Britain deploys a Land Rover to defeat… leaves on the line
There are many ways to paralyse the nation's railways. Structural failures. Extreme weather. Industrial action. People being idiots at level crossings. And, every autumn, some damp foliage.
Yes, it’s leaves on the line. Crushed into a slick, oily soup by passing trains, they reduce adhesion, upset track circuits, delay commuters, and generally cause the nation to sigh in unison while staring at departure boards.
Network Rail, to be fair, doesn't take this lying down. Each year it unleashes 67 railhead treatment trains (RHTTs) across the country, blasting 200 million litres of high-pressure water and applying the industrial exfoliant known as sandite in a determined attempt to claw back some grip.
But there are some places the RHTTs cannot reach, and so, in the quieter corners of Yorkshire and the North East, Britain turns to something far more… Petrolbloggy. Known internally by a nickname we definitely won’t repeat here, it’s a converted Land Rover Defender.
Once merely a Land Rover Defender in Network Rail service, it now lives a double life. For most of the year it carries engineers along the line like a faithful old sheepdog. But come autumn, it is transformed into a nocturnal leaf-slayer, fitted with rail guidance wheels and a rear-mounted spray system dispensing Interflon OTR: a chemical weapon designed to dissolve sludge like Barry Scott in a shower cubicle.
Each night it can treat up to 20 miles of track, quietly stalking places such as Goole, Howden, Knottingley, Stocksfield and Strensall under cover of darkness. The pump lives up front, the nozzles at the rear, and the whole contraption looks like a Defender that’s accidentally been recruited into the railway after a heavy night at the pub or a deranged Top Gear planning meeting.
Network Rail’s Rhiannon Jones confirms that the Defender has been drafted into autumnal action:
“We’ve integrated the vehicle into our seasonal maintenance routine and have been making as much use of it as possible. It’s made a real difference in reducing the number of failures relating to leaves causing problems on the line.”
Which is both comforting and deeply funny when you remember that the national rail timetable is being stabilised by a chemically enhanced Land Rover removing tree droppings from steel rails. And really, could any country be more British about this? Other nations battle glaciers, deserts and typhoons. We send out a modified Defender to neutralise soggy sycamore.
Godspeed, Defender. The nation’s punctuality depends on you.
Photo © Jasper Schofield-Linnell via Network Rail
