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I see trains are in trouble again due to "leaves on the line", it didn't happen in steam days as this picture shows the driver knew the rail was wet, he had 4 sets of points to get through and then the climb up to Lady Bay bridge. So sand is delivered under the wheels with a simple driver operated device. Obviously sand and electric motors do not mix but is a jet of heated compressed air blowing onto the rail in front of the wheels an impossibility?

                                8748383596_0964f7d445_b.jpg

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It all costs money Albert and the more the bosses spend on loco's and rolling stock the less they get to put in the coffers and that wouldn't please the shareholders, I should imagine with all of todays technology it would be a simple enough task to link in some sort of line clearing device on the loco as you suggest, once the wheel starts slipping a sensor would activate the device, a bit similar to traction control on motor cars

 

Rog

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I think there's more to it than that Albert. Look at pics of back in the day, and all the cuttings were kept as tidy as a front lawn, because as you well know if they weren't you soon got bank fires.

 

Nowadays the foliage almost touches the carriages, so leaves on the line are inevitable really.

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