Snow with you?

[Classsix T]

Not sure I'd call four inches a deluge tbh. Went Ipswich to Felixstowe and then to Bury St Edmunds at 5am with no problems at all.

We didn't get our paper delivery from the Norwich merchants today (to Needham Market), A140 impassable and no staff made it into the office apparently.

 

Got our order from the Bury St Edmunds based merchant though. Whether we get owt from either tomorrow I'd not like to guess. We're gearing up to tell our customers jobs will be late.

 

As previously mentioned, it's the freeze/thaw bit puts the boot in, and with overnight temperatures dropping to minus double figures, prospects look grim.

 

C6T.

[tractionman]

Much to my kids disappointment, no snow to report, yet, from Norn Iron, though much to my relief... Nice to look at, a pain to be in.

 

Keep warm folks.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

[Baby Deltic]

Not sure I'd call four inches a deluge tbh. Went Ipswich to Felixstowe and then to Bury St Edmunds at 5am with no problems at all.

The A14 was at a crawl at Sproughton at 5:30 this morning headed westbound. It hadn't been gritted either.

[Baby Deltic]

We didn't get our paper delivery from the Norwich merchants today (to Needham Market), A140 impassable and no staff made it into the office apparently.

Got our order from the Bury St Edmunds based merchant though. Whether we get owt from either tomorrow I'd not like to guess. We're gearing up to tell our customers jobs will be late.

As previously mentioned, it's the freeze/thaw bit puts the boot in, and with overnight temperatures dropping to minus double figures, prospects look grim.

C6T.

I was due to go up the A140 and A143 this morning myself, but judging by the state of the A14 I thought better of it and turned round and went home.

[mark axlecounter]

It's still snowing here at Horrocksford  

And this was today at Weir.

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by mark axlecounter

[Torper]

Up here in my part of Angus in the east of Scotland it's pretty calm.  We've got about 4cms of snow, most of it from last night, and there haven't been any whiteouts or blizzards. It is bitterly cold however, and if the forecast is to be believed, the worst for us may still be to come.  The "red alert" for central Scotland doesn't seem to have touched us.  It's not snowing at the moment and the minor road to our village is quite passable.

 

DT

[iands]

Yep, cleared the path, driveway and car this morning and had to drive to Doncaster (car booked in with main dealer). Minor roads a bit dodgy, but motorway's were fairly clear. After dropping the car off, decamped to a very nice cafe for a cuppa etc., heavy snow fall for about 30 mins. Picked car up a bit later, motorway's again fairly clear and surprisingly the minor roads near home that had been a bit dodgy were not only clear but quite dry in places - had a bit of sunshine! But alas, that didn't last long and several snow flurries this afternoon and evening have covered the roads again.

 

Never mind the Premier League wanting to a two week "winter break", how about the rest of us getting one?

 

Regards, Ian

[mark axlecounter]

The roads in Rossendale were ok it was just the side roads up in weir what have around 2-3 inch. I remember around 8 years ago I had a 110 and the snow was that bad it covered one side because of drifting snow.

[Ian Abel]

  

 

 

The 10 inches that fell here on Saturday is rapidly melting.

and in the "mine's bigger than yours..." category;

 

we got 14 inches from Thursday evening through Saturday evening, with about 30+ on the ground now, but that's rapidly disappearing losing about 2-3 inches today as the weather is now above ZERO...

 

scene from my front door of the garden path, Sunday morning...

(apologies to ERs who have already seen this)

[mark axlecounter]

and in the "mine's bigger than yours..." category;

 

we got 14 inches from Thursday evening through Saturday evening, with about 30+ on the ground now, but that's rapidly disappearing losing about 2-3 inches today as the weather is now above ZERO...

 

scene from my front door of the garden path, Sunday morning...

ABitofSnow.jpg

(apologies to ERs who have already seen this)

 

 

 

By hec them freelanders get about

Oh its not just seen the bigger pic ha ha

Edited February 28, 2018 by mark axlecounter

[Welly]

My morning commute took me 1 hour 45mins instead of the usual 25 - 30 minutes because the A46 Lincoln bypass was blocked by several lorries stuck going up the hill! Luckily I managed to drive my normal route which has a steep hill in it!

 

I could not believe my eyes when I set off from work and there was next to no traffic on my entire route home but most of the roads I was driving was not ploughed only gritted and I did not feel safe enough to drive at more than 30 mph on the A57 home.

 

Let's see what happens tomorrow...

[APOLLO]

Tomorrow is a pile of 1970's "Model Railroader" mags, several cups of coffee also !!!

 

Brit15

[Joseph_Pestell]

We have nasty low temps here - much too cold for snow! Last night -9, feeling like -14, said the forecast. Tonight a little milder, but was -4 on my terrasse just now, when I closed the shutters, and will feel like -9 overnight. We were to have snow Thurs/Fri, but that seems to be receding. Sherry watching anxiously the South Coast forecast, as she is driving Torquay - Portsmouth Thursday afternoon. By the time her Friday morning ferry reaches Caen/Ouistreham France will be above freezing, we are told. 

No such thing as "too cold for snow". All depends on wind direction and humidity.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Very light dusting last night. Supposed to get more tonight.

[stewartingram]

Horizontal snow from the east this morning and a choice of either getting stuck in a jam in the car or walking in a easterly direction. Decided to get stuck in jam, 10-15 min journey turned into 40 minutes and the real cause of delays became pretty obvious, it was rear wheel drive cars unable to cope with the snow, so it was a crazy everything moving relatively okay and then complete standstill as a rear wheel car went all over the place going up hill. Should be a law that it is an offence to drive such vehicles in snow.

Nonsense!

When I passed my test in '67, my first car was an Austin A30. I ran that for 12 years, everywhere, 250k miles. I never got stuck, & we had 1 or 2 harsh winters. In those days, the majority of cars were rwd, but there were (real) Minis and 1100's etc that were fwd. There are 2 things that you can do with a rwd that are impossible to do with a fwd:

1. If the rear wheels are in snow and you are going nowhere, apply the handbrake in a controlled manner. This allows 1 wheel to stop and the other gain traction because of the diff.

2. In extreme conditions, when the rear slides, let a wheel hit the kerb, and then let that give you some traction.

I couldn't tell you how many fwd cars I left behind ! The motoring mags of the day used to say that fwd was not as good in snow, funny how nowadays it is the other way round?

 

The real problem with cars is the nut behind the steering wheel. I reckon at least 70% of drivers shouldn't be behind the wheel at all, but that's for another day.

 

Stewart

Edited February 28, 2018 by stewartingram

[Oldddudders]

Nonsense!

When I passed my test in '67, my first car was an Austin A30. I ran that for 12 years, everywhere, 250k miles. I never got stuck, & we had 1 or 2 harsh winters. In those days, the majority of cars were rwd, but there were (real) Minis and 1100's etc that were fwd. There are 2 things that you can do with a rwd that are impossible to do with a fwd:

1. If the rear wheels are in snow and you are going nowhere, apply the handbrake in a controlled manner. This allows 1 wheel to stop and the other gain traction because of the diff.

2. I extreme conditions, when the rear slides, let a wheel hit the kerb, and then let that give you some traction.

I couldn't tell you how many fwd cars I left behind ! The motoring mags of the day used to say that fwd was not as good in snow, funny how nowadays it is the other way round?

 

The real problem with cars is the nut behind the steering wheel. I reckon at least 70% of drivers shouldn't be behind the wheel at all, but that's for another day.

 

Stewart

 

I think tyre width is the problem today. 

[big jim]

I was asked late this afternoon to head to Leicester to pick up 37611 for snow plough duties over at doncaster but unfortunately the job fell through at the last minute, shame, would have been fun!

[alastairq]

FWD versus RWD?

As Ian says..these days it's down to excessive tyre width, lower & lower profiles [which mean, stiffer sidewalls].......an an excess of power from the engine.

 

BAck in the day...[after the  wawer?]....SAAB were not renowned for getting stuck in snow........mind, having the weight of the  engine in front of the front wheels possible helped....as did 15 inch diameter wheels, and quite narrow tyres, and a smooth bottom?

Volvo's had plenty of weight over the rear wheels, so they didn't suffer either.  Neither did VW beetles.  Or Ford Pops....

 

All were not over endowed with horses power. All had good sloggin' motors.......

 

MY mate had a MINI [cooperything]...a diesesel....come winter he got hold of some standard Mini steel wheels, and some winter road tyres...These were much higher profile than the originals, and narrower.

He found the ride comfort with the  wintery steely things to be far superior to the original fitment wide alloys and low profile tyres.

But then, like me, he's an auldfahrt.

 

Or, maybe,modern drivers really do need modern technology, just to get anywhere safely?

[Legend]

Our Transport Minister Yousuf Hamsza has been on the telly (I hope that’s the spelling). I have to say pretty impressed with his responses. There is after all only so much you can do faced with this level of snowfall, and it really is quite severe in Central Scotland . But what he was questioning was why given there was an Amber Alert last night,now Red today and through tomorrow that HGVs carrying furniture and Stationery were on the road. Seems a fair point to me if they’ve jackknifed and holding everyone else up.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Nonsense!

When I passed my test in '67, my first car was an Austin A30. I ran that for 12 years, everywhere, 250k miles. I never got stuck, & we had 1 or 2 harsh winters. In those days, the majority of cars were rwd, but there were (real) Minis and 1100's etc that were fwd. There are 2 things that you can do with a rwd that are impossible to do with a fwd:

1. If the rear wheels are in snow and you are going nowhere, apply the handbrake in a controlled manner. This allows 1 wheel to stop and the other gain traction because of the diff.

2. I extreme conditions, when the rear slides, let a wheel hit the kerb, and then let that give you some traction.

I couldn't tell you how many fwd cars I left behind ! The motoring mags of the day used to say that fwd was not as good in snow, funny how nowadays it is the other way round?

 

The real problem with cars is the nut behind the steering wheel. I reckon at least 70% of drivers shouldn't be behind the wheel at all, but that's for another day.

 

Stewart

Best car, by far, (other than 4x4) that I have ever owned for driving in snow was an Alfetta GTV - rear wheel drive. Next best was my Volvo 245DL. Front wheel drive - no thank you.

[Nearholmer]

Too many revs, attempting to put too much energy through a tiny contact area of low coefficient of friction, that’s the problem.

 

Automatics are supposedly terrible in snow and poor adhesion, but my MiL taught me a simple trick: let the car creep in tickover, which any automatic will do (mine has a creep on/off switch, which, in the off position lightly applies the handbrake, which acts on the transmission, I think).

 

By this means, I’ve managed never to get stuck, and to climb some quite steep hills, even if very slowly indeed.

 

It’s a bit harder to creep a manual in tickover, but if you can do it, it works. Keep your foot well away from the accelerator pedal.

 

Very low energy, through that same tiny contact area, with that low coefficient offriction will allow traction without wheelspin.

 

Railway buffs should have no problems with this ....... imagine you are starting the ACE out of Waterloo, 14 heavy coaches, greasy rails, and a Bulleid Pacific.

 

Kevin

[Oldddudders]

Our Transport Minister Yousuf Hamsza has been on the telly (I hope that’s the spelling). I have to say pretty impressed with his responses. There is after all only so much you can do faced with this level of snowfall, and it really is quite severe in Central Scotland . But what he was questioning was why given there was an Amber Alert last night,now Red today and through tomorrow that HGVs carrying furniture and Stationery were on the road. Seems a fair point to me if they’ve jackknifed and holding everyone else up.

 

But that is the point about democratic societies, aka freedom. HGV-man and his employer are free to do as they choose. So when conditions go beyond the norm, as now, there is no legal reason for them not to sally forth. But do we really want the dictatorial policies that prevent this? In other countries, HGVs may only be on the road on a Sunday if carrying perishables, for example. Let's be careful what we wish for.  

[Jenny Emily]

We've had loads come and go here. Almost always some flakes in the air, but a lot melts during the day to be replenished in almost white-out conditions.

 

I did manage to get the garden railway running at one point, despite a scale 15 feet of snow in places:

 

High winds and light snow now seem to mean only an inch or so ground cover, but drifts starting to appear in some locations. It is almost like white dust. Very cold.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Jenny Emily

[Joseph_Pestell]

Too many revs, attempting to put too much energy through a tiny contact area of low coefficient of friction, that’s the problem.

 

Automatics are supposedly terrible in snow and poor adhesion, but my MiL taught me a simple trick: let the car creep in tickover, which any automatic will do (mine has a creep on/off switch, which, in the off position lightly applies the handbrake, which acts on the transmission, I think).

 

By this means, I’ve managed never to get stuck, and to climb some quite steep hills, even if very slowly indeed.

 

It’s a bit harder to creep a manual in tickover, but if you can do it, it works. Keep your foot well away from the accelerator pedal.

 

Very low energy, through that same tiny contact area, with that low coefficient offriction will allow traction without wheelspin.

 

Railway buffs should have no problems with this ....... imagine you are starting the ACE out of Waterloo, 14 heavy coaches, greasy rails, and a Bulleid Pacific.

 

Kevin

 

Too right! We regularly have visitors' BMW and Mercs automatics get stuck in our gravel. I get in, engage reverse and just let the car find its grip. Works every time.

[Legend]

But that is the point about democratic societies, aka freedom. HGV-man and his employer are free to do as they choose. So when conditions go beyond the norm, as now, there is no legal reason for them not to sally forth. But do we really want the dictatorial policies that prevent this? In other countries, HGVs may only be on the road on a Sunday if carrying perishables, for example. Let's be careful what we wish for.

 

I think given the extreme conditions that HGV companies have a responsibility to take government advice on without the need for legalities. Really it’s community spirit. It’s not just HGVs of course the advice means don’t travel unless it’s an emergency, so it’s for us all to act responsibly. I think he has a reasonable point wondering if despatching trucks with furniture and stationery was acting in such a way.

 

I am very cynical about yellow warnings and Police advice not to travel because I think we cry wolf too many times and give out these warnings far too Glibly. Government has a responsibility to make sure they give out these warnings only when essential. That said it’s been clear since the end of last week that exceptional weather was coming firmed up over the last two days. I altered my plans accordingly. It would clearly be madness despatching trucks over the M74 . M77, M8 or M80 tonight. I really think truck companies owe us to act responsibly.