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Slow Start Out of Ham Street

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TheJRB

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I know it's not exactly anything new, especially considering the season, but I was quite surprised at what happened this afternoon on departure from Ham Street at 16:10 on a 171 heading to Ashford International. We slowly pulled out but before long it was obvious that things didn't sound right and we almost came to a stop, but fortunately we continued on towards Ashford.

In a minute or so the guard or driver (I'm not sure which) informed us all that the train was experiencing great difficulty getting up the incline due to poor railhead conditions because of the wet weather and leaves that had fallen. As we'd been this way earlier, albeit southbound, in the rain I was quite surprised to see that we were struggling.

We got to Ashford with only a delay of a minute or two, but it's not a pleasant thought to imagine being stuck! Out of curiosity, if whatever reason a 171 found itself stuck between Ham Street and Ashford, what would be done? Would a unit have to come down from Selhurst to rescue it?
 
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O L Leigh

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...and then you'll have two trains stalled on the hill. ;)

If the problem is rail adhesion and the service frequency is sufficiently low it might be agreed to allow the train to go "wrong road" back down the hill to have another crack at it. This is certainly what happened when our ECS from Hornsey got stalled on the Graham Road Curve as it came off the NLL.

O L Leigh
 

TheJRB

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The following train will attach and shove it up the hill.

...and then you'll have two trains stalled on the hill. ;)

If the problem is rail adhesion and the service frequency is sufficiently low it might be agreed to allow the train to go "wrong road" back down the hill to have another crack at it. This is certainly what happened when our ECS from Hornsey got stalled on the Graham Road Curve as it came off the NLL.

O L Leigh

Well that makes sense!

I live quite close to the Marshlink and we're experiencing heavy rain at the moment so it'll be interesting to see the consequences.
 

O L Leigh

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Heavy rain isn't usually a problem. It's that light misty drizzle that really robs a train of grip. However, any rain can make the leaves stick to pretty much anything.

O L Leigh
 
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