- University of Sheffield engineers have developed a new track cleaning system to remove leaves from railway lines - an issue which costs the rail industry millions of pounds each year
- Pioneering technology can be deployed onboard passenger trains - the first time passenger trains have been used to clean the line anywhere in the world
- Trials have shown the cleaning system reduces delays, improves braking distances and is significantly more effective at removing leaves from the line than the current track cleaning methods
Delays to train services caused by leaves on the line could finally become a thing of the past, thanks to new track cleaning technology developed by engineers at the University of Sheffield.
The new rail cleaning technique, developed by a team of researchers led by Professor Roger Lewis from the University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, uses dry ice pellets in a stream of high pressure air which freeze the leaves and then as the pellets turn back to gas they are blasted away from the railhead.
The method was first developed by the group in 2015 and now after testing the technology on railhead treatment trains over the past two years and on passenger trains in early 2020, the technique has proven to be significantly more effective at removing leaves from the line, preventing delays and improving braking distances for trains than the current cleaning methods.
