Engineers at Northern confident they will outfox old adversary this autumn as they complete ‘battle prep’ three months ahead of schedule

The train operator has deployed an increasingly innovative range of tactics in recent years to combat ‘leaves on the line’ and says they are confident they will outfox their old adversary this autumn.

Among the technology in their arsenal this year are:

• Water-Trak technology – equipment that sprays water onto the track to simulate heavy rain conditions which helps wheels from slipping - has now been fitted to all 16 of the Class 170 trains in the Northern fleet
• Wheel Slide Prevention (WSP) - technology that prevents wheels from ‘locking’ while the train is moving, a scenario that creates flat spots on a round wheel as carriages slide along the track – now fitted to all Class 150 and Class 156 trains in service.
• Double Variable Rate Sanders (DVRS) – which deploy up to three times the quantity of sand at a higher speed than previous versions - to all 34 of Northern’s Class 323 trains

With these units deployed across the network, Northern is confident that disruption caused by leaf-fall will be kept to an absolute minimum.

Rob Cummings, seasonal performance improvement manager, said: “Whilst it feels like summer has only just arrived this week - our engineers have had their eyes firmly fixed on autumn for some time.

"Fallen leaves used to cause significant disruption across the network – but having tried a number of methods in recent years and by fine-tuning our approach – we have been able to cut that right down.

"To be 'battle ready' three months ahead of schedule is a real testament to the team that has worked so hard to ensure our fleet is ready for whatever nature throws at it."

Leaf-fall disruption is caused by leaves sticking to damp rails and passing trains compressing them into a smooth, slippery layer, which reduces the trains’ grip.

As recent as 2018, Northern had to take 306 trains out of service for repairs to carriage wheels caused by ‘wheel-slide’ on slippery rails. Last year, that figure was down to 14.

The huge reduction in the amount of time required to repair carriage wheels has meant Northern can offer its services to other train operators, to repair their carriage wheels, generating a new source of income for the train operator.

In October 2023, Northern released GoPro footage showing Water-Trak technology in action and in December 2023 they used GPS tracking to map leaf-fall hotspots.

Northern’s measures to prevent disruption caused by leaf-fall is supported by Network Rail’s ‘railhead treatment trains’ (RHTTs) but there are only a limited number of those available and routes are only treated once a day, six days of the week. 

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with nearly 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.