Leaf Residue (Pectin, Slip/Slide, Waterworld, Sanders, and Lasers to Prevent Flat Spots

no most right of way is either 50 or 35 foot from nearest rail

How often does Waterworld clean up the New Haven main?

every night on weekdays sometimes extra on weekends.

Otto Vondrak wrote:

Patrick A. wrote:How has the slip/slide conditions been on the territory this year? On the New Haven Line it looks like the leaves haven't impacted travel much as none of my trains have had any trouble.

My train has consistently overshot stations between Harrison and Stamford over the last week or so.

Cut some trees back from the ROW and you won't have this problem create such an impact on operations. Oh wait, MN can't/won't spare crews to go out and cut trees. Never mind.

-otto-

Good luck trying that on the Danbury-- you'd have to deforest the entire hillside above Branchville before you'd make a dent on the leaves!

This past week the slip/slide was pretty bad due to the high winds, leafs on the rails and light rain. It was a bit worse during the PM rush than the AM rush on days like Wednesday and Thursday (11/17, 11/18).

MN does its best to combat this annual problem. They issue special operating instructions and do try to keep the rails clean with rail scrubbers and their "Water World" train. But that only helps so much. Most engineers just accept the fact that there will be some very slippery locations and try their best to keep their trains under control.

I rode the EL M&E several times between 1964 and 1973. I don't ever remember their MU's having a problem with leaves - they would charge us the 2% grade from Short Hills to Summit (or the eastbounds make their descent) completely unhindered. Occasionally when I would get off an MU at Broad St. Newark I would smell burning leaves and see some smoke coming from the brake shoes. Back in those days the NH had the washboard and olive drap MU's, which no doubt, had cast iron brake shoes like the old Lackawanna MU's.

Andy

Hasn't anyone heard of what happened when Helena had most of the brush removed along the LIRR? Most of it has already grown back, but I don't think you can say the same for the budget..

twropr wrote:I rode the EL M&E several times between 1964 and 1973. I don't ever remember their MU's having a problem with leaves - they would charge us the 2% grade from Short Hills to Summit (or the eastbounds make their descent) completely unhindered. Occasionally when I would get off an MU at Broad St. Newark I would smell burning leaves and see some smoke coming from the brake shoes. Back in those days the NH had the washboard and olive drap MU's, which no doubt, had cast iron brake shoes like the old Lackawanna MU's.

Andy

Keep in mind that the MUs used by MNRR are considered lightweight cars as compared to MU cars from the 1930's, 40's, 60's & 70's. Less weight on the wheels, less traction.

actually that weight works two ways, a heavier car once it starts sliding , slides much further.
it really does not matter since any railcar only has 8 x a one inch pencil stripe of metal touching the rail, or about a dimes worth of metal contact.

It seems to me that this annual discussion points to one of the best reasons to not electrify the Danbury branch. Even disregarding the huge investment for negligible gains, all these trees dropping leaves would seem to also provide a steady supply of branches ready to drop onto the catenary with every gust of wind. It wouldn't make sense to drop a billion dollars into overhead wires just so the trees can drop branches that will play havoc with the service.

Otto Vondrak wrote:

Patrick A. wrote:How has the slip/slide conditions been on the territory this year? On the New Haven Line it looks like the leaves haven't impacted travel much as none of my trains have had any trouble.

My train has consistently overshot stations between Harrison and Stamford over the last week or so.

Cut some trees back from the ROW and you won't have this problem create such an impact on operations. Oh wait, MN can't/won't spare crews to go out and cut trees. Never mind.

-otto-

Are you on #1270??? the one that CONSTANTLY delays my train lately, #1370????

Danbury has had issues lately but I am not sure if it is slip slide related. I heard 1868 had issues getting up the hill at Branchville early this week (Wednesday and Thursday we were going up the Danbury literally block for block in MBS, and on Wednesday me ended up on the very last line of Line 11 on the Form M!!!!

MNR's #1 Conductor wrote: Are you on #1270??? the one that CONSTANTLY delays my train lately, #1370????

Danbury has had issues lately but I am not sure if it is slip slide related. I heard 1868 had issues getting up the hill at Branchville early this week (Wednesday and Thursday we were going up the Danbury literally block for block in MBS, and on Wednesday me ended up on the very last line of Line 11 on the Form M!!!!

I know on Wednesday night, the first through train from GCT-Danbury was over 60 minutes late getting in, was that part of the problem??

No wednesday 1848 broke down at CP1 in tunnel and actually ran up the branch behind 1860 and in front of 1868.
on thursday and about a week ago 1860 had problems due to rain and leaf residue (anda few technical issues)
the adheasion was so poor only one traction motor was actually pulling, the others could not get horsepower to rail.

How did Metro-North make out this fall? Not having read anything about equipment shortages caused by out-of-round wheels, can I conclude that WaterWorld and train handling instructions were able to avoid serious delays caused by leaf residue?

Andy in FL

slip slide season is far from over, but so far you conclude right.