbound) run. Jetting was in progress as it approached the station, water can be seen under the wagons.
Areas to spray are marked by countdown boards. Three stripes mean get ready, two marks mean start spraying, one mark means stop spraying. This is the stop spraying marker on the northbound track.
In the last picture, with the stop spraying marker, my house is about a quarter mile past that point. Yesterday after some light rain, trains were passing our house at about 20 mph, instead of the usual 50-60. You could hear them intermittently slipping, power reduced, then applied again, trying to get some traction. Very slippery rails. Several trains were running late. I wonder if they will now extend the treatment section.
It's always good to see you posting pics here alan. Most of us will never see these kinds of trains. Thanks as always.
Alan, I'm curios about the fate of "sandite" and its applicator car. Does Railtrack still using them or csrap them?
Network Rail has many water cannon/sandite trains running all over the rail system. This is the first time we have had one on our line, so I guess they are spreading. They are hauled by various companies, depending who won the contract for specific routes. Ours is obviously EWS, but many are run by DRS.
Thought I would try a video of the leafbuster passing Ruskington station. This is on YouTube - I tried to upload to Railimages, but could not get it to work [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGJrsITuDTQ"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]
They have extended the spraying area to past our house now. I waited outside in the rain waiting to video it this morning, but it did not come at the usual time (09.15), so I gave up. It just went past (09.37). Must try again (on a fine weather day).
Nice vid and pics Alan Shot another RHTT down in the Southampton area a couple of weeks ago, this one was in the form of an MPV (multi-purpose-vehicle) fitted with the tanks and spraying equipment - it wasn't spraying at this point.
Thanks Martyn, I just love the look of MPV's, even if some ignore them We do sometimes get one past our house, with various modules fitted. They look kind cool, as does some other engineers equipment.
Apparently New York City's Metro North has the same wet-leaf problem, but hasn't figured out how to deal with it yet.....:sad: This article was posted on today's Trains Magazine Newswire... Flat wheels cause car shortage and standing-room-only on Metro-North November 22, 2006 NEW YORK - Nearly one-third of the passenger cars on Metro-North's Harlem and Hudson commuter routes are out of service and won't all be available for at least 14 days, the Journal News newspaper reported. The reasons: weather and computers. Rain last week, combined with oily leaf residue on the tracks, caused the cars' wheels to slip. The trains' circuitry perceived slipping wheels as excessive speed and automatically applied the brakes, which caused the wheels to skid. This resulted, of course, in flat wheels Last week, "slip-slide" resulted in widespread train delays, and even after a weekend of wheel-truing by Metro-North at its carshops, 124 cars are out of service, the Journal News reported. The result has been standing-room-only conditions on trains serving the two lines. Metro-North can true the wheels of three cars a day at its New Haven yard, and six cars a day at the Harmon yard. That's nine cars a day, which means it will take nearly 14 days to get the 124 cars back in service, not taking into account other problems that take cars out of service. The railroad needs 392 cars to maintain full service on the Hudson and Harlem lines, spokesman Dan Brucker told the Journal News, and at the moment, the railroad is operating with 268 cars. Metro-North's newest cars, M-7s produced by Bombardier, are the ones with the most flat wheels. They operate in pairs, so if one car has flat wheels, two go out of service. To combat wheel slip, neighboring commuter railroad New Jersey Transit uses a $420,000 machine that blasts water at 20,000 pounds per square inch to clear the oily residue off the rails. It also runs a sand train ahead of rush hour trains to provide additional traction. The Long Island Rail Road is experiencing the same wheel slip problem and 20 percent of its fleet is out of service, railroad spokeswoman Susan McGowan told the Journal News.
The "leaves on the rails" problem made it into today's The Wall Street Journal as well. Very similar article to the one in the News Journal quoted above. :cat:
In spite of the daily water cannon train on our line, one of the single unit railcars passing our house has a flat wheel - easily heard as it passes. I guess it will eventually go for tyre turning.
Hey, Very simalar to our "aqua-train". We use only one engine,but we do use 2 tankers & the flat car with the controls.This time of year,its a regular job & on weekends its called off the extra board.
