More than likely not, if this system needs any sort of maintenance then it’ll be out of the picture. Also consider how long the dry ice will last, and how regularly it’ll need to be applied, the current way of dealing with the issue will probably remain more cost effective, and more practical over all.
From my understanding it's dry ice and hot air, so no need for high pressure equipment or tanks of water, shot and tack... Much more simple system than the current RHTT Also, if it fits on a sprinter it should fit on just about all locos. Add a sensor that detects leaf mulch on the railhead and fit it to every passenger unit. The rails can be treated any time they're required The current way involves maintaining a fleet of the high pressure systems that only get used for two or three months of the year (so stored otherwise) and a bunch of locos to haul them... Or those specialist units which again don't have much to do outside of Autumn
The thing is though, that fleet will still have to be maintained and kept in reserve, track inspections will also still need to be carried to make sure the rails are actually cleared, but now the job is separated into multiple parts which will potentially only end up requiring the job being scheduled in anyway. The most unlikely part about the whole thing however is having TOC’s doing their own track maintenance, even if this new method does show to be better it’s unlikely that it would be utilised by passenger services, as opposed to the current OTM.
It certainly seems like a promising idea working in many ways much like a sander does now. So could probably be retro fitted onto many trains. Whether it'll fully replace the RHTTs I'm not sure, they might have their use in certain areas. I'd miss the one that's based at my local depot. It's certainly cleaner though!
Engineering and track maintenance trains run anyway, this only affects the leaf mulch issue Lest we forget, TOCs are essentially being phased out with GBR taking over, so that will matter less anyway
Yes, and Implying that TOC ran 150’s will replace the use of RHTT’s is a bold claim, even if they do, they’ll still need all of that equipment in reserve. The TOC’s will still be there, just under the disguise of one livery *if* GBR even gets that far.
It's being trialled on a 150... No reason to think the system (if successful) couldn't be fitted to other trains
Regardless of it being a 150 or 800 the point remains the same, TOC’s simply won’t accept the liability of track maintenance.
They already do in some ways and don't see how this is any different especially if it's made part of the franchise agreement, or if their track access costs are reduced as an offset
It’s different simply because of the importance of the task, the simple fact is that the TOC’s don’t have the resources to facilitate a job like this, even within Network Rail it’s a specialised task. Even if a TOC became responsible for clearing the issue, Network Rail still remain responsible for the inspections before and after, and more than likely any further clearance needed, the only thing that attaching equipment to Passenger units accomplishes is adding more overheads, because what’s already in place will have to remain in place, if for no other reason, as a back up.
Quote from the piece linked in the OP "Under the new method, pellets of dry ice are fired in a stream of air, making leaves frozen and brittle. The dry ice then quickly turns back into gas, causing it to expand and destroy the leaves." So the specialised bit here would be loading the dry ice, as in a lot less of an issue than the current system
I'm not sure about its ability to constantly clean tracks everywhere it goes, because I'd think that would consume a lot of dried ice - which would require more storage. But if proved successful the system would make a good safety feature when fitted to those modern high speed trains that have wheel slip and lockup sensors. It could perhaps then be activated automatically (if enabled) to help prevent these autumn issues. The RHTTs with their large tanks could then continue to squirt on the more problematic routes and where where trains aren't fitted. I think there's room for both systems. The more weapons in the arsenal for the fight against the dreaded 'leaves on the line' the better. On a slightly different topic but here's some testing of a new smart weed killing train. Advances are always being made.
Google is a search engine (probably banned in China but if you can get to this page then you can likely get to google also) It allows you to put in search terms (such as "what does RHTT mean") and it will give you webpages relevant to t answer, or in many cases, the answer itself It's how you can find things out for yourself about things that you don't already know
I am tempted to start a discussion about the role of China in the world, but this forum is not the place. I applaud your love for your country, but some critical thinking wouldn’t hurt. Baidu is in no way better than google.
A very interesting change. However I doubt getting rid of leaves will help Northern reduce Delays Jk, I think it could be a good change to make provided it works. Let's do everyone a favour and not get into (geo)political statements. In response, Google is hardly spyware, it's one of (probably the) main search engines in the Western World.