Emergency ! Trains v Weather.

[Ian Hargrave]

Tonight,Tuesday ITV 8:00 pm main channels.

[Guest]

From the title, I thought this would be another Alaska Railroad type show... Sounds interesting though, and one for the Sky box to record I think. Stupid title though.

 

"This one-off documentary follows the army of engineers and maintenance teams who keep Britain's railways running through the worst winter weather. Every year, passengers grumble about delays on our rail system but spare little thought for the teams who work to prevent them. Using the latest technology and sheer old-fashioned graft, they tackle floods, hurricane force winds and tracks buried under six feet of snow - not to mention the annual blight of leaves on the line. With millions depending on the trains every day, the maintenance teams are the unsung heroes of the rail network, yet their contribution is invariably taken for granted."

[darrel]

Thanks I would not have spotted this it's not being shown on STV in Scotland but if you have sky you will find it on channel 973 if you don't have sky it should be on the ITV player

[PaulRhB]

If it's what I think it is it was filmed last year in an incredibly quiet period! Every time something happened they'd given up and gone home so I'm not expecting much action. They filmed all the MOM's and decided only one was really natural on camera.

[Torper]

STV will show the programme in Scotland on 1st December, 7.30pm.  Unfortunately, I cannot get ITV programmes on Catch Up with my new Panasonic Smart TV - if i lived in England, or the Scottish borders, I'd get ITV Player, but STV have exclusive Catch up rights in the STV area and, it seems, have not come to any suitable agreement with Panasonic.  STV really are rubbish.

 

DT

[eastwestdivide]

Saw this last night - not bad really. Some good shots from inside the cab of a 37 ploughing through snow, also the "million pound hair dryer" at work, not too much emphasis on passengers complaining, and it mostly concentrated on one subject at a time. Minor error in the 17500 horsepower diesel loco, but it kept my attention for an hour.

[PaulRhB]

Yes the Scottish bits particularly were good. Shame they didn't get a little more detail in on the Teflon like coating the MPV's jet off and why running water is such a problem on the Southern bit

[Jol Wilkinson]

Having recently experienced the efficiency of the Swiss Railways network - albeit not in the depths of winter - it makes one wonder why Network Rail is not better prepared for bad weather.

[Del]

I did get annoyed with the (admittedly short) section that focussed on the engineering issues last Christmas. It wasn't anything to do with the weather.

[Fat Controller]

Having recently experienced the efficiency of the Swiss Railways network - albeit not in the depths of winter - it makes one wonder why Network Rail is not better prepared for bad weather.

The Swiss, and other railways that have a 'Continental' climate, can be guaranteed a reasonable amount of snow in even a mild winter, and for a long period. Thus, it's easy to justify investment in large numbers of snow-ploughs and snow-blowers. This is much harder to do when there's a relatively low likelihood of any of the white stuff falling, as is the case in the majority of the UK. I recollect that, after a very hard winter in Kent during the 1980s, NSE bought an expensive self-propelled snowblower; it was never used in anger down here, and after about fifteen years, it was transferred to Scotland. It's not only the railways that behave like this; there are fewer dedicated gritters and ploughs for the roads in the South-East than the North or Scotland. When we lived in Northumbria, the County Councils had formal agreements with quarry owners and farmers to supplement the Authorities' vehicles with plough-fitted tractors and front-loaders.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Having recently experienced the efficiency of the Swiss Railways network - albeit not in the depths of winter - it makes one wonder why Network Rail is not better prepared for bad weather.

And to supplememt what Brian has posted; regarding the Southern UK's winter climate particularly, I am indebted to a sometime North American colleague for this insight.

 

"This isn't winter snow, this is a permanent thaw condition, and that's when we have all the accidents and travel disruption back at home."

 

That in response to one of the worst of the 1980s winters. It is not easy to deal with technically, when the stuff that falls as snow is typically cycling through significant melting and then refreezing for as long as it is around.

[PaulRhB]

Having recently experienced the efficiency of the Swiss Railways network - albeit not in the depths of winter - it makes one wonder why Network Rail is not better prepared for bad weather.

I suggest you watch the SBB online info in winter, it's not unusual to close lines for a few days due to land slips or snow. Last year the RhB closed the Albula and the Arosa lines a few times for days. They get the same moans from their public we just don't hear it. The Engadine tunnel was built partly because it provides a diversion route around the Albula pass

Many of the myths about European vs UK railways, due to the modern minimum spare resources policy, means many are completely out of date too.

Remember you only hear about what goes wrong not when the guys you saw on TV spend the night clearing lines and drains, blocked by debris from fallen trees, and we run a normal service.

We lost many of our diversionary routes in the Beeching cuts and modern max productivity policies means there aren't spare crews sitting around to pilot everything at a moments notice. When Micheldever was blocked two weeks ago we suddenly saw several freight and cross country services diverted as they regularly route learn the diversion via Laverstock.

Don't get stuck in lazy press cliches, there are big problems that cause media frenzy but the UK railway is pretty capable of dealing with most problems

[Guest]

Have to say that I found it very watchable. View from the 37 was unbelievably poor. Reminded me of the wipers on very old mini's. Surely they could improve the wipers by adding larger blades?

 

The wipers on a loco like the 37 are air-operated and it is quite easy to start the wipers with quite a jolt. There isn't really any fine control like you'd get with a car. A fitter at Stewarts Lane once told me that if the blades were any bigger, they'd have a very short life-span due to the stresses. Whether true or not, it sounds plausible.

[russ p]

If you have a BR independent plough on the front of a a 37 the wiper goes nowhere near the tiny view you have out the bottom left hand corner. You end up leaning out of the window which is bloody cold !

[The Stationmaster]

Having recently experienced the efficiency of the Swiss Railways network - albeit not in the depths of winter - it makes one wonder why Network Rail is not better prepared for bad weather.

I am told by those who have experienced it that travelling by rail in Switzerland during the first two or three days of heavy snowfall is something to be avoided - massive delays, cancellations and the timetable a total shambles.  But they then have the advantage of dealing with snow in consistent low temperatures which are far easier to deal with than the average UK freeze/thaw/freeze cycle.

 

All the daft tweets and moans reminded my wife of something over 30 years ago when she was commuting to London.  A fellow passenger started moaning about the train being late and what a shambles 'the railways' were so she went back at him hard and asked if he would like to do what her husband had been doing all the previous night - out in the snow and ice trying to clear points so the trains could be got out in the morning, oddly the moaner then went very quiet.

 

One thing which did surprise me was the apparent lack of switch heaters on the Highland mainline.  Presumably there are inadequate power supplies for electric heaters and of course gas heaters are absolutely useless in those sort of conditions.

[Guest]

I didn't watch the program...

 

Probably just as well.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

 

 

 One thing which did surprise me was the apparent lack of switch heaters on the Highland mainline.  Presumably there are inadequate power supplies for electric heaters and of course gas heaters are absolutely useless in those sort of conditions.

 I was a litle curious about that. Could another factor be that since direct manual intervention is always likely to be required, at minimum driving a plough loco along the route, then it doesn't make sense to spend on fixed plant since track workers will be attending if the line can be cleared sufficently to bring it to an operational state?

 

As for the wipers on the class 37 (are the 47s any better?) that struck me as inadequate. What's does the lawsuit look like if the ploughing loco hits an obstruction that couldn't be seen because of a fifty odd year old wiper design not up to the job, and there is a fatality? That's entirely foreseeable risk, and there is far better technology available.

[Arun Sharma]

Wern't there experiments done on diesel locos with the type of rotary windscreen filters fitted to many ships' bridge windows?  I'd have thought that these would have been pretty good at clearing windscreens. They would only need to be fitted to a few engines being used for pilot or snow clearing duties.

[gismorail]

STV will show the programme in Scotland on 1st December, 7.30pm.  Unfortunately, I cannot get ITV programmes on Catch Up with my new Panasonic Smart TV - if i lived in England, or the Scottish borders, I'd get ITV Player, but STV have exclusive Catch up rights in the STV area and, it seems, have not come to any suitable agreement with Panasonic.  STV really are rubbish.

 

DT

I complain to the Scottish blond bint about that if I where you

[gismorail]

I did find the programme interesting to a point. Felt there was a bit of the Eddie Stobart's about it though.The guy walking down the line in the snow in Scotland inpecting the track didn't look prepared clothing wise and where were the look outs that should have been with him as he was not just inspecting as he had a spanner over his shoulder.

It was a bit of 'look what we do' to keep your trains running just in case we have some bad weather this winter. Not work rail's publicity department have been busy which shows what a sorry state the railways are in to be honest.

[trevora]

 Presumably there are inadequate power supplies for electric heaters and of course gas heaters are absolutely useless in those sort of conditions.

We went across canada and they had gas heater on all their points.I know that was -40c no thew & freeze

trevora

[55F]

An interesting programme........ helps to explain the problems caused by nature and how difficult it is dealing with such events. 

 

The windscreen wipers reminded me of the vacuum operated system fitted to my 1955 Ford Prefect, which worked brilliantly downhill and pretty much stopped when going uphill!!

[PaulRhB]

I rode a 47 on a test train quite a few years ago and the driver had a letterbox sized slot to see out of until we got the cab warm enough to defrost the rest. There was ice on the front so you couldn't climb up to clear it. At least with a 37 you can get right up to the screen easily enough so even a small area gives a good view. Try that on some modern stuff with deep control desks to lean over

[Glorious NSE]

The extra 15000hp will be useful to power the improved wipers and heaters.

[caradoc]

I did find the programme interesting to a point. Felt there was a bit of the Eddie Stobart's about it though.The guy walking down the line in the snow in Scotland inpecting the track didn't look prepared clothing wise and where were the look outs that should have been with him as he was not just inspecting as he had a spanner over his shoulder.

It was a bit of 'look what we do' to keep your trains running just in case we have some bad weather this winter. Not work rail's publicity department have been busy which shows what a sorry state the railways are in to be honest.

 

Not quite sure what you mean by your final comment. The programme showed, mostly, that extreme weather causes problems for the railway system (as it does for other forms of transport, and indeed for society in general), and that many people, railway staff and contractors, work very hard to overcome the issues and run trains safely. In particular, the section on the train running into a flood at Mauchline illustrated how events beyond the railway's control can easily occur, and the huge efforts that are made, at great expense, to get the railway open again: Staff working through the night and pumps hired at great expense to clear the water.