A Leafy Curse: The Physics of Leaves on the Track

Photo by author   It's that time of year again. The colors of the trees are beautiful and vivid oranges, reds, and purples. But autumn leaves are a nightmare for train operators, affecting anywhere with heavy deciduous tree growth -- places like New England, the mid-Atlantic states, and the United Kingdom. In the UK, delays due to leaves are so disruptive that the colloquial phrase of 'leaves on the line' has emerged, often jokingly referred to as a fictional excuse for delays. But the innocuou...