200503 – Hickey – Battling Nature

This paper is a discussion about the disruption to railways, particularly in the northern hemisphere, that falling leaves can cause and the various methods and research (in some cases top secret research) that has occurred in recent times to counteract the negative effects of these falling leaves.

Some of the major problems encountered include: trains slipping on grade, or even zero grade, particularly when starting from stations or signals; longer braking required and station overruns as a result of the longer braking hence lower speeds; loss of trains “on train location” systems and signalling systems; trains proceeding past red signals; wheel bums on rails due to loss of traction and damage to trains due to wheel slippage.