Summer or Winter: Which Season is Harder for Infrastructure?

[Up_Tilt_390]

I've seen it documented a few times that in the winter, snowfall and ice can cause serious issues on the railway resulting in slower speeds and such and even halting some trains, with no shortage of delays and cancellations. However, I've also known railways to buckle under the hot sun given that metal gets significantly hotter than the air when in direct sunlight, which pretty much produces the same result in slowing down trains and even leading to cancellations.

However, I'd like to know from experienced railway enthusiasts, and most importantly railway workers, which season is harder for the railway infrastructure and train operators between the hot summers and cold winters? Personally, I would initially imagine it's hard to answer since ice and snowfall isn't actually as common in the UK as scorching hot summer heatwaves, even though we generally have a cloudy and chilly climate for the most part. Perhaps here I can get some clear and solid answers. Thanks in advance...

 

[civ-eng-jim]

I'd say winter wins hands down.

Winter/Autumn brings:

High winds - Can bring down OLE on its own if components are old, cause trees/branches to fall on OLE or onto track. For coastal routes storms can result in higher waves and sea spray issues.

Heavier and more persistent rain - Flooding, erosion, land slips, heave of track beds, ballast washout.

Falling leaves - Slippery rails messes up timetables due to low adhesion.

Fog - speed restrictions/conservative driving.

Ice (it's pretty common) and snow - 3rd rail becomes less reliable/stops working, points can freeze up if not heated, snow blocks routes and points . The "wrong sort of snow" that the media roll out a lot I believe was that snow wasn't cold enough (as it can act as a blanket insulator) to trigger thermostats to turn on points heating so ended up jamming points. Snow/ice jamming semaphore signals. Icicles forming in tunnels.

Summer time brings:

Buckling of track in summer is more manageable or not an issue on modern well-maintained track.

Vegetation growth - Spring time when it's both damp and sunny results in rapid growth.

Excessive drying out of earthworks can result in shrinkage affecting the track bed and track geometry.

I'm sure there are other issues of heat on rolling stock, air con breaking down.

Other posters can elaborate on issues.

 

[6Gman]

Other problem in winter is that when things go wrong there's more chance of having to sort it in the cold and dark!

 

[Up_Tilt_390]

So it seems at the minute winter is considered a worse season, but are there more people who can testify to what is worse?

 

[snowball]

You may be interested in the article "the four seasons of maintenance" by John Glover on pp. 69-70 of the October issue of Modern Railways, based on a Permanent Way Institution seminar earlier this year.

 

[DarloRich]

Each season has it's own challenges. I suspect the physical infrastructure suffers more in the heat while the train service suffers more in the winter. The bill for autumn/Winter is much higher than summer though. You don't need to run many snow ploughs in June.....................

(PS it is Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer that should be compared in my mind)

 

[Ben.A.98]

From a S&T view the winter is normally worse for us. High winds can cause level crossing failures, heavy rain/flooding can cause track circuit failures, and of course snow will jam and freeze our points. Leaf fall can also cause issues with trains bobbing the track circuits.

Most of our summer issues are regulating signal wires in the heat.

 

[DarloRich]

makes no difference for me. The office in warm and dry all year round

 

[YorkshireBear]

As someone who works in flooding I would say winter is worse generally... There are more flooding instances. Even if maybe there are some floods in the summer.