Snow/Wintry conditions

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

No EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) appeared to be running round Southampton/Fareham.  SWT^▸ (South West Trains) were offering an hourly service between SOU and PMH - I believe this was run by a DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit). 

The normal SWT service is only hourly normally, but using DMUs for the day is a new one on me.  Makes sense though, as the last time they had major snow fall on the Netley route they had big problems with stuck 450s.  They are also only running a Portsmouth - Eastleigh service connecting there with the mainline Waterloo services, I wonder if that's been changed to DMU too?  I know they've thinned the Exeter services out to 2 hourly, perhaps that's where the 159s have gone?

Paul

[JayMac]

Interesting to read in the latest RAIL magazine that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have been trialling heating strips on the 3rd rail at a few locations in the south-east. They've only installed 16km of these strips. Let's hope the trial is a success and they roll it out as soon as.

[Electric train]

Interesting to read in the latest RAIL magazine that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have been trialling heating strips on the 3rd rail at a few locations in the south-east. They've only installed 16km of these strips. Let's hope the trial is a success and they roll it out as soon as.

There quite a few locations where conrail heating has been installed during this summer in readiness for this winter, obviously the whole network can not be heated and it will take a while to fit heaters to all of the hot!!!! (cold) spots where trains have a history of having problems mainly in stations, junctions and certain signals.  The levels of snow that has hit the Sussex patch BML (Brighton Main Line) has been extreme well above what has previously hit the area in recent years

[devon_metro]

Trains are running around Southampton, EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) rather sparky though, obviously due to formation of ice.

Snowy Swaythling yesterday...

[Steve Bray]

From Dorking to London (I know I'm off territory here), SWT^▸ (South West Trains) has been performing far better than Southern. Yesterday though was a bit annoying when SWT ran trains to London as per normal, only to suspend trains beyond Leatherhead to Dorking from early afternoon. With no buses, and no Guildford/Gatwick trains, Dorking had no public transport and I had to walk back from Leatherhead (one and three quarter hours).

One of the problems delaying the trains has been snow getting caught up in the runners of the doors and the doors not closing properly.

[willc]

Sweden:
http://www.thelocal.se/30572/20101202/

Poland:
http://www.poland.pl/news/article,Big_Delays_in_Train_Traffic,id,445332.htm

France:
http://www.france24.com/en/20101202-france-snow-weather-europe-travel-updates-rail-air

Germany:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20101202-31547.html

Admittedly I couldn't find any problems in Norway, but then onthecushions didn't mention there specifically.

Yes there are problems, but most of those parts of Germany affected are not the ones that usually have heavy snow, even Bavaria (with the obvious exception of the Alpine areas). The approach to winter precautions in many of the places mentioned is not dissimilar to that in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), with similar results - I really don't know where otc gets the idea that the Germans are great at dealing with snow - even the Germans don't think so. And certainly not six inches of the stuff in short order.

The areas of Sweden mentioned are those least likely to be hit by severe winter weather, being in the south-west (with the exception of Stockholm airport, which was still operating, at reduced capacity, not shut for two days like a certain airport south of London).

The conditions in Poland sound pretty extreme for a winter there, especially at this time of year.

As for Eurostar and winter conditions, the less said, the better...

[willc]

Interesting story in today's Irish Times about how well Iarnrod Eireann has performed this week and describing the effort put into keeping trains moving around the Dublin area.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1204/1224284777616.html

[onthecushions]

Thanks for the quotes, bignosemac and for the comments, willc.

I didn't raise Norway's performance as it is an immensely rich country floating on oil with a tiny population. Evidently it can still be caught out on occasion.

Central Europe, amongst others regularly gets down to -20 Celsius when the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) is statistically borderline freezing and I have seen modern German houses constructed with 300mm insulation (i.e 12"). I don't remember writing that Germany is good at snow clearing - I imagine that the more of the stuff that falls, the more practised those in receipt of it are at dealing with it but the downtime it causes probably works out much the same.

Perhaps another UK problem is the constant management revolutions we seem to have. A railway that has seen grouping, nationalisation, regions, sectors, privatisation, re-franchising etc probably doesn't build up much corporate memory of how to cope with occasional (even annual) events.

OTC

[willc]

What you wrote was

Countries (like Canada, Sweden, Germany etc) that are said to cope so well with snow, I conclude that they all generally have similar problems to us with snow and do not get main roads and railways clear (like us) for 12/18 hours after snow  ceases to fall

I'd agree entirely about the cold being a key characteristic of German and Central European winters, more so, much of the time, than snow.

I'm not sure how much the structure of the industry has to do with the railway's ability to cope - the biggest problem, certainly in southern parts of England in the past couple of years, is that there hadn't been harsh winters and heavy snow since the early 1990s (I think 1991 was the year of 'the wrong kind of snow'). A lot of rail staff simply hadn't faced anything like this before. Then there's the fact that old-fashioned third-rail emus which merrily sparked and arc-ed their way along in ice and snow have been replaced by computer-laden things which treat every voltage surge and dip as a potential fault and shut down the train.

Network Rail owns two snowblowers bought by BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) in the 1980s. Both are now based in Scotland but one was bought for the South East after severe disruption in January 1987 (when Kent was so badly hit that the original Scottish machine was brought south to help) and was delivered in Network South East livery, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/4438495448/

Time to bring it back south?

[JayMac]

Then there's the fact that old-fashioned third-rail emus which merrily sparked and arc-ed their way along in ice and snow have been replaced by computer-laden things which treat every voltage surge and dip as a potential fault and shut down the train.

Better to have the train shut down than catch fire, which was a not too uncommon occurrence with the sparking and arcing 'old-fashioned' 3rd rail EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit).

[willc]

So every time it snows now Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset should just forget about having a rail service? Hmm...

[JayMac]

I wasn't suggesting that at all. I was merely pointing out that older units were more prone to catching fire as they did not have the computers to protect the traction motors from power surges, sparking and arcing.

I know which type of failed unit I'd rather be on. I may keep warmer on the older type, but that warmth could be terminal!

And incidentally, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset did largely go without a rail service during the 'wrong type of snow' winter of 1991. And that was with the old EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit).

[Toiletdriver]

I wasn't suggesting that at all. I was merely pointing out that older units were more prone to catching fire as they did not have the computers to protect the traction motors from power surges, sparking and arcing.

I know which type of failed unit I'd rather be on. I may keep warmer on the older type, but that warmth could be terminal!

And incidentally, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset did largely go without a rail service during the 'wrong type of snow' winter of 1991. And that was with the old EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit).

But also in the BAD old days of BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)), those units were dragged with any diesel knocking about, and no problems with driver route or traction knowledge.

I believe that's called running a service 

[inspector_blakey]

From my own observation, a 73 running on the diesel engine can be surprisingly feisty!

[willc]

Good morning from an increasingly snowy Moreton-in-Marsh.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) has just posted the following notice

Saturday 18th December 10:15

Poor weather conditions are being experienced throughout our region.
Many services will be subject to delay, alteration and cancellation. Reduced services operating Truro-Falmouth; Bristol Temple Meads - Weston Super Mare; and Worcester - Oxford.

Services between Swansea and Bristol Parkway have been severely disrupted for the past few hours, but  are beginning to return to normal.

South West Trains and CrossCountry trains are accepting First Great Western tickets on all reasonable routes.

Road Replacement Transport is not in operation in all areas due to dangerous road conditions.