Driving in bad weather

London got off reasonably lightly while Storm Bert hit on Sunday 24 November. But it did make for miserable conditions.

That weekend, at my depot, nearly all our driving was outside. When driving outside, you might get some daylight. You might have a nice day, even in autumn, if you are lucky. But you won’t get that when the skies are grey, even during the shortened day.

I set off on my first trip with grey skies looming and the wind billowing. A notice informed me that the rail adhesion train, “The Rat”, was defective. We were told to be extra vigilant in some areas because rail adhesion might be poor.

“The Rat” runs during the leaf-fall timetable, spraying the rails continually to combat the hazard of decaying leaf litter mixed with water, which can causes the wheels to lock up and spin. When braking is applied, you get the dreaded flats (uneven wear on wheels making them no longer circular).

Such problems were evident in some areas where “The Rat” would typically have an effect. You would hope there will be better options than stopping on a steep gradient, but signals don’t work like that. So sometimes, as you release the brakes, the wheels start spinning furiously before moving. Trains are fitted with runback protection, which applies an emergency brake if they roll back for more than a single wheel rotation. The train’s “falling” sensation is unpleasant even when almost immediately stopped.

Later, the rain picked up, and the air-powered wipers’ age and limited capacity became another challenge. Loud, frequently stuck, and often smearing rather than clearing the rain, they are some of the most frustrating equipment on an increasingly frail and failing stock.

Trains terminated early in two places and had to be physically detrained, but in their wisdom operational management allocated no extra station staff, though that is what the Special Requirements Team (SRT) are meant to be utilised for. That meant organising the detraining ourselves, maybe with the help of a single station staff member, and one who will soon be taken up answering the queries of bemused passengers who find their journey curtailed and insist they did not know about the weekend’s engineering work.

With much less driving in such conditions, we should come away from it less tired. However, the shifts are the same length, and repeating the same thing so quickly is worse in many ways. Roll on the usual ninety-plus minutes of continuous driving next week!