Trains’ Weirdly Massive Problem with Leaves
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As a New Yorker I'm legit shocked we're innovating at anything dealing with our trains, good on us lmao
Innovating for America rail systems sure the rest of the world not so much. I mean there are articles about Europe introducing laser trains from 2014.
Please clean your trains.
It's not like the northeast doesn't have the best trains in the country or anything
@@FakeSchrodingersCatThat's not how science and engineering works. This was actually first proposed by a UK company in 1999 but it did not work. Being in article means it's either being attempted to move from lab to reality and it may or may not have worked. This laser is being developed by LPA, a Netherlands company, and they were testing their prototype in partnership with MTA. They plan on using data gathered by both sides and develop a final version which will then go under consideration of is cost effectiveness analysis.
The Netherlands have been doing this since 2014
The leaves are simply built different. However, what you should really worry about is bricks. It only takes one brick to delay a train.
If the time stamps are correct it took less then 2 minutes for a brick comment to drop on this vid. 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
And Danzig had a whole big pile in his front yard…smh..😐
@@jackgibsxxx0750less than 1m according to my time stamps
actually, a train would simply just smash a brick into a lot of little pieces🤓
@@oh_finks not if you throw it at the railroad engineer. Then the train won’t stop for a long while
Companion video: “Why planes need lasers: Planes’ weirdly massive problem with birds”
🐸
“Why planes need BRICKS: Planes’ weirdly massive problem with birds”
“Bird strikes reduced 60% as USAF implements drones to combat geese”
I'm assuming a cooked goose would do a similiar amount of damage to an engine as a raw goose.
Why cars need lazers: Cars problems with other cars that don't use indicators.
Train driver here, it's crazy how slippery the track becomes when the right ammount of moisture meets crushed leaves (it's MUCH worse than snow or even ice)... A few years ago i approached a station very slowly, knowing the risks. I still had the first three cars overshoot the platform at crawling speed with the wheels locked, while the people on the platform cheered and laughed. You see, all the trains before me had failed to stop correctly at the platform and those people had come only to bet on how many cars would overshoot 😂 They made me laugh, which was very welcome because i wasn't too proud of myself 😅 Years earlier i missed a station entirely despite approaching very slowly. Fortunately there was only one passenger on the platform so i went back on foot to have her follow me to the train. That time the wheels were damaged and the difference between the distance measured by the wheels sensors and the track radar was so great that the onboard computer freaked out... If any train or tramway driver reads this, here's my pro tip: when it's extra slippery don't wait until you are under the magnetic brake trigger speed before you go into emergency. That's what got me both times as i was going very slowly and the magnets didn't trigger (static shock protection). 😒
blame it on the stupid on board computers as well the sensors mess it up as well
Better to miss the station than hit it, which happened to a train in Brisbane. Went right into the toilets.
Well then, that's the solution. The train company should just start promoting bets on overshooting trains, so then people will see it as a good thing.
never mind the 'square wheels' you get from this... tribology is a b*tch
Do drivers get penalized for this or anything? I'd hope not lol
“Train cancelled because of leaves on the track” is one of the most frequently-used lazy punchlines in British stand-up comedy, along with “bus only arrives in threes” and “toaster always burns the bread”. Now, thanks to HAI, we know this is actually far more of a legit problem than Michael McIntyre would have you believe
The clumpiness of buses is also a real problem, and an extremely difficult one to solve. Suppose for whatever reason one bus is delayed slightly (it's impossible to have a bus system that never experiences any delays.) The first bus to arrive somewhere tends to take on a lot of passengers. When the second bus arrives, it takes on fewer, because it's only slightly behind the bus in front. So now the front bus is full of passengers and will thus take longer to unload. So you now effectively have a slower bus stuck in front of a faster one. Now, in this situation, the front bus is usually instructed to let the one behind pass, but you still end up with the same problem a couple stops down the line, the other way around.
The bus clumpiness is not difficult to solve. All you need is less cars on the road, a clear timetable and central coordination of the bus distances.
@@Warentester Even with no cars, buses will still exhibit this behavior for the reasons I mentioned. You could make it less clumpy by asking buses behind a delayed bus to just stand still for a while, but that's not really progress. A clear timetable isn't useful if sometimes buses get delayed and are unable to meet the timetable. This happens to trains as well, and they don't have to deal with any cars.
Since buses can pass each other, it's probably possible to resolve this problem by changing schedules and routes on the fly, but I wouldn't call that easy.
@@Warentesterif theres more people the bus stops more. Traffic isn’t the issue. Stopping at every single bus stop adds a lot of time. If theres 30 stops and each stop takes 30 seconds thats 15min right there. Now add missing lights due to having to stop to drop someone off and you are even further behind. Then add passengers who aren’t prepared and spend 1min wasting everyone else’s time searching for the fare. Theres a lot more variables then cars. But go ahead and keep watching “not just bikes” and demonizing people who want to own a car.
@@EebstertheGreat I disagree. This is an issue of dumb "every 7 min" type schedules, rather than modern tracked schedules based on fixed arrival times. In fixed time schedules buses keep their distance and have buffer times pencilled in to deal with delays. Central guidance systems will also monitor the distance and tell any bus catching up to delay. It's an outdated problem.
I knew about that, leaves are a huge risk for motorcyclist, but I had never thought about that regarding trains.
A
True, though interestingly it's for a completely different reason.
In that case it's because leaves slide along the surface rather than pectin reacting to high pressure.
CLIBBINS!
Also hiking the AP in the fall.
So what your saying is we need Lazer bikes 😄
Personally I think all trains should be equipped with lasers year round. not for track clearence, just because its cool. also to blow up that freight train causing my Amtrak delay.
Blow up the idiot who went around the gates instead of hitting them
And according to a different HAI video, that's because of a really twisted interpretation of a law that was designed to get passenger trains to have priority, but somehow does the opposite.
Kinda like how Monopoly Buster laws were somehow interpreted in a way that let monopolies get bigger and bigger while punishing unions.
Real
@@OtakuUnitedStudio I think it's not so much the laws as freight railroads either not caring or conveniently being literally unable to let passenger trains pass due to extra large trains (thanks to precision scheduled railroading) and (now) undersized passing sidings
That freight train is probably carrying toxic chemicals...
I actually hold the patent for this! LRC (laser railway cleaning) which is for cleaning raiil by ablation. I built the first version in the Netherlands in 2014. Suprised to see it here. Anyone has a question I be happy to answer. I sold it because laying under a train is not my long term goal...
How do you even develop something like this? What does the R&D process look like for leaf goo laser ablation? Do you just start with commodity lasers, a piece of decommissioned track, and a hammer for squishing, or is there something more sophisticated in the early proof of concept stages?
@@sylveonenjoyer5394 the early proof of concept stage was a giant wheel made of rail so we could just spin in circles without a train, the laser is a pulse laser with very high frequency which was pretty hard to source (finally came from Trumph), we had optics made by the Fraunhofer institute. It was a matter of finding the best party for each part of the job. I had the idea but I can not build a train. For instance we used CapGemini for the project planning and the Technical University Delft for the tribology, etc. Things discovered in the process was that we needed a gap detector (in case we go over a bridge and there is a gap between track and someone is just chilling in his boat underneath) and we need a pulse based laser and not continious because that would have inifinite focus and might even be a concern for the ISS (this was a literal concern on the development). I know lasers, I actually come from show design world (concerts) and somebody from NS (Dutch rail) asked me if I had an idea for the leaf problem. In the end it is is a high speed paint stripper, we shock the bio mass with energy and it simply has to grow that is the law of nature. So there are 2 options, bend the track, or let go. Turns out there is a 3rd option, turn to dust because what nature is asking of you is just not possible. So all that is left is suck away the dust. What you did not see in the video is that we had a thick metal cover for the entire process which lowers to the track with air pressure system. There is about 40 sensors to figure out if everything is safe enough to turn on the actual laser. Multiply by 2 since we do both sides at once. The earliest stages was possibly me finding out that a club laser on a sticker stuck on metal would have the same effect as a paint stripper and this stuck in my head. I am a BsC this might help too.
Why couldn't we use flame throwers?
@@brenster21 at 60mph that wouldn't do much
Use of high power ablative lasers generally requires operators, and anyone else in the vicinity wear rated laser safety goggles. Trains on the other hand don't operate in full enclosed environments and routinely pass by tens of thousands of people every day who aren't wearing laser goggles. How do you keep stray beams from reflecting off the tracks and potentially injuring or blinding a random passerby?
As a conductor instructor working on passenger trains I can confirm that in 'leaf fall season' we run a different time table and drivers use special driving techniques to keep trains under control and avoid wheel flats, station overruns and signals passed at danger.
Fun little fact about wheels that are worn down flat; the FRA has a certain length requirement for damage like that. If the length of the flat spot is less than the maximum, railroads will often just leave the wheels alone and they round out over time as they’re used and experience normal wear and tear. This is why you’ll almost always hear that clacking sound when a train passes by.
I thought the clacking was from small gaps between each individual rail as wheels pass over them. Railroad cars usually have trucks with two pairs of wheels, so when you hear "click-clack, click-clack" it's two wheels of one car followed by two wheels of the next.
@@areadenial2343 I’m talking about a different sound. Best way I can describe it is a dinging that travels down the train with the car.
@@barrel6468I think I know the sound you mean and if so it's one of my favorite things
I read the title as "We need lesser trains" and was I was ready to write an entire book in the comments about how we need more trains not less I think the stress from that cost me like a decade of my life.
what being terminally online does to someone
edit: people i was referring more to the fact of them going to write a whole essay AND NOT the part about trains
@hithere640 To be honest I can't even be mad at you.
apple
r.i.p.
Juice
1:29 it should be a gigapascal of pressure, not force. One pascal is one newton per square meter and newton is the unit of force.
Can't wait for this to show up in the yearly mistake video
Are you telling me Issac Newton is on a railway track pressing down on it?
@@xxjr8axx Yes. One Isaac Newton is standing on a section of rail with an area equivalent to one square meter. And he‘s trying really hard to not make the train move. Poor little fucker is gonna get run over
@@xxjr8axxno, he's forcing down on it. Blaise Pascal is doing the pressing.
technically it's not even wrong though, pressure is force per area
it'd be like saying my boots are full of 480 g/L industrial grade Treflan herbicide concentrate, I'm not telling you the absolute amount, rather that my boots are an ecologicial hazard and if you push me into a lake all the fish will die
As the Bible says, "A leaf does not fall without delaying British Rail"
*doth not fall. (Sam 4:78)
Amen brother!
John 1:12 - "Get dem lasers, guuurl!"
That was Abraham Lincoln. Not the Bible.
I lived 6 years in Amsterdam. Everybody in the Netherlands use trains to commute to the next town. Whenever the first leaves fall, the whole country grinds to a halt.
You guys proved you are stronger than the goddamn sea, don't let a few puny leaves beat you!
time for some laser trains
It’s almost as if public transit is not a magic bullet
@@zachw566 it's almost as if public transit doesn't kill 1.3 million people annualy, with 20-50 million getting injured and/or possibly disabled
@@zachw566It’s almost as if cars still cause worse problems.
Well actually. Pascals are a measure of pressure not force. (love your work sam)
I have a lot of pascals in my life right now.
@@Norp-i7m Petition to measure anxiety in pascals
@@OrangeC7 I've had some exams that were definitely hectopascals
We're forgetting the real solution here: Have a guy lay down on a platform in front of the train, with their tongue on the rail. As the train moves, he will eat all the yummy leaf goo and we will be saved.
nah you’d need two guys, one for each rail
Ok
i volunteer!
Not to disparage your leaf eating talents, but goats could do it faster and for lower pay.
@@josephatthecoop What, so you suggest outsourcing American jobs to goats? Who goes next, retail workers? Accountants? In this economy? For shame...
Couple corrections/thoughts: you'd want high (static) friction between the train wheels and tracks in all circumstances. Friction doesn't just allow the train to slow without sliding, it allows the train to accelerate without "spinning out." The lack of deformation of steel is useful for reducing rolling resistance, but you don't want low friction between the wheels and tracks ever, that's not where energy losses to friction are happening. Static friction causes no energy loss. Another reason you'd want to not have wheels sliding while braking is that it lengthens the stopping distance, since kinetic friction is weaker than static friction. Also, gigapascals are a measure of pressure, not force.
First we had Ghost Trains now Laser Trains. I wonder what the third installment in the trainlogy would be.
Space trains. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Elon Musk suggests them as a way to travel between the Earth, Moon, and Mars.
Those honestly both sound like good titles for a sci fi original movie
Virtual Trains
Please be Laser Ghost Trains. Ghosts with lasers riding trains would be kind of cool.
Unfortunately your 3rd train is cancelled and replaced by the worst thing ever, a rail replacement bus.
/s
If Leaves find out about this and adapt, we could have an arms race on our hands.
If you would have asked me to guess the best method to clean leaf sludge off of railroad tracks, there is almost no chance I would have guessed "Laser Trains." 😂
Years ago, I interned at a place that made train parts. On a very boring afternoon, I overheard a few engineers in the next cubical talking about using lasers to get rid leaves on the track. I half thought they were joking, but apparently not.
Just wait until the leaves respond to this arms race with little tiny mirrors.
In Sweden, they have a simple solution. They attach scrubbing brushes to the front of the trains to clean the rails. Works well.
I was thinking of something similar. I assume that is what they do in Denmark and Germany as well, because delays due to leaves are also extremely rare here
@@Carewolf Speaking for Germany, delays due to leaves are probably extremely rare because there are 99 more impactful reason why Deutsche Bahn trains are delayed as the Deutsche Bahn itself is its biggest enemy xD
You're confusing rolling resistance and (static) dry friction, both may be called friction. The rolling resistance, which is important for rolling, is 0.001 to 0.003 for trains vs 0.006 to 0.015 for cars; this is what you want to minimise. The static dry friction (μ_0), which is important for accelerating and braking, is ~0.5 for trains vs ~0.9 for cars; this is what you want to maximise.
Also, as others have pointed out, GPa is pressure, not force.
Science rules!
This is a much bigger problem than it used to be, here in the UK at least. Two reasons: modern disc brakes are more effective but don't clean the wheel treads like the old brake shoes used to, and lineside foliage was trimmed much more aggressively in the days of steam when fires were a constant threat during summer.
It's worth noting that cars struggle with this as well. Not as much as trains, but still, if you're driving over a patch of wet leaves be careful.
Nice to see American transit actually do something boundary-pushing for once
Pretty much the same reason why you usually see Shinkansen and those Chinese High speed trains on Viaducts/plains instead of surrounded by trees. (Both have trains that use slower lines with trees around, but both are also running at slower speeds)
0:05 That particular picture implies the pea is doing more than just beating the princess
I work for the subway in NYC, we have about 3 trains that shoot a gel substance on the rails in the fall to get combat the sliding. Only problem is that the first train behind that gel train always slides even worse
For about 6 weeks out the year, they put up "slow zones" outside of stations in areas known for having leaf problems, but even at a low speed you can still slide
As someone who has used a shopping cart at a Walmart, I know all about how having a flat spot on a wheel causes it to CLANG every time it makes a rotation.
Here in Oahu, Hawaii, we just opened the first leg of our new rail system, and I hope no falling leaves or flowers will give troubles to our rail cars. It is on an elevated track, so I doubt any leaves or flowers will fall onto the tracks.
I think the problem is partly due to the weather conditions when the leaves fall. Dead dry leaves aren't as much of an issue, train wheels crush them into a powder which blows away in the wind. It's dead wet leaves that are a problem, they're the ones that stick to the rails and get squashed into a goo. In temperate climates leaves fall seasonally when the weather is usually cool and wet, so you get goo. In more tropical climates leaves tend to fall when it's hot and relatively dry, so you're more likely to get powder.
The LIRR actually started using Lazer trains first years ago, then the technology was transferred over to its sister railroad at metro north. The LIRR’s M3’s have mostly been retired but some are Lazer trains now too, one of which is known as the longhorn unit because it has horns strapped on its end cabs
The leaf problem came mostly into existance when steam trains were replaced.
Plants needed to be removed regulary wider due to fire hazards on the tracks.
Steam trains did regulary spark ambers from the chimney and firebox.
Thats why now often a train with firefighting equipment runs shortly after a heritage steamtrain has run the line.
With Diesel and electric trains you don't need to clear so wide anymore.
Looking at old pictures of railway tracks you can see that the tracks are way more cleared then now.
Ad faster/lighter trains, disc brakes (on axle) instead of brakeshoes on the wheels and you ad more factors to the leaf problem.
I've missed lessons at school, university, late to work, late to weddings, football games & much more simply due to leaves on the track. Always in the background of my life
I work for laser precision solutions. We make the LaserTrains for metro North. I'm so amazed half as interesting made a video about us
Please post a link to videos that show your lasers at work?
@@ianweniger6620 th-cam.com/video/LCeT93EYAEs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=VlmZdeHi7hts0gWO
I'm curious: did you take microsections of the rail and examined if the laser induces any microstructural transformations in adverse conditions? I guess total reflection only works if the rail is shiny and rust free. But what if it's rusty? And what if it's worn to a rough surface? I can't not wonder if the metro will report rail damages in another years time.
@@bruncebanani8854 yes we run studies on the micro structure of railway steel to make sure nothing bad is happening with the rail itself. We are actually very good at removing the rust layer too which improves COF for the train's too
Great, just what we need: Trains with fricken laser beams attached to their sides. We can only hope that Dr. Evil doesn't hear about this.
As an Engineer i can confirm that 1 gigapascal is indeed 1 billion Pedro Pascals punching as hard as they can
Nerd
Thanks for the advice! Now I will go and lay leaves on the train tracks to disrupt public infrastructure.
The coefficient of friction argument doesn't really work when talking about train wheels. The coefficient of friction between the wheel and the track does not determine the efficiency of rolling, because the wheels never "slide" or rub against the tracks. The contact point between the wheel and rail is a rolling contact point, not a sliding one. Like you said, it is the lack of deformation of the steel wheels that makes them efficient, not their lack of friction. In fact, that lack of friction is the unfortunate necessary downside that comes with the really nice rigid and efficient wheel design.
You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have trains with frickin' laser beams attached!
Sam probably went into little kid mode when he found out about laser trains
I sense a joke coming on that math problem that begins "A train leaves..."
I've always liked trains and public transport over cars, but now that I've learned about laser trains, I just can't imagine how you'd pick a car over that.
"WHAT IS IT WITH HUMANS AND LASERS?"
"It is not just us, cats love them too."
- Alien Roommate.
Are just going to overlook that playful dig at Wendover at 00:51 =D
Me thinking about putting leafblowers in the front of every train, cleaning all rails before hand.🤣
The graphic at 4:03 had me ROFL.
Steve Mould made an excellent video on this a few years ago. I like the different approach you took on this topic from him.
I was going to say I though there was another video by a fairly big TH-cam creator about this. thankfully "leaves train slippery" was enough to find it :P
1:16 the perfect villain of leaves. Poison ivy.
I'm sure it will smell great once vaporized, and also not cause any problems what so ever!
I remember being a child and placing individual leaves on a railway track to see what would happen. My parents were the worst yes.
The UK is famous for leaves on the line to the point people joke about it being just an excuse for any delay
For once, the use of lasers not only sounds cool, but, is actually useful.
WTF are you talking about. Lasers are always fun and useful.
me: i'll watch this while tabbed out, it's probably listenable
sam: THIS THING only works if there's the right amount of friction between THESE THINNGS and THIS THING
Leaves are fine but frozen rain on tracks can cause havoc. Diesel train I usually used to get to "big city" once was crowling to stop at station as friction was almost non-existing. But it was relatively small portion of route directly affected so after safe pre-braking (assuming it is slippery) in next station, it was fine-ish again.
apparently in Chicago they set the RR switches on fire in winter if there is an ice storm coming off the lake. That is they have gas jets that keep the switches hot, not like some dude goes out there and sprays the rail bed with gasoline and tosses a match.
So leaves don't cause any issues?
... induces an as yet unstudied, but presumably lethal, amount of rage in people who miss their trains. LOL.
Good video ! BTW, this topic is so complex that I managed to get a PhD from it lol
Im a uk rail engineer maintaining passenger trains.
Once a wheel begins to slide it doesnt apply an emergency brake, it actually releases brake pressure on that wheel until it starts rotating again.
It sounds bad by getting the wheel turning again, the train will stop quicker.
If a train gets a flat, the noise is the least of our worries, that bang is like a giant punch on the rail. A bad enough flat will cause track defects and the excess vibration can damage other train components.
In Italy we simply keep several meters on both sides of the tracks clear of any trees. I've yet to see trains delayed by wet leaves on the tracks in Northern Italy
I have never heard of one in Japan either. I think it is just Anglo problem.
nature hates the English
@@ryuuguu01 In the UK, the sides of train tracks are often left to become mini-nature reserves with all sorts of wildlife living amongst the vegetation, it brings some greenery to urban areas and it's too late to change it now.
I've never seen a more intriguing thumbnail/tagline.
"Why we need laser trains".
There's zero chance I'm not clicking on it.
Can't they just place high pressure air systems at the front of each train to blow it away? Recharged by sucking in air when moving?
Mightve already turned to sludge
@@gemstonegynoid7475 hows a leaf going to turn into sludge on a rail system that sees trains hourly.. if every train had essentially big leaf blowers at the front the leaves wouldnt be ran over and thus wouldnt become rail sludge seems like a far cheaper simpler system
@@AndrewBrowner exactly my thoughts
Wouldn't that decrease fuel efficiency?
@@Norp-i7m the decrease in efficiency I imagine would be better, safer, and more cost efficient than our current system overall. Lasers seems like overkill, doesn't seem practical. They would need immense batteries to run. Trains make money when moving. How/when will those batteries charge? The list goes on.
1:32 "You apply a Gigapascal of FORCE"....... It's a unit of pressure.
Considering energy conversion efficiency and ouput power, I would go with air plasma torches. Perhaps semiconductor lasers operating in the blue wavelength range may be OK if you could operate them to the required power levels to vaporize leaves.
THE TRAIN IS RUNNING LATE. LEAVES ON THE LINE.
"How can there be leaves on the line here?"
IT'S A TRAIN. THERE MUST BE LEAVES ON THE LINE.
I'll have to see how much power they're putting through those lasers; a diesel locomotive unburdened by a train to pull has a _lot_ of power to spare.
Presumably they would pull power from electrified wires rather than diesel
@@gigitrixWhy would that make sense over using the surplus power of the locomotive?
USA: Uses lasers to clear up rails. Also USA: can't build a railway between two neighboring cities in 30 years with a budget of an LHC.
i remember there was an episode of thomas the tank engine where james couldn't go up a hill because of leaves.
Can't speak for passenger trains, but wet leaves are a definite pain for freight. I've hit spots with a smattering of wet ones stuck to the rail a few times and immediately started having wheel slip issues, causing the locomotive to drop its load for a second then surge forward when it loads back up, which can be enough to break couplers (outside chance but still a possibility). What's even worse though are caterpillar plague years, where the little bastards are all over the tracks and get crushed, basically greasing the rails to the point that ascending a hill becomes impossible
Lived in Japan30+ years, never heard of a problem with leaves on tracks except in U.K. tv shows. Somehow this seems to major anglophone problem for some reason.
the British just can't catch a break
the fact that UK weather is awful probably makes it worse
I agree that HSR is elevated, tunnelled or just devoid of trees.
The problem IMHE isn’t language but legacy and politics.
1. The video mentioned that cutting millions of trees in the Metro North corridor would wreck the soil around the trackbed.
This ROW was built privately for multiuse. Amtrak bought it as-is with no plan for HSR. They put Acela to work with the North American rail attitude: freight comes first, spray Roundup around switches and pitchpatch the infrastructure.
Cali HSR has no trees anywhere. Caltrain is tweaking the HSR section of its ROW thru the Bay Area and all the trees along that line will be sorted.
Brightline isn’t real HSR and Florida doesn’t have this leaf problem but most of the ROW they control is pretty clear of trees.
2. This video doesn’t tell us all the reasons for wheel replacement on Metro North. Maybe track damage by all-season freight use contributes more than wet leaves during the fall.
This clickbait seems like anti-HSR propaganda… one more reason why it’s just too expensive and inconvenient?
Kinda weird that the video seems to suggest the MTA is the one to apply lasers as a novel technique, while the clip shown is from the UK which started tests in 2006, and the Dutch railways started testing in 2014.
The tech the MTA uses is from a Dutch company founded in 2016, the timing which seems to suggest to me caused by the Dutch tests.
it’s really interesting to know that small things could impact that much to big ones, like leaves and trains or birds and planes
...or nipples and brains.
I often wonder how many computer bugs are caused by actual bugs walking on the circuits and shorting them.
A Pascal happens when my friend Newton stands in a 1m x 1m square. A giga Pascal occurs when we try to squeeze an additional 999,999,999 guys named Newton into the same square.
Which is about 145,038 people per square inch in the disorganized land
Can't believe that a leaf can interrupt a fricking train😂😂
you can't be-leaf it
these problems are overblown; our standards have gone up a lot (which is good) which is why this problem as recently come into focus, aand we've already found a solution.. solved
“Earlier, a storm had swept Gordon’s Hill, blowing leaves onto the tracks, which made them slippery. Even though the storm had passed, the hill was still difficult to climb. James knew this.” Hmmmm…. 🤔
0:13 the shot should've lingered WAAAAAY longer on the DB train....
Last fall Metra posted stickers on Slippery Rail Season. Those stickers are still up on their trains, nearly one year later.
Seeing the thumbnail for this video, I knew that was what it was going to be about--but it was interesting getting a wider overview on the problem (and solutions) than on those stickers.
Best excuse I ever had for being late to college, "my train had a flat tyre!" It was autumn.
Leaves on the line caused the Salisbury rail crash on the 31st of October 2021. Where a South Western Railway service formed of a single 159 slipped on the rails passed the caution signal with emergency brakes and then passed the danger signal and having a SPAD at the same time then hit a pair of Great Western Railway Class 158s.
Learn proper sentence construction and punctuation use.
@@Norp-i7m Nope.
@@Norp-i7m Have you heard of different versions of English.
2:06
Yay, I live next to the station where this stock roll was filmed :D
I love laser trains, my inner 8 year old is screaming wildly.
0:56 the frictions coefficients cited are for static friction and do not influence the rolling resistance, the rolling coef are much much lower
Fun Fact: The creator of Thomas the Tank Engine wrote a story based around this problem in his Railway Series Books.
The story titled “Leaves” (Renamed “The Trouble with mud” in the TV series) featured the character James the red engine failing to pull the express up Gordon’s hill due to leaves being blown on to the rails by a storm.
I get that leaves could be considered the little guy but we’re really fighting against Mother Nature herself so we’re clearly the David in this battle
I think the northeastern US is one of the best cases for nationalizing the rail network. It’s the only part of the US where the passenger rail is not beholden to the whims of freight. Charlotte to DC takes about 8 hours by train. But DC to NYC takes about three, and that’s on standard rail, not Acela. Also all electric.
*holds up a leaf* "One of THESE. ONE OF THESE. MEANT THAT I WAS THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES LATE TO WORK THIS MORNING, because a train weighing THREE HUNDRED TONS, was unable to pass over it. And to think we sent men to the moon and back. Its a good job there aren't any leaves on the BLOODY moon isn't it George?"
I'm grateful to have lived long enough to witness real, actual lasers cleaning train tracks. I don't know how you'd top that but I'm excited to find out!
As one who has run locomotives… leaves are a HUGE problem. Very annoying to have your stall out on a hill due to wet, freshly fallen leaves.
2:28 rare Hamburg U-Bahn stock footage
Many many years ago I took a train from Brisbane to Sydney to catch my return flight. Fortunately, I decided to leave Brisbane a day earlier than I thought needed. In the night at Byron Bay(there was a train way back then--or it was some other coastal town), the train could not make it up a not so great hill because of wet leaves. I was there all night. The next day the problem was taken care of. If I had kept to my original schedule, I would not have made my plane in Sydney.
On a tangent, kangaroos are a big problem for trains in Australia. I’ve been on a train that hit a kangaroo and had a minor derailment.
So if James had lasers, he wouldn't have got stuck on Gordon's hill?
Train and trees doesn't go along well.
*Leaves causes loss of friction
*Sparks between pantograph and overhead line causes forest fires.
*storms cause trees to fall onto tracks/trains and overhead lines.
Leaves don't travel very far when they fall and the slippery problems are concentrated to areas with many trees close by.
Lasers solve ONE of these problems.
Chain saws ftw!
Those oddly satisfying laser vaporizing rust videos were the first thing I thought of
THANK YOU my day is so much better knowing that laser trains are a freaking thing that exist and appear to be economically viable
the future is now
and the future is kinda dope
"Train lasers!" Where's that Vince McMahon reaction meme when you need it? 😆
Good video, i work on Trams and Underground track and this is a massive problem. I also happen to know someone who builds these cleaning trains.
Its crazy how much stock footage you use is filmed in the city I live in
As someone who's definitely not as qualified as other people in the comments, but who works at company in the freight train sector, I can say the sand jet thing is extremely cool ! Basically most locomotives (or at least the ones I've been on) run on a line of compressed air, and everything from the pantograph to the brakes uses that line. The sand tank does two things, not only does it add more friction, it's also blasted in front of the wheel, removing some of the sludge before it makes contact with it. Very cool !
Cool and useful but not extremely effective. In my experience i'd say it adds like 25% friction, which is nice, but it still doesn't eliminate the problem like an actual cleaning method (pressurised water, steam jets, laser,...) also the stock of sand on board is limited so we use it as little as possible.
I don't think I have ever seen so much stock footage per second in my entire life.
Trains with freaking laser beams attached to their heads!