The dreaded 'weather related slippery rail'
By adamg - 11/2/09 - 7:41 am
Those darn wet leaves: They're wreaking havoc inbound on the Worcester Line this morning, wth delays of up to 30 minutes.
UPDATE: Curse those leaves! Reports are flooding in of delays on several lines.
Comments
Fitchburg, too
My train took almost two and a half hours to get from Fitchburg to North Station, arriving almost one hour late.
Considering falling leaves have been a fact of life in New England for the past 10,000 years or more, it makes for a pretty flimsy excuse.
In all the years they've been dealing with this (and it's not like it's something that's hard to predict), has nobody thought to get a piece of equipment to deal with leaves on the tracks?!
Since most of this morning's newly-fallen leaves likely came down during Saturday's high winds, I wonder--were any of the trains on Sunday delayed like this, or is it only peak time, weekday trains that are susceptible? That in itself is pretty suspicious...
High pressure washer
I know they have a high pressure rail washer for these kind of things. I don't know how many they have or if it was broken over the weekend or what. It doesn't seem like they got around to using it on all the lines by this morning.
A mixed drink?
I first saw these signs a year or two ago when they were getting ready to open up that bar at the far end of North Station. I wondered if I should order one.
So far, my friends and I have come up with the start of a recipe - could UHub perfect this?
It would have to have rum, cider, and cranberry juice or liqueur ... but the slippery part from some Bailey's? Just some cream? Don't know how it would work.
It's a problem in NY, too.
It's a problem in NY, too. LIRR and MNRR use pressure washer trains as well as "leaf crusher" trains loaded down with gravel to try and clean the tracks.
Slippery Rail suggestions
There's already a famous old cocktail called "The Third Rail" which might be adaptable. As the name suggests, it's a knockout: Light Rum, Brandy, and Applejack in equal amounts plus a dash of Absinthe. To make it a Slippery Rail, I'd substitute a half teaspoon of maple syrup (or maple syrup liqueur, which I know exists having seen it on the shelves in VT) for the absinthe. Combine ingredients with ice, shake, strain, & serve (maybe garnish with a Granny Smith slice ?). It's a little too early for me to actually put this to the test to see if the proportions work as is or whether Calvados or hard cider might do as well as Applejack, so proceed with caution; this is all hypothetical ;-)
If you want to stick with your original ingredients of rum, cider, and liqueur, you could do a variation of hot, buttered rum. Heat the cider with a couple of allspice corns or stick cinnamon, strain, stir in the rum & maple liqueur or syrup, pour into mugs topping with a thin pat of good, unsalted butter. The butter melts & you end up sipping the drink through it. Definitely slippery...
"Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink"-- and the Eliot Spitzer codicil -- "never put it in e-mail."
I'll try #2!
Certainly local ingredients ... but I'll use a slab of Macoun or MacIntosh or Cortland for an even more local flair. Just the thing after a cold evening ride from the station!
Rum, cider, and cranberry juice or liqueur with maple syrup and butter melted on top, garnished with an apple wedge. I'll have to try that tonight.
May I suggest...?
...coating the rim of the glass with maple syrup?
Will that work hot?
That might not work for a hot drink. Maple sugar is another option.
Slippery rails
The MBTA currently owns 2 high pressure rail cleaners. As for them getting to the Worcester line toc
clean, it is harder due to the T not owning the rails yet, they are still under CSX and we all know how passenger friendly they are. Then of course other rail traffic is a lroblem on the other lines because its hard to fit the cleaner train in, AFAIK the washer train has a max speed of either 30 or 50
Let us know...
...how it comes out. I'll be interested to hear whether the cranberry juice actually plays well with its friends in that mix, if you decide to use it. CJ usually doesn't marry well with anything but vodka & gin in my "mad scientist" fiddling with possible cocktails.
"Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink"-- and the Eliot Spitzer codicil -- "never put it in e-mail."
One thing that did happen ...
My evening train was 15 minutes late leaving North Station because it arrived late ... and then it came to a screeching-lurching-sliding halt at West Medford, over shooting the station.
Slippery rail, indeed.
Yeah, they've got a tank for that
Ooh, lookie here.