Could an anchor system help stop trains in an emergency?

[Russel]

It can be solved with a chainsaw and a lot of expensive staff time.

It wouldn't just be solving the leave fall issue though, would it...

 

[Llanigraham]

Do we actually know whether the leaves that (apparently) caused this incident were from trees on the land within the railway's fenced area or from further away?

The line in the area around the loop, and especially to the west, passes through a narrow, steeply sided, well forested valley, where following the strong winds we have had around here lately, the leaves could have come from a wide area. Frankly to suggest cutting down all the surrounding trees is not possible.

 

[HSTEd]

Vegetation clearance needs to be done regardless: as well as the obvious risk from leaves, it needs to be cleared to avoid fouling the loading gauge, prevent signal sighting issues and avoiding risks to trackside staff. You cannot just get rid of the need for clearing it.

Well vegetation clearance for those purposes is currently ongoing, as far as I know.
The amount of material required to be removed to eliminate the leaf fall risk will be far greater than that that is currently removed.

 

[SamH92]

Curiosity had the better of me and I joined, living local to the crash site is what lead me here.


Now although the ideas are to stop the train I understand but would it not be easier to fit a compressed air system with outlets pointed at tracks to blow the leaf fall off before the wheels get to it ?

 

[edwin_m]

Curiosity had the better of me and I joined, living local to the crash site is what lead me here.


Now although the ideas are to stop the train I understand but would it not be easier to fit a compressed air system with outlets pointed at tracks to blow the leaf fall off before the wheels get to it ?

The speed of the train and the distance from the front to the first wheel means there isn't time for the leaves to move out of the way before they are squashed. And once they are squashed they form a solid layer on top of the rail that is pretty hard to shift.

 

[Annetts key]

Plus any wheel on any axle can mush or crush a leaf. And the airflow around the train is comp!ex, sometimes sucking in leaves. And any train can mush or crush a leaf. Once the rail head is contaminated, the black slippery surface is more like the non-stick coating used on trying pans. And is difficult to remove. It also contaminates the train wheels.

It's less of a problem in areas where heavy freight trains regularly run or long heavy conventional coaching stock trains that use locomotives run regularly. And more of a problem where disc braked "lightweight" trains like DMUs are the only regular traffic.

 

[SamH92]

The speed of the train and the distance from the front to the first wheel means there isn't time for the leaves to move out of the way before they are squashed. And once they are squashed they form a solid layer on top of the rail that is pretty hard to shift.

Ahh ok that makes a lot of sense, what about a brushed system, if I sound stupid it’s because I know nothing about trains.

 

[bahnause]

Now although the ideas are to stop the train I understand but would it not be easier to fit a compressed air system with outlets pointed at tracks to blow the leaf fall off before the wheels get to it ?

The BLS Re 425 uses high pressure air instead of sand. They never changed it, so it seems to work ok (for a 84 ton loco).

 

[TRT]

It's a bizarre notion dragging an unconstrained anchor device under or behind a train, bouncing around, smashing up track, cables, equipment including on the underside of the train itself, flailing wildly from side to side before briefly establishing a hold on a random something then immediately destroying it, flinging debris everywhere. Something that grips the firmly secured rails better is a more elegant solution.

Well, if you're thinking of a chain anchor, but you could also have a rectangular "frame" that drops down with a row of "teeth" that will dig into the ballast and grip sleepers, similar to the one developed a few years ago for trucks which had a polyurethane and rubber roller system that caused forward motion to pin the brake frame further and harder onto the road as it rolled on. On that note, there's no need for whatever it is that drops to be excessively hard and destructive. A chain of heavy, sand filled, rubber bags would also slow a sliding train down without gouging out large swathes of infrastructure in the process. Of course, in this case, the best engineering solution would have been for the passing loop to have had trap points and sand drags at BOTH ends of the bypass track, the points co-operated with the points that return a train to the main line, so that a train cannot ever foul the loading gauge of a train on the other line by moving forwards onto the curved bit of track.

 

[BRX]

Any kind of dropping anchor type system surely would be highly dangerous in the event that for some reason it gets deployed un-intentionally at high speed.

Also, anything that fully grabs onto to something external and stops the train very suddenly is going to cause the same sorts of injuries as happen when the front of a train hits an obstacle.

 

[Lurcheroo]

the best engineering solution would have been for the passing loop to have had trap points and sand drags at BOTH ends of the bypass track,

What about the mainline though? A higher permissible speed and entirely possible to be routed into and get there before the other train, which is routed into the loop (or bypass track as you refer to it) meaning you have to stop.