As well as using MPVs – which can run twice a day and cover 1.2 million miles of railway – to deal with leaf fall, trees are cut down by the rail side and weed killer is sprayed.
Tim Dunn, a rail historian and writer, helped judge the naming competition for the MPV.
He says the issue of leaves on the line “has become a trope of British railways” but it actually affects railways across the world.
He adds: “It is a figure of fun, the idea of ‘leaves on the line’, but they are a massive, massive problem.
“But there is a way of showing that, and bringing it in to consciousness, and this [competition] is a lovely way of doing it.”
More than 1,300 people voted, with other suggestions including Buster Grimes, Britney Clears and Itsy, Bitsy, Yellow Anti-leaf Machinery.
The trains are indeed yellow, but also huge.
Leafy McLeafFace and Trainy McTrainFace were proposed, said Mr Dunn, but not allowed.
Ctrl Alt Deleaf won with 50% of the public vote. It was unveiled on Friday before heading out to live up to its name with the autumn season now under way.
“I’m delighted and thrilled,” said Mr Dunn. “In the 200-year history of the railway, all the famous trains have been named – from the Rocket to the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard, and this follows in the footsteps of that.”