In this part of the world 'winter travel' means no travel at all. Trains are delayed, then cancelled. Roads grind to a halt. Everything stops.
For me this started early on Tuesday morning. There was tiny amount of snow from the night before, but even so the departure board at the station heralded the first warning of what was to come.
But the train did run. It was a little late (and so therefore was I), but the snow was light. Flurries which would run out of energy after a few minutes. The temperature was hovering around 0º and what snow there was wasn't settling. This is lunchtime on Tuesday in Regent's Park.
And the weather didn't really deteriorate beyond that. So it was something of a jolt when I arrived at the station for the journey home at the end of the day to hear the station announcement say that 'all trains to the Sussex coast have been cancelled'. And they weren't joking, at least not by much. One train did make the journey, but it was desperately overcrowded, took about 4 hours with people crammed standing the whole way; and I wasn't on it. By choice. I had managed to get on that train (standing), but as it filled up it became dangerously packed. Literally no room to move, tempers and temperature rising; and even more people trying to push their way on. I bailed out before it left, stayed in London and tried again today. Successfully.
The journey was slow, but I had a seat with a view 😉
Now a couple of videos. The first is from Monday (before the snow). It's some of the Regent's Park wildlife (including the briefest glimpse of a rat at the end).
The second is from the trail cam, which did a sterling job while I was stuck in London. It covers a couple of nights running into today. Enjoy all the foxes!
It's snowing heavily outside. I don't expect to be travelling anywhere very soon.
Camera note: photos and park video taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ45. Fox footage caught with the Bushnell Trophy Cam.
SittingFox
1 Dec 2010I must confess that I did have some bad vibes about London yesterday (probably because my inbound journey on the Monday took two and a half hours after my train got caught behind a "failed" one at Purley). I kept on and on checking Southern's website but if they knew earlier just how bad things were, they didn't do a good job of letting the public know.
Of course your line has to cross the North Downs to get back to the coast and the Redhill-Purley area was hit pretty hard. And you've seen on my blog what it's like higher up in the Surrey Hills. The police here are trying to stop people travelling at all unless it's essential :smurf:
Nice clip of the foxes, especially the daylight shot 🙂 It's amazing how many footprints a handful of foxes can leave! And that rat was certainly in a hurry :right:
RobinL
2 Dec 2010Great videos! In the first one, it even sounds cold! That squirrel certainly din't like the Magpie poking around it's stash!
My but you have a busy back yard!
Oh, the joys of winter. Bah, wake me up in April.:smurf:
serola
2 Dec 2010And here up north we just keep on going, no matter how much snow or how low temperature it is. On construction projects it is agreed in beforehand what is the limit. On some sites it is -15 C but it can be even -20 C.
Words
2 Dec 2010Adele, I guess it should have been obvious that there would be problems. It was a train breakdown at Purley that caused the main disruption on Tuesday night. Everything is still at a standstill today down here. Not sure how the trains will be in the morning, but as I've no means of getting to the station (zero chance of buses running on these hills) it's somewhat academic! They are forecasting a fairly rapid thaw on Saturday though.
Words
2 Dec 2010Robin, it was cold, the wind making it feel even colder. I quite like the winter, but getting around in it isn't easy. I think we're all caught out by years of next to no snow at all, and then a really bad past 12 months. The foxes don't seem to mind though 😉
SittingFox
2 Dec 2010I think most places go a bit crazy when the snow first starts. I know London just had a sprinkling, but we're getting on for 40cm here, which in all fairness would be considered a major weather event in Sask too. Our stop-start winters are the worst of all worlds because we cannot adapt to anything before it changes!
Having said that, we do get some settled snow in the Surrey Hills every winter. And it would be good if the council (not to mention Southern) had some more tangible plan for dealing with it…
Words
2 Dec 2010Sami, it drives us crazy but I guess we would get better at dealing with it if it happened all the time. As it is, if we get the smallest amount of snow or ice, everything stops. The rest of the world must think we're crazy, but it's because we normally don't get any snow, ice, or really bad weather. So we don't know how to deal with it. We don't have chains for our cars. The power for the trains is on the ground, so freezes. A large part of the subway system is over 100 years old. Water pipes still run down the outside of houses.. and so on 😉 But we like it! We call it home 😀
Words
2 Dec 2010Erwin, thanks!
Words
2 Dec 2010Darko, no I stayed with family in London so I was fine. Thanks!
SittingFox
2 Dec 2010Agreed. I find it profoundly mystifying that some people talk about electrifying railways as though it was an improvement! Not to mention all the foxes and badgers that die on the live rail 🙁
gdare
2 Dec 2010I hope you did not have to sleep at train station :left:
Adele, 40cm? I am not sure but we had that last winter. Before that…. in 1984. probably. It seems this winter will be interesting :left:
Words
2 Dec 2010Adele (or more probably for anyone from outside the south of England who is wondering what on earth we're going on about), there's a decent (if slightly one-sided) explanation of the problem with Southern rail on their site. I particularly 'like' this bit: for this year’s winter, new software has been developed jointly between Southern, Network Rail and Bombardier (the train’s manufacturers) which has been deployed across the Electrostar fleet. This new software allows the trains to draw more power in icy conditions than they could previously, thereby reducing ice-related delays..
Well I suppose by cancelling all services they can claim that delays are reduced.
Words
2 Dec 2010You seem to have got the brunt of it. It's not quite so bad here, but of course once night falls and everything freezes nothing moves anyway. The trains are ridiculous. We need some major investment into the infrastructure (overhead power lines would help) but are very unlikely to get it.
SittingFox
3 Dec 2010Darko, I measured 37cm on the flat roof yesterday and it's considerably deeper than that where it's drifted. And it was -10c last night, so it's not going anywhere. I think we had one big fall like this when I was very young (1987?) but, yes, very rare. As an adult I've never seen snow like it except in Canada.
Words, LOL! :rolleyes: If they just said "we cannot cope, don't travel if it's snowy" then perhaps life would be simpler! And they ought to talk to Via Rail, the Canadian operator. I was telling a colleague that they actually offer winter train trips as holidays in the Rockies! He thought that was hilarious. But it's quite true!
Glad you had relatives in London. For a while on Tuesday, I was half expecting to have to spend the night either on the floor of Gatwick or at the nearest travel lodge!
Mickeyjoe-Irl
3 Dec 2010I would have expected more from Bombardier. They are, after all, famous for making snowmobiles. 😉
Mickeyjoe-Irl
3 Dec 2010Originally posted by Words:
😆
SittingFox
3 Dec 2010😆
Yeah, my local station has been shut for two days! Not that I'd be able to reach it very easily even if it was open…
Words
3 Dec 2010Mick, so they make snowmobiles as well as slowmobiles. We obviously mistyped when we put in the order for trains! The smallest slip of the finger…
Words
3 Dec 2010Adele, it really puts our system in perspective when you see things like that. Most of the South Coast trains have stopped for the night. Presumably it will be ok on Monday though. Who knows? It will be 'rails overheating' or something equally obscure. They've already used 'the wrong type of leaf fall'. 😀
anonymous
6 Dec 2010Vivian, VIA’s virtual tour guide writes:
"Slowmobiles," love it! And there's no better season than winter to take in the Rockies in all their icy splendour 🙂 Although after my umpteenth trip, I'm more looking forward to a dip into the hot spring spas in Jasper…
Vivian is Virtual
VIA Rail's tour guide
Flying Red Fox Blog
6 Dec 2010Wow you got stuck in London! :yikes : :no: Southern Trains Electrostars are not snowproof….. apparently the now long gone *Slam door* trains were a bit more efficient…. but freezing in winter time.
Our Uni closd but demanded Catering be open for students, so me and my Boss had a snowball fight outside which was hilarious! 😛
We gave the residential students evening meal at lunch and closed at 3pm due to adverse weather conditions.
Words
6 Dec 2010Mark, let's face it, our trains are rubbish! I read they recently were running some slam doors on one line (not sure which) but had to take them out of service when they discovered that half the passengers had forgotten how to open the doors.
I guess feeding people is important, but it's tough getting to work when the weather is like this. Glad you've got a cool boss!
Words
6 Dec 2010Vivian… virtual or not, thanks! And I'll even link. 😉
Words
6 Dec 2010Overcrowding is (generally) not a problem for me… terminus to terminus has its advantages, but no heating can't be fun! I just wish they were more reliable. I can't remember a day when everything (tube included) ran properly from start to finish. Double-decker train might be the answer though.
SittingFox
6 Dec 2010The inbound Southern service on my branch line doesn't have heating even though it's electric! 😥 This is a problem, I have discovered, when the train in question is stuck behind a "failed" train for 45 minutes when it's -5c outside :smurf:
Oh well. I'm sure things could be worse. They could be trying to solve overcrowding by making us sit on the roof, for example :whistle:
They still use slam door trains in Norfolk, to my knowledge. And the only time that I ever remember having train delay issues there was when there was a foot of water on the line!
Flying Red Fox Blog
7 Dec 2010At weekends when i go to Heathrow, i cant remember the Underground being completely free of engineering works, maybe during the Summer when everyone is travelling i guess they have a few weekends where they do not.
Almost everyda on the Southern website theres always an area with signal problems, maybe they should replace the entire signal network with advanced up to date technology to solve it.
Its cool being at a Terminus station, get the seat you want before everyone arrives. 😛
gdare
7 Dec 2010Originally posted by SittingFox:
Imagine going to work when it is -5C like this:
:insane:
SittingFox
7 Dec 2010:yikes: :yikes: :faint:
😆
Words
7 Dec 2010Darko, for heaven's sake, don't give Southern Rail any ideas!!!
Words
7 Dec 2010mark, I got the seat today but there was no heating in the carriage! Brrrr… I think I was reading that there won't be a fully working tube at the weekend until just before the Olympics. Literally every weekend has engineering works going on. They're thinking of shutting parts down for up to 3 weeks completely to try to speed it all up. It's chaos!
gdare
8 Dec 2010😆
serola
9 Dec 2010Originally posted by Words:
Just saw that picture… :faint:
Wulpen
19 Oct 2012Great post