There are no trains in this picture but there are thousands of LEAVES. This presents the railways of
Britain with a challenge every Autumn as when compressed onto the rails they form a mulch that can
seriously affect wheel grip. To combat this Network Rail uses high pressure sprays that clear the
rails of fallen leaves & leaf mulch, as well as using locos and units to lay a mixture called sandite onto the track to
to improve grip. To achieve this MPVs, specially formed water cannon trains, sandite fitted locos plus
converted DMUs and EMUs are all employed on a round the clock basis for a two month period starting
in early October. By all accounts so far this year it has worked well. A number of these specifically
converted units, rolling stock and locos have been pictured by 'Jampics' whilst out and about during the last part of October 2003.
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Photo from James & Martin's Picture Collection Copyright 'Jampics' m.hawkes7@ntlworld.com