Wednesday 27 June 2018

"It was those pesky Victorians!"

From The Metro:

"Everything is late at Waterloo because they slowed trains down to as little as 20mph to avoid buckling the rails," said travel expert Simon Calder.

"Thirty degrees is not something that should trouble infrastructure, but it’s very frail. The Victorians built it and we are doing what we can."


Most of the planning and layout is from the 19th century, but the actual rails are replaced every ten years or so, so this is a pretty pathetic excuse.

4 comments:

Lola said...

It's them welded rails, probably. Pretty tricky making welded rail cope with a high temperature range, apparently.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, I thought they left expansion joints?

Lola said...

MW. Yes. But. They have to work out the ambient temperature when they lay the track and then calculate what would happen if it got hotter (or colder). If it gets really hot it sometimes shows that they didn't get the sums right. Welded rail is great for wheel life (and rail life) but has some vulnerability to extreme temperatures (or as I understand it).

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, the Germans manage to lay tracks that work at 30C and at minus 20C.