Copyright © 2023 Network Rail
Autumn Leaves Can Be Pretty, Pretty Dangerous
The trees in Philadelphia blossom with color when the autumn leaves arrive. The colors are bright and festive, and the leaves eventually wind up falling to the ground and creating a slip and fall hazard. As the autumn rains pick up when the calendar gets closer to winter, the wet leaves become more of a problem. The problem with wet autumn leaves is more than just the occasional injured pedestrian who slips and falls. The potential for a personal injury lawsuit being filed after a fall puts property owners on edge.
The Weather And The Leaves
One of the big problems with autumn leaves is that they do not always fall straight to the ground. Those cold, autumn winds can carry the leaves to places where people are not expecting them. When the leaves first fall to the ground, they are light and can be picked up easily by the wind and moved to just about any building in the immediate area.
Concrete residential structures with no trees close to them could find their concrete exterior stairwells covered in leaves because of the winds. When the rain and early snows come in, those leaves become significant slipping hazards on the concrete steps.
Unexpected Leaf Hazards
Autumn leaves blowing around in the Philadelphia streets are more than just possible slip and fall situations for pedestrians. When those leaves get into the streets and get wet, they become serious hazards for drivers too. Every vehicle from small cars to large trucks can find themselves sliding out of control thanks to leaves in the streets.
Blowing leaves can also clog up the storm drains and, when they get wet, they create flooding hazards for the streets. When the weather turns very cold, that water turns to ice and the situation gets even worse. Leaves can also clog the downspouts on homes and businesses and do a tremendous amount of water damage to the building.
On top of all of this, when the leaves dry and remain dry in the cold winds leading up to winter, they become fire hazards. The exhaust or catalytic converter that has been running can be exceptionally hot, and they could ignite any of the dry leaves that the vehicle comes into contact with. In general, autumn leaves are a problem and property owners are often responsible for the damage done.
How leaves affect the railway
There are millions of trees on and next to the railway in Britain and, every autumn, thousands of tonnes of leaves fall onto the tracks. Windy conditions can cause heavy leaf-fall in a short space of time and rain means they are more likely to stick to the rails. When trains pass over leaves, the heat and weight of the trains bake them into a thin, slippery layer on the rail. This is equivalent to black ice on the roads.
Slippery rails make it hard for trains to accelerate and brake effectively. Safety is our priority, so when this happens, drivers have to pull out of stations more slowly and brake much earlier for stations and signals to make sure they stop in time. This can lead to longer journey times and delays.
A build-up of leaves on the tracks can also cause delays by forming a barrier between the train wheels and the electrical parts of the track that help us to pin-point where trains are. When we aren’t sure exactly where a train is, the trains behind will be delayed at red signals until the first train’s location is established so our control rooms can be confident there is always a safe distance between trains.
How we reduce delays caused by leaves on the line
Even with the best preparation, leaves fall onto the lines. We work hard throughout the season to minimise delays and get you safely to your destination.
Leaf-busting trains
We have leaf-busting trains, which move around the railway cleaning the top of the rail by spraying it with a high-pressured water jet to blast away leaf mulch.
These trains also apply a gel, containing a mix of sand and steel grains, to help the train wheels run along the tracks as they normally would.
Our routes have numerous leaf-busting teams on-hand 24/7 at key locations across Britain to scrub the top of the rails by hand with a sand-based treatment, so that trains can run safely and reliably on the tracks.
Monitoring the weather
Our specialist weather forecasters monitor weather conditions and help us make the best use of our resources. Between October and December we receive forecasts twice a day that include estimates of leaf-fall and highlights locations needing more attention, so that we can target our leaf-busting machines and teams most effectively, and keep the railway running as smoothly and safely as possible.
Autumn timetables
In areas with very heavy leaf-fall some train operators publish special autumn timetables with revised journey timings. These timetables allow extra time for train drivers to drive more cautiously than at other times of the year, so that they can get passengers to where they need to go safely and reliably.
Managing trees and plants near the railway all year round
Throughout the year we carefully manage the trees and plants that grow next to the railway, so that we can minimise train delays caused by leaf-fall. We manage the lineside environment in a way that allows us to run a safe and reliable service for you and promotes natural biodiversity along the railway.
We can’t change the weather, but it can change your plans. Check your train is running on time by visiting National Rail or your train company’s website.
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Fancy Swirls Autumn Leaves Free SVG Cutting Files & Clipart includes:
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ABOUT THIS ITEM :
Fall is in the air – along with those colorful leaves we all love! These Fancy Swirls Autumn Leaves Free SVG Cutting Files & Clipart designs will add a little bit of fancy to your Autumn scrapbooking layouts, paper crafts, greeting cards, seasonal decorations, invitations, bulletin boards, stickers, vinyl projects, or other Fall themed crafting projects!
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