smallspy
Senior Member
Here goes.....
All of these have been problematic, although to be honest the accumulation is the least so, although ends up causing the others....
First of all, there have been derailments at both Davisville and Wilson which have caused issues with getting equipment out into service. Derailment cleanup is even more hampered in the winter as there is a need to remove all of the snow from the affected area in order to properly inspect the location and to be able to affect whatever repairs are needed.
The Wilson one is particularly troublesome as the switches to/from the mainline at the south end of the yard have been problematic since their installation for the extension of service to Downsview. The north buildup (the access track built to Sheppard West several years ago) has helped this somewhat, but as designed and built it is impossible to get enough trains into service from it alone.
On top of that, the type of snow that we've gotten - coupled with the cold weather - has meant that it has been particularly prone to blowing. In normal circumstances this wouldn't be that big a deal, but when the accumulated snow reaches the bottom of the third rail it doesn't take long for it to cover it. This has been the problem with the open areas, particularly north of Eglinton West, north of Wilson, between Davisville and Eglinton and between Warden and Victoria Park.
Yes, the TTC has snow fighting equipment, and it does get used quite a bit, but these areas seem to be particularly troublesome.
Heated switches? Yes, especially the most important mainline switches.
No, trains don't have plows but there are other ways to deal with that. The above-mentioned snow fighting equipment does good work of that when the accumulations get to be too much, but the easiest way is to simply run the service. A train every 5 minutes or so will go a long way to ensuring that the tracks stay clean and clear.
And in fact, that's what the TTC used to do. I don't know if they still do - I wonder if it was eliminated as a cost-cutting measure, or if it was felt that there was so much other work that needed to be done overnight that they've stopped doing it.
Another thing that they used to do when bad storms were forecast was to store trains in the tunnels between stations. They've done this on the YUS over the past several days, but that was out of necessity due to Wilson Yard being unavailable.
No, but it should be something that they look into if they are not already. Certainly in the areas where blowing snow accumulation is the most troublesome.
I'm sure that there are some measures to help, such as such as the installation of windbreaks outside of and throughout the yard. They may only have a small effect, but several small effects can also add up to something greater.
Dan
