In a lot of trains, I see a Sanding option but I don't actually know what it means or does. Does anyone know?
It dumps sand on the tracks near the wheels to help them grip if you're moving, but getting wheelslip. Having said that, I believe using the sander is a sackable offence in Germany, but that may just be a myth because it makes you think - why do they bother putting sanders in the trains?
Sanding is not an offence in Germany, only thing you need to remember as a driver is to inform the signaller if you used the sander during very low speeds or even until your train stopped. That is related to an almost accident in Mainz Hbf which could be traced back to a train loosing the contact to the rails becuase of a pile of sand between the wheels and the rail (leading to a track circuit failure).
If you have smooth metal wheels running on smooth metal rails and then introduce water (rain), ice (or snow) or any other contaminants that reduce friction (oil, grease, leaf mulch etc) then putting something between the wheel and the rail which increases the friction will help with "adhesion" (the wheel sticking to the rail in essence" To aid in this trains carry sand in hoppers in the body which can be passed through tubes in front of the driving wheels to aid with traction One additional bit, in the UK there are places where sanding is not allowed, and appropriate signage is shown. Examples in game include coming into Liverpool Lime Street in the tunnels where you will see NO SAND signs. I'm sure other countries have similar
You're also not meant to do it over pointwork, presumably because of the thinner rails and the sand may get caught in the mechinism.
Here's a curious question related to the topic: does anyone know if there is supposed to be a set, proper procedure for using sanding? Or is that up to the driver/engineers discretion to apply however much they'd like?
https://www.railengineer.co.uk/a-little-sand-in-the-right-place-works-wonders/ A little light reading
I was reading that the other day. I tried following up to find results but everything online was behind membership walls so I gave up. From what I could find out the sanding is pretty much all done automatically by the trains from the findings in this study. All very interesting though.