(The following appeared on the Stamford Advocate website on October 28.)
STAMFORD, Conn. — The slimy remains of wet, slippery leaves on Metro-North railroad tracks slowed about 60 rush-hour trains on the New Haven Line on Monday morning, the railroad said.
Each train was slowed by five to 10 minutes, said Dan Brucker, a spokesman for the railroad.
The perennial condition, known as “slippery rail,” causes train wheels to slip or slide on the slimy leaves when an engine tries to speed up or slow down, Brucker said.
“The slipperiest thing you can have on the tracks is not snow or ice. It is wet leaves,” Brucker said. “The leaves get crushed and form a substance called pectin which makes the trains slide.”
In some cases, the condition activates the train’s automatic control system and halts it completely when the train exceeds what is considered a safe speed.
To prevent excessive delays, the railroad has reprogrammed the software of the M7 railcars to allow the braking system to adjust to the slip-slide conditions.
A computerized train tracking system also allows for automatic reporting of slip-slide incidents and conditions, enabling repair crews to handle the problem more quickly, Brucker said.
Another drawback of “slippery rail” is that it can wear down train wheels, requiring already scarce train cars to be taken out of service for repairs, Brucker said.
By noon Monday, railroad workers were running a special power washing machine to clean the slime off the tracks, Brucker said.
“We’re continuing to work to minimize the delays caused by this problem,” Brucker said.