Fire Risk

As ably shown by things like this.

According the the weather on Monday Dorset is at 31% of usual rain

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp892y775zpo#:~:text=Road partially shut as car fire spreads to heath&text=Firefighters said the wind carried,were extinguished at 17:15.

 

However, to be fair, a serious car fire is likely to set fire to surrounding stuff even in 'normal' conditions.

 

Yes but it does not normally take four hours to put out. To date apparently 3 times more Dorset Heathland destroyed this year by fire than last. Plus of course lowland Heathland is now rarer in the world than rainforest apparently.

 

thanks

 

not forgetting regional variations, here in S Devon we have had many hours of steady rain all day today since before dawn, in fact it has just stopped in the last hour.

 

The Heather gets a more woody stem structure to it, as it is no longer burned. To get it at its best you burn it, the seeds go off with a crack, and you get a new seed bed, with decent growth in 18 months.
Some say it is unsightly, however as it is woody, it becomes possible to be overgrown by grass and gorse. We do a controlled burn at our golf course, using backpack blowers to control the fire path.
It has excellent results every time.

 

I totally agree with you regarding NR losing the plot. In Germany, for instance, the lineside is much better managed and would never be allowed to get into the state much of our main lines are here. Even in main line stations there are sections of "jungle", Crewe for instance is a disgrace. It is simply cost and manpower cutting gone to the extreme.

 

We can easily control a 2 acre plot of heather with the backpacks, i am sure NR could invoke a similar procedure if they wanted, i doubt they do.

Regarding Tree regime's, you would be surprised, in the mid 80's a past regime planted Birch by the 100's, which were never managed, and have become a large "weed", as far as we are concerned. One item worth noting, andIi see Birch regularly on rail travels, they thrive on water, then grow towards any drainage, and then roots block it, causing water back up, upstream of the tree, wonder if this is a NR issue????

 

Andover too, or it was when I last checked it for a possible photo spot using Google maps.

And so far as how has Gemany coped? Only talking about the main line steam operations, as far as I know the oil fired locos are running ok. But I did land on a web site (looking for voles of course) that I can't re-find, that I think covered a major steam trip soon covering a long distance over one or more days, that had a good number of steam locos planned. But a footnote seemed to mention 4-5 locos re fire risk. I only speak/read limited German and only glanced at the note. If I could find the website again I'd check. But at a guess it was maybe suggesting a lot of helpers would be needed unless the situation changed. Others here who still grice in The Fatherland may know more about this trip.

I'm only looking at German Dampf again as in between my designer getting on with my BR SR steam loco book, I have started my German Steam Loco book memoirs. Same basic layout but a lot less timing logs, a lot more text and a lot more photos. And I'm just writing my third ever trip there which was in March 1971, to see if 78 246 was ever likely to go back to Rottweil down near the Black Forest area. I didn't see it then, but I did see and time the wonderful P8 aka 38 class 4-6-0s, and doing the area map it brought tears to my eyes with all the location names down there I visited in the frst part of the 1970s. Some from 1974 with my ever so lovely wife, with whom the highlight of our 'holiday' was watching 78 246 shunting at Rottweil! Under renovation at present with the aim of getting back to Rottweil.

Getting back to fire risk, that 78 246 holiday (other locos were available) saw us spend a night or two at Freudenstadt in the Black Forest where we 'enjoyed' what my gricing notes said was a 24 hour cloudburst!

Bryan

 

I do realise it is from Rail Magazine but a friend sent me a link to this on Monday
https://www.railmagazine.com/news/concerns-grow-over-lineside-vegetation-on-network

Some time back on wnxx a number of drivers said they had stop bothering to report such things as NR never did anything about it anyway.

 

Without wishing to drift thread further, of concern must be the number of structures that have shrubs and trees growing out of them. Not just buddleia, but I have noticed quite substantial trees taking root in viaducts etc - surely this could lead to quite extensive structural failure?
This isn't a new problem, but short sighted maintenance cost cutting from privatisation days that is now coming back to bite big time. I think its quite obvious NR have lost all control over this and surely an accident is waiting to happen.

 

I found the Copernicus EMS Fire Danger Forecast quite interesting.

Visit https://forest-fire.emergency.copernicus.eu/apps/effis_current_situation/ and check "FIRE DANGER FORECAST"

 

For possibly the last time this season..?

NW region has, as of yesterday, rescinded its red status and joins the rest of the country on green status.

 

Good news at last, thanks for keeping us informed