It snowed 1in this morning in London. Can someone PLEASE tell me how this caused trains to be cancelled.?

Answer 1

Rain and frost caused the point ends to freeze together,probably in the sidings where no point heater are used, and make the track have exceptional rail head condition's, which would cause the train to slip and not stop at red signal's.
The first Train driver, to pass over the track, would have reported these conditions to the signaller, he would tell the next train to do a running brake test in this area, and if this proved to dangerous he would report to Network Rail Control and all trains would be stopped.

Answer 2

Simply snow and ice on the power rails, at first sign of arcing modern trains shut down to prevent damage to the motors and traction equipment. The older trains could operate, but (and this is a big but) the amount of arcing would probably damage the electrics and you'd be having short formed trains for several weeks afterwards while the train mechanics deal with burnt out equipment...

Do the sensible thing like they do on the continent and if your journey isn't essential (and is work really that essential) then don't travel!

Answer 3

Chris p is almost there. 1 inch of snow in itself will not stop a train. However if that snow becomes compacted by trains passing over it at a set off points for example the compacted snow jams up the points mechanism so that they cannot work. Accordingly if the routes for the trains cannot be set then service is cancelled. I agree that it sounds stupid but as we have relatively little snow in the UK we simply aren't set up to deal with even modest amounts

Answer 4

Train wheels are metal and so are the tracks put ice on them and you have the same effect as ice on the rink with skates.As for the wrong type of snow, this is when the snow flakes are very fine and they get sucked into the engines and short out the electrics. Also when snow freezes on the points, they cannot move.

Answer 5

Ice and snow do not make rail slick AT ALL. Now it will mess with the switch points. They have to clean them or heat them. Here in the USA we run into a drift until it stops you, back off and hit it again. That is on a freight train mind you. But this stuff about slipping and sliding on rail is bull. Rain is slicker than snow and ice on rail.

Answer 6

In response to Pumpkin, much of the London Underground is in fact above ground, including every depot and most sidings. The cold weather meant points were frozen and could not be thrown.
However, in this day and age I can't understand why such problems occur. Scandinavia copes OK.
Unfortunately, this is Britain. We still think we lead the world but our noses are buried so far in the sand we can't see that the country has become a shambles and that most other Western countries are years ahead of us in so many ways.

Answer 7

Someone forgot to turn on the points heaters.

It is also possible that trains may have been cancelled for reasons other than snow.

Answer 8

Modern trains are a lot lighter than older trains and do not carry sand to drop on rails like the old steam trains did.This means that if snow or ice settle on the lines they cannot get enough traction to get up to speed and more importantly are not able to stop safely as the wheels become like ice skates on ice!

Answer 9

No, prepare provider isn't canceled. The worst component a snow typhoon will reason would be skill outage to the alerts alongside area of the line, which will make prepare run late to ny. otherwise, you would be ok on a prepare than on a airplane.

Answer 10

In reply to pumpkin - two thirds of the 'underground' network is above ground.
Yes, trains were disrupted to a certain extent - but most got through. Now would someone like to explain why north London's road system came to a standstill?
It's easy to sneer at trains - but they often seem to cope rather better than road transport.