Autumn leaves and why they are kryptonite for trains
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Why do autumn leaves turn train tracks into a slippery surface?
It is the slippery Teflon like layer of mulch that reduces wheel grip and causes havoc when leaves fall on train tracks. Every autumn thousands of tons of leaves fall onto the rail network and create the perfect storm for an annoying delay on your trip or commute. Izzy Stapleton is communications officer for Irish Rail. She joins me now to tell us all about the annual headache of dealing with leaves on the tracks. Izzy, good morning to you.
Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. Well,
thanks a bit. You you you're kind of famous on TikTok now 'cause uh you had an information video on this recently which went wild. Start at the beginning.
Well, every year uh obviously we deal with this across the railway. We deal with it in Ireland and we deal with and the our colleagues in the UK deal with it as well. It's unique to our climate, as it were. Um we do put out informationals every year about lower rail adhesion and what our passengers can kind of expect at this time of year. But I suppose the TikTok was going a bit underutilized.
How does Irish Rail explain the science behind low‑rail adhesion?
Um and I'm new to the team, so I have something of a subject matter expertise in low rail adhesion, so I said, you know, let me crack at it. I mean crack at it. Have a champion. Have about a champ.
Take one for the team and uh and there you go. Now I I you you look at a leaf, you look at a two hundred ton train, you think this is not gonna come. Surely not.
Yeah. Surely not. So think of it as uh ants moving enormous weight, right? So it's it's it's it's these teeny tiny little leaves but en masse.
So
So what happens is that when leaves fall, they obviously start to decay on top of the railhead. And this is happening across an infrastructure that spans hundreds and hundreds of miles of train track.
What role does weather (rain and humidity) play in the leaf‑track problem in Ireland?
And as they decay, they create this sort of film on top of the railhead. And what that does is it interrupts the traction, the grip in between the the steel wheel and the steel railhead. And so it it can cause a lot of lot of problems, but I would liken it to if you're driving and you encounter black ice. Mm. So while it's predictable, it's also unpredictable in where it'll where it'll turn up. And there's a lot of work that goes in, even all year round, in mitigating against it across the rail network. Cross.
I presume the fact that it rains quite a lot here doesn't help.
It doesn't help. So you would see as I say in the UK they deal with with low rail adhesion in the same way that we do. Like we have we wouldn't have a different amount of deciduous versus deciferous trees that they might have uh on the continent. But on the c on European continent it's quite a lot colder. They have a drier climate. Whereas here obviously Ireland is sopping wet.
Why can’t rail companies simply sweep the leaves off the tracks?
Um so it's it's that's the secret ingredient that once the leaves fall and then you have drizzly rain. Slippy season.
Okay. Now I I we haven't got any tax in yet, but I can imagine somebody furiously taxing Why don't they sweep them up?
Well, if you think of how many people would you have to hire to stand in your house and prevent every speck of dust from landing on a surface? You're talking about an inconceivable amount of people to do an impossible job. So we can't. We must accept Mother Nature. It's the age old battle between the railway and Mother Nature. Um so we must accept that the leaves will fall, and so we do, and we do our best. best and we do a lot of work year round to mitigate against it and to deal with it as it's happening.
Okay, this is a stupid question. But um could you not put a a A train with a leaf blower in front of it, would that help?
So, um uh y ha theoretically, but where do you think those leaves are gonna blow?
How does Irish Rail use traction‑gel applicators and other technology to fight leaf slip?
They're gonna blow to the
leaf blowers are the most useless interven uh invention ever. Most useless interven invention ever. Yeah.
Ultimately the leaf material is going to remain in the track environs. So what we do is A, we do of course manage our vegetation across the network throughout the year. But we do uh what I would call traction assisting actions. So we have on-track machinery that lays a special gel that will assist with the traction between the steel wheel and the railhead.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why do autumn leaves turn train tracks into a slippery surface?
0:01–0:55
2
How does Irish Rail explain the science behind low‑rail adhesion?
0:55–1:35
3
What role does weather (rain and humidity) play in the leaf‑track problem in Ireland?
1:35–2:29
4
Why can’t rail companies simply sweep the leaves off the tracks?
2:29–3:26
5
How does Irish Rail use traction‑gel applicators and other technology to fight leaf slip?
3:26–4:14
6
What training do train drivers receive to handle low‑rail adhesion conditions?
4:14–4:58
7
How does the seasonal “Low Rail Adhesion” timetable affect passenger travel times?
4:58–5:38
8
What practical advice can passengers follow during the ‘slippy season’?
5:38–6:40
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