- Hat hair, such a problem in the winter.
It is winter, I've come to Tonbridge.
That's the sneaky side back entrance,
which I didn't realise existed
until I got here 10 minutes ago.
And we're here to discuss,
what Network Rail do during autumn and winter months.
(upbeat music)
So, we've come to Tonbridge West Yard
which is a GB rail freight yard,
just west of Tonbridge Station.
We've been looking at the trains that run on the Network
during autumn and winter.
That's an interesting thing.
A lot of people just think of leaf fall.
Network Rail and the train companies
have done such a good job at advertising
that leaf fall season.
The leaf fall season in October is a problem.
If you don't know what we're talking about there,
here's a little clip of my friend, Steve's video
which he made with Southeastern and Network Rail
a couple of years ago
where he explains how adhesion is a problem.
You should watch that, as well.
But what some people don't realise,
is that in January and February, you have like winter trains,
so after the leaf fall season.
And we caught up with a nice man called Chris,
that showed us a train
that actually keeps the third rail clean, as well.
(upbeat music)
- So it has two treatments.
One is, so it brushes the third rail in winter.
And in autumn, we do two things.
We add water jet and clean the line,
and also lay sandite , which is an adhesion modifier
that contains sand, so it makes the train wheels grip,
the rail head.
So we water jet at 1,500 bar, which is enough to slice rail.
So we we'll see, witness the power of high pressure water.
The third rail is detected by an ultrasonic sensor,
so it detects third rail.
So that's the brush.
So if you're going this direction,
then this should be the last brushing action.
Then you would get the fluid behind that lays.
And it comes out in a bead.
It's a very thickened glycol mix,
which has bit like antifreeze.
So in winter, when there are the threat from leaves
is not there, we can only need to protect the third rail
from de-icing, and ice build up,
which then separates the third rail pickups from the rail,
and isolates the train.
So the train won't work without electricity.
So this fluid lowers the temperature,
and stops the freezing, the buildup,
and allows the shoes to come in contact with the rail.
This is to demonstrate the power of the water jet
that we use to clear the rail head.
And this is
- Water has done that? The water has done that.
So we use high pressure water, high energy water
to clear the rail head, and to clean the rail.
So for testing purpose in the yard,
we need to protect the rail from that power.
And this is a test piece,
as you can see by the indents in there.
The water pressure is 1,500 bar,
enough to cut steel when you're stationary.
Hence the marks and the test bar.
- [Host] And you can cut steel with water,
if the pressure is high enough.
- Yes.
- [Host] That's incredible.
- And we use that technology
to make sure everybody gets to work,
and cleans the rails and makes the railway work in autumn.
Delivering 1500 bar of water pressure.
(water steaming, spraying)
And this would be taken up to 40 miles an hour,
to clean the railhead of the Southeast.
(ponderous music)
- Are there any James Bond fans here?
Isn't there a James Bond film where he,
there's like a train?
And it's like, because this is, 'cause this is,
is it Golden Eye where there's a plough,
and there's a nuclear bomb on board the train,
and it goes, that's what it is.
- [Woman] That's what it looks like.
(laughing)
It's the Golden Eye Train.
(train whistle blows)
(train engine roaring)
And then in the yard here,
I caught up with a nice gentleman, called Sam,
'cause there's a whole bunch of Class 73 locos,
and they've got huge long tanks on their trains,
which means they can go out all day
for 10, 11, 12 hours at a time to do rail cleaning.
I got to go on the cab, as well.
- So now where this is set up, as an RHTT unit,
similar to what we've seen earlier,
is, so these are tanks filled with water,
and we're just jetting the rail head, as we go.
These are 80,000 litres in a whole set,
all powered by generator, separate power.
And you got an operator on board who will control
when we're jetting and when we lift up,
obviously making sure to avoid jetting
through any point work and things like that.
Loco each end, what happens is, they go out top and tailed
and that's so we can go all the way to the end of the line,
change ends and carry on back the other direction.
These are out, on average,
normally out, 12 hours a day, very consistent loops
covering Sussex, covering Kent and Kent and Sussex.
So this is a 73.
- [Host] In the cab.
- In the cab.
- Pretty old. - It is extremely old.
And considering that these are trundling up and down
the railway clearing leaves,
you've still got the old loud speaker phone
that connects both cabs.
GSMR, been updated.
We now fit them with sockets, for the iPads,
for the driver's work off,
and we've got some camera ports.
And apart from that,
there's been very little in the way of upgrades.
So we have about eight,
normally around eight services a day.
Four of those have got set paths, sometimes more.
Four services a day, are set a standby services.
So basically we get everything ready.
We have the drivers sat waiting to go,
and then we'll just get a heads up from Network Rail,
letting those know the route that they want us to take.
And the time that the paths that's in for.
- That's what it sounds like
you're waiting for the nine, nine, nine call,
as if you're like the fire brigade,
just sat on stand by, you know.
Then suddenly can you go and do this bit of track down here?
And you're like, yeah, and you're on it.
Well, they schedule in a path in between passenger services.
They work out on the fly, when you can go and run.
That's cool.
(upbeat music)
We're just leaving, this loco's turned up.
This one.
But this is a RHTT that's a rail head treatment train.
It's just rolling into that.
Apparently left yard about three o'clock this morning.
It's about midday now.
So that's coming in,
having been out on the tracks this morning
(ponderous, upbeat music)