Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Train wheel squeal on railway behind Wightman Road
With the coming of better weather(!) the train squeal on the railway behind Wightman Road has become worse than ever in some places.
I have been liaising with First Capital Connect on the issue and what work they are doing to reduce this for local residents.
My latest communication with the Interim Head of Communications confirms the following:
• fitting of a new greaser
• new sections of track
• new sleepers
• reopening a set of points to redirect some of the trains away from a critical, noisy curve to move in different area.
In response to my enquiries they have called back their track expert and he has been making measurements and FFC are awaiting his report. This should determine whether additional track greasers would be effective in reducing the noise. Because the trains move at low speed around tight curves, there will always be squeal!
Ultimately the yard layout will be changed as part of the construction of the new depot for the new Thameslink Programme trains. This should address some of the wheel squeal noise I have asked which sections of the track this work relates to and in response to that the depot manager is going to have a plan drawn up to show which sections of track all this work refer to.
I will continue to challenge FFC to address the problem as at the moment it doesn’t seem to be going away.
Tags for Forum Posts: noise, train noise
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gerry N on
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I lived in a house in Wightman Rd which backed onto the railway ( number 181 I think) According to Google maps there are trees & the new river between the house garden & the railway land.
This was probably early 1980's & I remember the noise of the Deltic locos was incredibly loud. Every Deltic or diesel woke me up and they then ran trains all through the night. I think some were goods trains too. Pre electrification perhaps.
I moved in to a house near to a busy rail depot & mainline route. I somehow never thought of complaining to (the then) British Rail Eastern !
How old fashioned is that ! & how some things & attitudes have changed too !
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Permalink Reply by byl999 on
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I can totally understand the disruption it must cause, but then you must've been aware there would be noise living so close to the tracks?
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Gerry and Byl999, do either of you live in the area now? I'm not particularly near the train tracks, and they make an awful racket - not just wheels, but blasts of horns at any time of the day or night... They can be heard as far as the other side of Queens Woods in Muswell Hill - I used to live there and could clearly hear the noise some nights.
Keep up the good work Karen - there is something that can be done about this - it just costs train companies money which they must be persuaded to spend!!
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No i don't live anywhere near Wightman Road ~ but i can genuinely understand it must be very annoying and cause great disturbance. I think if you move to Wightman Road you must accept there will be loud road and train noise to a certain extend. However I was not aware that the sounds can be heard in Muswell Hill which means they must be very extreme noises.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
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When you buy a house with a railway behind and a busy road in front of course you know that its not going to be that peaceful! The gentle clatter of trains (which you would expect) is not the issue here. The problem is loud, ear piercing squeeling wheels on the tracks as they move to the sidings - its the noise you sometimes hear on the tube trains (and you can visably see people wince!) - we get that for hours at a time!
The train company can do something about it and residents have asked me to follow it up. Likewise the busy Wightman Road can be made better (after all it is a residential road) by slowing the traffic and reducing the number of HGVs which are both things we are working on, together with local residents.
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Permalink Reply by WightmanPaul on
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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
For man please read person.
Or perhaps more succinctly, from the Honda Ads:
"Hate something, change something."
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Permalink Reply by Glenn Wallis on
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Sorry to be a bit late but I've only just noticed this thread. The train operating companies are not responsible for the tracks they run on. This is as a result of the "separation of the steel wheel from the steel rail" brought about by John Major's privatisation of British Rail. Network Rail is responsible for the track and any remedial measures to reduce "flange squeal". Trackside flange greasers can help where there is a continual problem, but often flange squeal occurs after track relaying or rail renewal where the new rail is a little "tight to gauge" and slowly the offending rails are worn down by the passage of wheels.
Did anyone see the BBC4 programme last night on the BR High Speed Train? Introduced onto the East Coast Main Line in 1978 and still going strong with East Coast and Grand Central train operating companies.
Glenn Wallis
Assistant Secretary
Barking - Gospel Oak Line User Group
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Are you even in Harringay out of interest, given you are nowhere near Wightman? It's not that big an area...
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Permalink Reply by Graeme Viljoen on
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Thank you for keeping up with this.
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And a thanks from me too Karen - I know you've been on at this for a good while and am very pleased you've not got bored or drowned out by the infernal racket they make!!
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