Road-Rail machines cutting lineside vegetation to prevent leaf-fall onto the tracks causing delay through train wheel slippage.
For many years, delay on the railway caused by 'leaves on the line' has been the butt of regular and amusing annual stories in the press. However, the jokes mask a real problem. Leaf fall onto tracks that causes train wheels to slip, braking to become less effective, trains to overshoot stations and signalling circuits to fail so that controllers aren't exactly sure where trains are located, are serious safety issues whenever deciduous trees are situated near the line. The simplest solution would be to remove all deciduous trees near the railway but this is unlikely to gain support either politically or environmentally, especially in urban areas where trees do such an excellent job in screening the lines. Therefore, a mitigation progamme is usually carried out involving pruning trees, applying sand to the tracks to increase adhesion, clearing leaves with high-pressure water jets, modifying train handling in the Autumn and accepting that some delays will be inevitable. Road-railers are ingenious and specialised self-propelled work vehicles that can be used legally on both roads and railways. Because they can drive on the road, they can gain access to rail work sites more easily than a conventional rail vehicle which may have to be lifted onto the tracks by a crane. Road-railers are usually converted rubber-tyred road vehicles with an additional set of steel rail wheels which can be raised and lowered hydraulically, allowing these vehicles to operate on the rail tracks. Road-railers come in a wide variety of types for transporting people, carrying and excavating materials, inspecting track and can perform a huge variety of tasks when equipped with various handling devices.
Size: 3307px × 3307px
Location: Kent, England, UK.
Photo credit: © qaphotos.com / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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