Are windscreen wipers on trains any good?

[ainsworth74]

I'm a car driver and one of the, admittedly(!), minor things that annoys me quickly is when the windscreen wipers start to streak on the windscreen. I'll soon have to clean the wipers and windscreen to stop it streaking in the rain as otherwise it gets on my nerves. Obviously for a car driver that's a simple matter of a few minutes with some water and a rag (or even kitchen towel) and worst case scenario go and buy some new blades. This isn't quite so simple for a train driver!

Hence my wondering, are windscreen wipers on trains any good? I presume it varies by unit/loco but in general? Have you ever had to hop out at a station and give them a quick clean yourself to improve the situation or are rubbish wipers something that I'd have to learn to live with if some strange twist of fate puts me in the cab?

Any suggestion that this question is excessively nerdy will be strongly refuted by the author it's clearly a matter of vital importance...

 

[Mike Machin]

This is something I have often wondered about too. The wipers on all of the cars I have owned have always been robust, with a strong regular action to them.

On BR locomotives such as the Class 47s, I can remember being amazed at the flimsy nature of the wipers, and the irregular stuttering action of them in use and could never understand how a main line locomotive could have wipers that appeared to be so inferior to my very average run-if-the-mill car.

I’ve not really looked at the wipers on the present generation of trains - I’ll have to take a look!

 

[skyhigh]

They are absolutely rubbish.

They streak, squeal. On 15x the "slow" and "fast" speeds tend to either be fast and ultra fast or slow and slower.

 

[Sun Chariot]

These wipers are doing a good job.

 

[driver9000]

The older 14x and 15x air powered wipers were awful either being glacier slow or going so fast I'm amazed they never flew off! Sometimes they would just stop for no reason and the motor could be very noisy too. I find the electric powered wipers a lot better on the units I drive now but one quirk I remember when I signed 350s was the wiper would actually lift off the glass when it passed the bit you actually want to look through.

 

[507 001]

I don’t think there’s anything worse than doing a long stint in the rain with a windscreen wiper that squeaks.

 

[43066]

I'm a car driver and one of the, admittedly(!), minor things that annoys me quickly is when the windscreen wipers start to streak on the windscreen. I'll soon have to clean the wipers and windscreen to stop it streaking in the rain as otherwise it gets on my nerves. Obviously for a car driver that's a simple matter of a few minutes with some water and a rag (or even kitchen towel) and worst case scenario go and buy some new blades. This isn't quite so simple for a train driver!

Hence my wondering, are windscreen wipers on trains any good? I presume it varies by unit/loco but in general? Have you ever had to hop out at a station and give them a quick clean yourself to improve the situation or are rubbish wipers something that I'd have to learn to live with if some strange twist of fate puts me in the cab?

Any suggestion that this question is excessively nerdy will be strongly refuted by the author it's clearly a matter of vital importance...

Varies by stock, and even by individual unit due to condition of the blades (as you’d expect). Generally they’re pretty effective in my experience, but can be noisy/distracting. It’s generally not possible to vary the intermittency, meaning it’ll be either too slow or too fast.

I did take over a train the other day with black streaks on the windscreen where wipers had been left on and had melted due to the friction!

 

[Seehof]

I had a wiper on a 156 once that did fly off!

 

[ainsworth74]

Well I have to say you're all doing a very good job at putting me off ever considering train driving as a career

Interesting comments though, you'd think that providing effective clearance of the windscreen, in a way that doesn't distract through noise or lack of effect, would be a priority...

I did take over a train the other day with black streaks on the windscreen where wipers had been left on and had melted due to the friction!

Cripes!

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Presumably a broken drivers-side windscreen wiper is a train failure if that cab is leading. One thing I’ve wondered, what happens if its not currently raining?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

...and look at how many wipers are easily caught by the turbulence between coupled units, especially the semi-round designs like the 170s and 357s, and end up tangled! That doesn't say much for the strength of the hinges, does it?

 

[43066]

Well I have to say you're all doing a very good job at putting me off ever considering train driving as a career

The wipers are about the best aspect of the job. It only gets worse from there .

Presumably a broken drivers-side windscreen wiper is a train failure if that cab is leading. One thing I’ve wondered, what happens if its not currently raining?

Yes indeed, even if it isn’t raining - it might start mid journey! Even in the dry the wipers are needed to clear the windscreen periodically.

 

[FOH]

...and look at how many wipers are easily caught by the turbulence between coupled units, especially the semi-round designs like the 170s and 357s, and end up tangled! That doesn't say much for the strength of the hinges, does it?

Semi-related to this and the topic. IIRC when the 321s were introduced from Euston I could've sworn the wipers were connected together on coupled units. I never understood why or how they managed to stay together.

 

[Howardh]

Please correct me quickly if I'm wrong, but doesn't WD40 solve the problem, albeit temporarily? Not sure if it's sprayed onto the window or rubber directly or using a cloth?

 

[Jamesrob637]

I'm a car driver and one of the, admittedly(!), minor things that annoys me quickly is when the windscreen wipers start to streak on the windscreen. I'll soon have to clean the wipers and windscreen to stop it streaking in the rain as otherwise it gets on my nerves. Obviously for a car driver that's a simple matter of a few minutes with some water and a rag (or even kitchen towel) and worst case scenario go and buy some new blades. This isn't quite so simple for a train driver!

Hence my wondering, are windscreen wipers on trains any good? I presume it varies by unit/loco but in general? Have you ever had to hop out at a station and give them a quick clean yourself to improve the situation or are rubbish wipers something that I'd have to learn to live with if some strange twist of fate puts me in the cab?

Any suggestion that this question is excessively nerdy will be strongly refuted by the author it's clearly a matter of vital importance...

Yeah with your average car, you can just clean the blades periodically with some kitchen roll (on which is sprayed a little detergent perhaps). You can't just do that in a station with a train!

 

[Ken X]

Please correct me quickly if I'm wrong, but doesn't WD40 solve the problem, albeit temporarily? Not sure if it's sprayed onto the window or rubber directly or using a cloth?

No idea about WD40 but I can certainly recommend RainX. Works a treat on our cars and renders wipers almost redundant. This is handy as one car is a historic and the clap-hands wipers are purely decorative.

 

[Sun Chariot]

No idea about WD40 but I can certainly recommend RainX. Works a treat on our cars and renders wipers almost redundant. This is handy as one car is a historic and the clap-hands wipers are purely decorative.

I found RainX a mixed blessing -
Yes, it makes the water "bead" and fly off the windscreen. That was surreal - I was on the motorway, in heavy rain, with wipers off and no water on my screen!
But the flip side - I find RainX's coating makes it harder to see out of the screen at night (a "misting" effect where the active ingredient sticks onto the windscreen).

Anyway, back to railway vehicles.

 

[SWFreight]

66 wipers are an absolute pain. If it's raining heavily enough they aren't too bad, but if not then they squeak so much. They don't go slow enough, or have an intermittent mode, to handle lower volumes of rain without making a racket.

Sometimes you'll get one that keeps missing certain parts of the screen. You end up peering over, round, under the dodgy patches to see what you need to. I've not had to resort to sticking my head out the window to get a clear view - yet!

And if you're on the RHTT then good luck. Bucket and a long mop before you go off depot to clean them. They'll be filthy by the time it goes back! Just have a look at the non-leading cabs to see how bad they end up. Absolutely filthy.

Love it really, though. Would only something else to moan about if the wipers were any good!

 

[Howardh]

66 wipers are an absolute pain. If it's raining heavily enough they aren't too bad, but if not then they squeak so much. They don't go slow enough, or have an intermittent mode, to handle lower volumes of rain without making a racket.

Sometimes you'll get one that keeps missing certain parts of the screen. You end up peering over, round, under the dodgy patches to see what you need to. I've not had to resort to sticking my head out the window to get a clear view - yet!

And if you're on the RHTT then good luck. Bucket and a long mop before you go off depot to clean them. They'll be filthy by the time it goes back! Just have a look at the non-leading cabs to see how bad they end up. Absolutely filthy.

Love it really, though. Would only something else to moan about if the wipers were any good!

Rain in winter, bugs in summer! My question is, cars have screenwash you can press a button to engage, do trains? And for that matter, aircraft, they have wipers too that survive extreme conditions!!?

 

[skyhigh]

My question is, cars have screenwash you can press a button to engage, do trains?

Yes

 

[SWFreight]

Rain in winter, bugs in summer! My question is, cars have screenwash you can press a button to engage, do trains? And for that matter, aircraft, they have wipers too that survive extreme conditions!!?

Yes, they do. They are alright on 66s, do an alright job of cleaning dirt or, indeed, bugs.

 

[DelW]

Rain in winter, bugs in summer! My question is, cars have screenwash you can press a button to engage, do trains?

I'm sure I've seen a bucket of soapy water and a mop strategically placed beside starting signals on some station platforms. Maybe NR should employ some of the characters who used to "clean" your car screen (whether it needed it or not) at traffic signals a decade or two ago.

 

[Bald Rick]

From personal experience, if a pigeon hits the windscreen, make sure there is water in the washers before turning on the wipers. Streaky pigeon is not a good look on a windscreen.

 

[Trainguy34]

From personal experience, if a pigeon hits the windscreen, make sure there is water in the washers before turning on the wipers. Streaky pigeon is not a good look on a windscreen.

Sound like a random recipe from the 60s - Streaky Bacon-esque...

 

[Efini92]

390 wipers are useless. Better off using the force in heavy rain.

 

[chuff chuff]

From personal experience, if a pigeon hits the windscreen, make sure there is water in the washers before turning on the wipers. Streaky pigeon is not a good look on a windscreen.

Yeah there's a certain waxyness to woodpigeon feathers.

 

[baz962]

My bugbear are squeaky wipers and if they are really bad I leave them off. We drive at 125 in the fog and so I quite often just drive without wipers. When I was on the London Overground the wipers on the 710 units were really poor. No pressure on the windscreen and the wiper kind of sat off the screen. Pound shop wipers we used to call them.

 

[Sun Chariot]

And if you're on the RHTT then good luck. ... Just have a look at the non-leading cabs to see how bad they end up.

True. And post #4 has a photo where the front loco has been turned around, so the leading cab is utterly filthy.

 

[Howardh]

I'm sure I've seen a bucket of soapy water and a mop strategically placed beside starting signals on some station platforms. Maybe NR should employ some of the characters who used to "clean" your car screen (whether it needed it or not) at traffic signals a decade or two ago.

I made a thread years ago about how trains deal with squashed flies etc, and the answer was indeed that, strategic buckets of water. How much higher tech can you go?!

 

[43066]

I made a thread years ago about how trains deal with squashed flies etc, and the answer was indeed that, strategic buckets of water. How much higher tech can you go?!

A little risky to be mopping windscreens in OHLE locations, though!