Met Office Record Temperature Claims Are Fraudulent

Another doom spreading announcement last week was that southern trains were being delayed or cancelled because of the threat of rail buckling due to the heat. I don’t recall hearing about any actual incidents of this occurring, just the possibility it might. But derailments due to heat have happened before, the most famous of which was June 5, 1950 – The Flying Scotsman train derailed at Tollerton, Nottinghamshire due to heat-buckled track.

And before that? from google AI (after having to ask it to dispense with the ‘climate crisis’ claptrap and look at the entire historical record)

“Regarding how many times track buckling had caused derailments across the UK rail network prior to 1950, the answer is dozens, if not hundreds of times. While complete network-wide statistics for minor infrastructure shifts do not exist for the Victorian and Edwardian eras, official records confirm that sun-warped rails were a known summer operational hazard. 

Engineers left small gaps between rail joints to allow for heat expansion. If a summer was hotter than anticipated, the steel expanded until the gaps closed completely.

The Resulting Buckle: 

Once the expansion gaps closed, the immense internal pressure had nowhere to go, causing the track to violently kink outwards.

Documented Pre-1950 Heat-Buckle Derailments:

Whenever summer temperatures spiked, the pre-nationalisation railway companies routinely dealt with track distortions. Prominent historical examples of actual derailments caused by the sun include:

Felling, County Durham (1907): A passenger train was fully derailed after hitting a section of track warped by summer temperatures.

Hartley, Cumberland (1909): A freight train hauled by a North Eastern Railway locomotive left the tracks when the rails buckled under the direct heat of the sun.”

And from Network Rail:

“Railway tracks can buckle when rail temperatures reach roughly 46°C to 50°C (115°F to 122°F)”

“Unprecedented”

Only in your head.