Santas and Snow

Hi All,

As we are up to about 15 inch of snow here in the North Ease (And more is falling as i type) it made me wonder what other railways have in place due to heavy snow?
We obviously want to keep our service running and It would be interesting to see what plans railways have in place to cope with such severe weather.

Chris

 

The number 1 problem is going to be public access and safety. You may be able to clear the line and run trains but if people can't get to the site or can't walk around it safely once there then its going to be a problem. We nearly had a called off rugby game on Saturday - not because the pitch was dangerous but because of potential danger of ice on the walkways in the stands.

Unreliable as they sometimes are the best bet is to keep an eye on sites like the metoffice.gov.uk and metcheck.com, both of which do longer range forecasts so you can know when to target your efforts to clear snow etc.

 

netweather.tv is also quite good and well worth a visit.

 

Second that, definitely better than metcheck!

 

To answer your question, Middleton has plans to top'n'tail, if necessary, for a start. This reduces the need to operate pointwork, which can be a real pain in snowy weather, especially when the Annett's lock freezes up!. Keeping steam locos safe from frost damage in the cold weather is also a big problem. Fortunately, ours are kept inside midweek but it can still get cold enough to freeze in doors in an unheated building. All vulnerable bits (injectors, pipework, etc) are well covered with a thick wrapping of rags. On the night before we need them, a warming fire is put in and some poor guy (usually me) has to look after them. The biggest problem that we have is the loco water supply as that invariably freezes up and, because of its arrangement, we can't have a fire devil. Plastic pipe is hard to defrost when it gets frozen, as well!
We had similar conditions for three weekends last year and, despite the problems with road conditions, only three pre-booked families failed to turn up. There was no shortage of turn up on the day customers, either.
We were caught out with lack of rocksalt last year so are well prepared this time around.

 

YOu have to hope there is no problem considering the numbers and revenue that Santa trains bring to some of the lines. wiothout that revenue it would a nasty whole in a few budgets.

 

Well we ran with a banker (a lot of people seem to dislike the term 'top and tail' at Tanfield) for some of last weekend, we cleared the car parks, footpaths, platforms and so on and gritted from just before 6am last weekend. Also did a walk down the line to check flangeways and so on. We've got gear to de frost pointwork and so on but at times nothing seems to work better than a burning rag. Me thinks the hardy litle gang of four or five me be in order again this weekend!

On the subject of locos we had a third one in steam last weekend for a few hours just to keep it warm.

 

I must say you did a marvelous job last weekend keeping the service running, I had an enjoyable weekend despite the frost bite!

Another day will be spent at the railway this weekend due to the road issues. Keep up the cracking work, are the same two engines out this weekend?

Simon

 

As it currently stands it will be 49 and Twizell.

Depending on the situation when we get in tomorrow a decision will be made as weather we are to bank or not.

 

Despite the weather, Middleton will be running its Santa trains this weekend, if anyone is looking to arrange a late visit. There are places available as, unfortunately, we have had a large group cancel because of the weather.
Locos in use will be MW 1601 and Brush diesel D2999.

 

On the SVR 6 steam locos due to be active today - details here:

http://forum.svra.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1871

 

Chasewater Railway had good access to visitors, must admit we have been lucky in the West Midlands with the levels of snow.
A couple of images from today
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31339850@N06/5235547013/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31339850@N06/5235546999/

graham

 

Another tropical day at Tanfield.Special thanks to all volunteers for keeping railway running
Dee D


http://henrysgallery.fotopic.net/

 

Nice pics henrywinskill. I'd imagine that the snows here to stay for the rest of the santa season too. It's already about thigh high around the crossing, me and another volunteer got the short straw and walked down the line to clear flangeways of ice etc on the Sat am.

 

was a cracking Sunday at the PBR, although the rain on the Saturday had removed some of the snow

http://www.aligrieve.fotopic.net/c1921963.html

more snow the previous Sunday

http://www.aligrieve.fotopic.net/c1920305.html

Well done to the Tanfield boys for keeping going despite the weather.

 

Mech Navies certainly looks good in the snow. Must be in the top few best looking Austerities at the moment.

It's interesting to see just over the hill from us that Beamish have devised a snow plough for their tramway... http://beamishtransport.blogspot.com/

 

No snow on the Severn Valley today, but packed trains, a frequent sevice to "Santaland" ( Arley) and lots of happy faces. Everything appeared to be running smoothly.

Thank goodness the Santa trains are pretty well fully booked. The money goes out big time in early 2011 with circa £500k of expenditure just to maintain the aged infrastructure.

 

My video from today's Severn Valley Santas

[Youtube]VR5EsXyqJVw[/Youtube]

...and photos can be found here;



http://teenagesteamphotography.fotopic.net/

Cheers,
Lewis

 

Looking at the Santa trains that came past me on the MHR today I couldn't see any spare seating.

http://lee.mediaobjects.co.uk/p68408005.html

 

Great pics there, Lewis. I particularly like the ones of the Manor(s).

I drove up early from Somerset this morning, with the intention of spending the morning photographing the SVR 'Santas' - however a major accident on the M5 brought traffic to a standstill, meaning that I had to turn back, after a long period waiting. Oh well...maybe next year!

Called in at Bitton on the way home - RSH No.7151 was in action, on six well-filled Mk1s. The car-park operation looked very slick! Thanks to Andrew (moonlighting from the Middleton) and Marcus for making me feel welcome.

Cheers,

Phil.