Autumn can be one of the most visually spectacular seasons of the year as leaves turn every shade of color.  While you may be stuck raking them on crisp autumn days; they present a different type of challenge to railroads.

As leaves fall on to the rail and are crushed they deposit a residue on the tracks causing wheel slip.  Wheel slip occurs when friction is reduced between the wheel and rail.  This can cause flat spots on the wheels when brakes are applied.  Flat spots reduce ride quality requiring the car to be taken out of service until the condition is corrected by turning the wheel on a large cutter called a wheel truing machine.  Last week we had several cars out of service while the flat spots were removed.  This resulted in fewer cars than normal on certain trains.

We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.  We expect to back to full strength in the near future.