Dandelions bring train to a standstill

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

No: really! 

From the Telegraph:

Winter^s wrong kind of snow is a distant memory. Autumn^s leaves on the line is a summer away. So train travellers might have thought they could enjoy a stress-free spring.
But a new seasonal enemy has appeared to plague passengers: dandelions.
They caused disruption to Grand Central Trains, which operates services from Sunderland and Bradford to London Kings Cross.
Yesterday, things were running smoothly until the 15.57 departure from London ran into a cloud of dandelion seeds.
The dandelion ^parachutes^ have come out across the country in the recent warm weather but yesterday large drifts were airborne in South Yorkshire and gusting across the main line.
Somewhere near Doncaster, the five-carriage train ploughed through the drift, sucking vast numbers of the tiny seeds into the air filters, which were soon blocked.
Four of the train^s five engines shut down as they overheated, leaving the vehicle running under a fraction of its normal power.
The driver coaxed the lone engine to stops at Pontefract, Wakefield and Brighouse but the Bradford-bound train finally limped into Halifax, West Yorkshire, at what passengers described as a ^walking pace^, an hour late.
It was terminated there.
The train was one of the first to operate by the firm, which only started the service a few weeks ago.
One train buff caught the first train down on Sunday from Halifax at 8.06 and arrived 12 minutes early but he took the 15.57 back until it was stopped. He said: ^It was really crawling. The driver managed to get it going again and into Halifax station at a walking pace. When they are running right, the trains are okay. It was an excellent run down and the driver did well to get us back.^
A spokesman for York-based Grand Central Trains said when engineers inspected the engines, the filters were so packed with dandelion seeds that they looked like the fleece of the sheep character from the animation Wallace and Gromit. He said: ^It went off to the depot and there was so much of the stuff flying around the filters looked like Shaun the Sheep. The vents got clogged and the engines shut down. We are disappointed one of the first trains we ran did not run all the way through.^
Phil Johnson, a local park ranger, said there were more dandelion seeds than normal at this time due to the late spring. He said: ^The ground suddenly warmed up and everything had a spurt of growth. The seeds are designed to fly and the warm air carried them.^
The word dandelion comes from the French phrase ^dents de lion^, meaning lion^s teeth, which refers to the ragged, vaguely tooth-like shape of the leaves. However, some dispute this origin.

[eightf48544]

"stopped at Pontefract, Wakefield and Brighouse but the Bradford-bound train finally limped into Halifax, West Yorkshire."

Wow what a route, it's a track bashers paradise.

Where does it come off the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) to get onto the L&Y?

Presumably Selby South to West or Hambledon South to West, then turns south again at Gascoigne Wood to Milford Junction and then takes the spur from Ferrybridge South to Pontefrat East.

More very rare track for pasenger traffic.


I think I must have a go!

[IndustryInsider]

Good old Adelante's!  I thought we'd just about covered every type of failure they could suffer from (a list of many thousands!), but here's a totally new corker!  They do look smart in the GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) livery though.

[brompton rail]

"stopped at Pontefract, Wakefield and Brighouse but the Bradford-bound train finally limped into Halifax, West Yorkshire."

Wow what a route, it's a track bashers paradise.

Where does it come off the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) to get onto the L&Y?

Presumably Selby South to West or Hambledon South to West, then turns south again at Gascoigne Wood to Milford Junction and then takes the spur from Ferrybridge South to Pontefrat East.

More very rare track for pasenger traffic.


I think I must have a go!

In fact most GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) Bradford services leave the EC Main line at Shaftholm Junction, some 5 miles north of Doncaster and then use the freight only line via Askern to Knottingley, then Pontefract and to that ruin know as  Wakefield Kirkgate before continuing past Healey Mills and Horbury to the Calder Valley line with a stop at Brighouse and then north to Halifax and Bradford Interchange. One or two services travel direct from Wakefield Kirkgate through Hare Park onto the Leeds / Doncaster main line via South Elmsall to Doncaster (same Hare Park - Doncaster route as used by EC trains).

Wakefield area is more famous for its liquorice crop than dandelions, but I guess getting liquorice inside the Class 180 engines would make an even worse mess - might smell interesting though.

[JayMac]

Wakefield also famous for its rhubarb crop. Thanks for the description of the GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) route, brompton. Given me an idea for my upcoming All Line Rover, be nice to colour in a freight-only line in my atlas. And also sample a new Open Access route and visit the historic ruins at Wakefield Kirkgate! 

[brompton rail]

You are, of course, right about the rhubarb. In fact I believe that the restaurant at the top of Wakefield Town Hall specialises in putting rhubard into a wide range of dishes and not just puddings. Never tried but it might be worth a look. It is Pontefract that is famous for liquorice as they make many sweets with it including Pomfret cakes.
With your ALR^▸ (All Line Rover) you maybe could do Kings Cross - Wakefield, then to York and on Grand Central to Sunderland or back to the Cross. Good luck.

[eightf48544]

Thanks ~Industry Insider for putting me right on the route of the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line), forgot about the triangle at Knottingly, much more direct than mine via Gasgoine Wood (get the pun?).

Still agree with bignosemac one for a trip I don't think I've done that side of the triangle at Knottingly.

West Yorkshire still retains a pretty dense network of lines, although some have none or fairly sparse passenger service.

[IndustryInsider]

Thanks ~Industry Insider...

Don't thank me - 'brompton rail' deserves the credit for defining the route.  I'm sure that GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) will gain a small amount of extra revenue from eager gricers out there!

[eightf48544]

Apologies to bromptonrail for not crediting you with the route.

It's the eyes I find it difficult when doing a reply to scroll down and work out which entry is which, it's fine when you first open the thread the posts are in boxes but once you start a reply they become just a list which I find difficult to align

[JayMac]

Don't thank me - 'brompton rail' deserves the credit for defining the route.  I'm sure that GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) will gain a small amount of extra revenue from eager gricers out there!

I hope I'm not turning into a Gricer! I prefer the term 'Ferroequinologist'

The late Alan A Jackson in his Railway Dictionary (fourth edition, 2006) gave the following definition for 'Gricer': "The most fanactical and extreme type of railway enthusiast. Often used in a derogatory sense to denote the notebook-carrying railway voyeur and collector of useless information."

I've never carried a notebook on my rail trips. Ever. Honest!!

[brompton rail]

Thanks for crediting me - I probably don't deserve it as  I have gleaned the information from other sources too. Hopefully this new passenger route will encourage more passengers, not only between Kings Cross and Yorkshire but locally between Doncaster and Bradford despite the journey being rather slow. Have yet to try it myself.

Fares between Doncaster and Bradford are valid by GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line), East Coast (via Leeds) or Northern and to either of the Bradford terminals, so a round trip is quite easy to achieve, as well as going Doncaster to Wakefield Kirkgate, then to Leeds via Normanton and onto Bradford before return on GC via Halifax, Brighouse etc. If you are only wishing to travel Pontefract to Bradford you can use West Yorkshire PTE^▸ (Passenger Transport Executive)'s Day Rover ticket on GC as well as all other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) in WY (but not on EC from Doncaster to Wakefield). 

[Chris from Nailsea]

... I find it difficult when doing a reply to scroll down and work out which entry is which, it's fine when you first open the thread the posts are in boxes but once you start a reply they become just a list which I find difficult to align

... sigh ... 

That's why I do ask, from time to time, that members please use 'reply', rather than 'quote' ...