Wow where has the year gone? As RHTT season starts to draw to a close there is plenty of work to keep us busy with the Snow and Ice Treatment Trains or SITT for short. The SITT trains apply an anti ice solution to the 3rd rail to prevent ice build up. The problem with ice in 3rd rail areas is that it acts as an insulator and prevents trains from drawing power from the conductor rail.
Anyway I digress. I was standby today on the 3W91 Sussex RHTT again. At around 09:30 I was called into action. In reality the phone rang, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story!
Due to a slide to a stand incident earlier in the day on the formidable North Pole bank, control requested a slow wash through the area to remove all the contamination. Nothing is straight forward though and a route was put in for me, via Horsham. Those of you who know the region will realise that this is in totally the wrong direction. Anyway after a scenic trip around Surrey and Sussex, I arrived at my destination and slow washed the required track.
My return pathway was a lot more direct routing via Clapham Junction and Redhill. Taking the opportunity I left my phone in the back cab of the train and filmed a little time lapse of the route (thanks Sam for the idea) I need to play with the settings as this is way too fast but see if you can identify all the stations.