Beating the annual ‘leaves on the line’ problem

Engineers at Northern — the second-largest train operator in the UK which runs nearly 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations throughout the North of England — are confident they will outfox their old adversary of ‘leaves on the line’ this autumn, having completed ‘battle prep’ final fleet modifications three months ahead of schedule.

The train operator has deployed an ‘increasingly innovative’ range of tactics in recent years to combat ‘leaves on the line’ and says that among the technology in their arsenal this year are: equipment that sprays water onto the track to simulate heavy rain conditions and help wheels from slipping (this has now been fitted to all 16 of the Class 170 trains in the Northern fleet); systems that prevent wheels from ‘locking’ while the train is moving, a scenario that creates flat spots on wheels as carriages slide along the track (these have been fitted to all Class 150 and Class 156 trains in service); and ‘double variable rate sanders’ that deploy up to three-times the quantity of sand at a higher speed than previous versions (now fitted to all 34 of Northern’s Class 323 trains).

Rob Cummings, Northern’s seasonal performance improvement manager, said: “Autumn leaves used to cause significant disruption across the network, but having tried several methods in recent years and by fine-tuning our approach we have been able to cut that right down. To be ‘battle ready’ three months ahead of schedule is a real testament to the team that has worked so hard to ensure our fleet is ready for whatever nature throws at it.”

Leaf-fall disruption is caused by leaves sticking to damp rails and passing trains compressing them into a smooth, slippery layer that reduces the trains’ grip. In 2018, Northern had to take 306 trains out of service for repairs to carriage wheels caused by ‘wheel-slide’ on slippery rails. Last year, that figure was down to just 14.