dk1
Veteran Member
Very likley Wales will experience very bad snowfall on friday so it will be interesting to see how ATW & FGW cope.
Perhaps my plans for Chepstow races Saturday may be a non-runner then :roll:
Very likley Wales will experience very bad snowfall on friday so it will be interesting to see how ATW & FGW cope.
Perhaps my plans for Chepstow races Saturday may be a non-runner then :roll:
Chepstow is definitely a non-runner as according to this there's no race meeting at Chepstow on Saturday anyway. http://www.chepstow-racecourse.co.uk/whats-on-racing.php
This might soudn very silly... but wouldn't it be possible to fit heating grids over the cooling air intakes that would heat the incoming air above freezing and likely melt any snow that got into the intakes, preventing it from clogging up the system (as presumably water would likely just blow straight through?).
I imagine the traction motors are designed to work at rated output in temperatures in the mid to high twenties anyway so heating the air up to ~15 degrees celsius is not going to kill them.
The problem we have is that there is just no proper money invested in the railway infrastrucutre to cope with snow, so that the railway continues to run without fuss, it just grinds to a hault with delays and cancellations.
Some history and facts.
GA have contingency snow timetables for the GE and WA sides of the franchise. These were developed in 2011 following the ongoing disruption that followed the heavy snow events in 2009 and 2010. In the latter case trains were cancelled / short formed until May 2011 due to repairs being made to snow damaged traction motors.
The timetable is based on reduced use of certain routes (so some points don't need to swing) and reduced speed of certain stock to reduce snow ingress to motors and door pockets. It also limits the amount of snow that builds up on the underside of trains that slowly melts in the turnaround at Liverpool St, falling off in great lumps of solid ice into the points just outside.
The decision to activate the contingency timetable for the whole day has to be taken no later than 0900 the previous day, so that the timetable itself can be uploaded into the relevant systems by 2200 and all staff advised. The weather forecast is provided at 0300 for that 0900 decision, and is thus at least 24 hours old, and rarely with a probability of accuracy greater than 60% in terms of timing and quantity of snowfall.
So the decision makers have to balance the risk of certain, but planned and known disruption with the ability to advise passengers, against the unknown quantity of unplanned disruption of unknown severity and the complications that brings in keeping passengers informed. It's a particularly difficult call if the snow is due to arrive during the evening peak.
Some history and facts.
GA have contingency snow timetables for the GE and WA sides of the franchise. These were developed in 2011 following the ongoing disruption that followed the heavy snow events in 2009 and 2010. In the latter case trains were cancelled / short formed until May 2011 due to repairs being made to snow damaged traction motors.
The timetable is based on reduced use of certain routes (so some points don't need to swing) and reduced speed of certain stock to reduce snow ingress to motors and door pockets. It also limits the amount of snow that builds up on the underside of trains that slowly melts in the turnaround at Liverpool St, falling off in great lumps of solid ice into the points just outside.
The decision to activate the contingency timetable for the whole day has to be taken no later than 0900 the previous day, so that the timetable itself can be uploaded into the relevant systems by 2200 and all staff advised. The weather forecast is provided at 0300 for that 0900 decision, and is thus at least 24 hours old, and rarely with a probability of accuracy greater than 60% in terms of timing and quantity of snowfall.
So the decision makers have to balance the risk of certain, but planned and known disruption with the ability to advise passengers, against the unknown quantity of unplanned disruption of unknown severity and the complications that brings in keeping passengers informed. It's a particularly difficult call if the snow is due to arrive during the evening peak.
Very interesting (as usual) - I hope that a lot of people take the time to read that
SWT are operating a snow timetable tommorrow. Good idea or not?
What snow? I haven't seen any snow settling since Winter last year.
Electrification would require several thousand new vehicles, which would bring about significant reliability improvements (since they would presumably be hardened against snow related issues).
I've seen at least 3 thin coverings on the pavements, if not the roads and rail lines where I live since the start of December.
Electrification would require several thousand new vehicles, which would bring about significant reliability improvements.
It's electric trains that are having trouble with the snow, no issues with snow getting into the motors on 158's is there?
No, most of the newly electrified sections are relying on cascaded old trains - 30 year old trains for Wales and 25 year old Class 319's for the GWML...
It's electric trains that are having trouble with the snow, no issues with snow getting into the motors on 158's is there?
Indeed. You should see the state of a TGV that's been running in heavy or compacted snow at 320km/h. The damage sustained to the underside is incredible from ballast strikes. Not uncommon to have windows smashed also. They work fine though - until some part of the signalling kit is knocked out of action of course. It all comes down to economics: What is most important - continuing to run trains to the normal timetable knowing that there will be heavy repairs to them which takes time and money during which more routine maintenance will suffer and cancellations will take place while the fleet is diminished, or take a hit on punctuality knowing that at least you can provide a predictable service.
I think the general public would prefer the latter.
Mojo's location is listed publicly as "London W12". Whilst I do not deny that Mojo does get to other areas of Britain, I would suggest that this primary location would be less prone to settling snow. That doesn't mean it can't happen tomorrow or indeed any time the conditions are right, but it's rarer than rural and suburban locations. I would suggest that all services in suburban or rural areas could potentially be disrupted by snowfall tomorrow, except perhaps in the Penzance area and maybe in some areas of Scotland. I hope I am wrong, as I myself have a reasonably important journey to make!
There's plenty on the platforms at Leeds at the moment! Not to mention a few people who are going to have to de-ice their cars and remove quite a lot of snow from them in the car park.
SWT are operating a snow timetable tommorrow. Good idea or not?
Be interesting to see if SWT get the bashing in the media that GA got!
Knowing GAs luck it will snow incredible amounts and they'll be hailed as making the best decision ever.
Meanwhile GA will run a full service and the inevitable will occur