Snow snow and more snow!

D821 GREYHOUND · December 04, 2010, 08:07:12 AM

Here in sunny Worcestershire, we have had a fairly light snowfall compared to the north east and Scotland. Still, its affected my business this close to Christmas and i ve had 3 days of little trading. Ah well, its going to get better I hope, so no point moaning and the kids love it! How bad have you guys had the big freeze where you are? How has it affected you? Ian.

Tank · December 04, 2010, 09:00:44 AM

We had about 12-15 inches here in Surrey. It all seems to be melting now though. I haven't seen a train on the Caterham Line since Wednesday! I can't even see the tracks.

Whatever happened to the 'Polar Bear' that Network SouthEast had?!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/4438495448/

D821 GREYHOUND · December 04, 2010, 09:16:17 AM

Im right opposite both Kidderminster stations. London Midland seems to be running ok as i have a couple of Worcester based drivers pop in the shop for a haircut, and they have said the trains on the Cross City (Kidderminster to Dorridge, via Snow Hill) line have had no major problems. The Santa specials on the Severn Valley Railway start today and i havent seen a single person go over there yet! As i write this a 66 just gone through with the Round Oak steel train. It looks like the big thaw today will be a big freeze tonight. That will be great as we live on a very steep hill. Tank, what is the polar bear?? Sorry to sound ignorant!

Tank · December 04, 2010, 09:24:08 AM

You beat me to it!

I've just found the pictures and put them above. It was all part of a snow train the NSE had built after the 1987 freeze (I think it was that year). Since then the actual blower has gone to your neck of the woods.

jonclox · December 04, 2010, 09:48:43 AM

North Hampshire missed quite a bit of the early snows but tried to catch up Monday night with a good covering.
Very low temperature from time to time sinse then kept the snow on the ground but even living in a village as we do the roads have been kept reasonably clear.
Last night temps rose to above 0c and rain started to was the snow away quite quickly. I just hope it dosnt freeze in the next 24 hours.
Wednesday morning the snow was really bad and ur son who live in Basingstoke was panicing............He started a new job in Bracknell on Monday andhas only just passed his driving test. Ipersuaded him that the train was his only hope and I didnt hold out much hope for him with that. He risked it and arrived at work just 10 minutes late. Getting home that evening took close on 3 hours tho. Even so GW and SW trains quite impressed me by keeping things running

Lawrence · December 04, 2010, 02:00:08 PM

For the past week I have had to dig the car out every morning, and dig it into a space at night, Wednesday I never made it into work it had just got ridiculous. Fife council couldn't organise the proverbial in a brewery. Heating has been on 24 hrs a day since last Sat, first postman got through yesterday (since last Friday)and up to Thurs night we had one gritter through here, which got stuck coming up the hill! BTW, I'm not way out in the sticks, I'm 10 minutes from Dundee or 20 to St Andrews the other way, our street is roughly half way between the Tay road and rail bridges on the Fife side of the river. There is a slight thaw just now but expecting -8 tonight, mind you the 2 feet + long icicles hanging from the house look pretty

tadpole · December 04, 2010, 08:52:11 PM

We have 30+cm of snow lying here in Aberdeen, although I'm sure I detected very light rain/sleet this pm, which will no doubt freeze and make the pavements even more treacherous. I will venture up to the attic tomorrow and check my trains haven't frozen in situ (and, while I'm at, the CH boiler pressure). The poor little things get really hot up there in the summer, and now this!

D821 GREYHOUND · December 06, 2010, 01:36:36 PM

Tank. That polar bear train. Is it a self propelled former EMU, or is a loco hauled formation? All the years iv e been a rail enthusiast never seen that before! Network rail have been using some track maintenance unit, assume its a blowing machine or the like. Ian

Tank · December 07, 2010, 09:55:39 AM

It is very unusual, I agree. It's a 'tool van' for the Snow Blower. I think only the tool van was the Polar Bear. It was then repainted into Railtrack Yellow, and is now in Network Rail Yellow. The Snow Blower itself went up to Scotland.

Polar Bear:-

Support Carriage Ptarmigan:-

View actual Snowblower here....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/4438495448/in/photostream/