The Cotswold Venturer - June 13th.

Whatever the cause of movement turns out to be I hope no one was injured.

 

Reading Station has lots of nice new Spingly Spangly HD CCTV stuck on all over it so no doubt what actually happened will soon be established. As I understand it no one was actually injured.

 

We hope no one was injured of course. But I guess, as with Wotton Bassett, it may be viewed by those in authority as "what might have been". Our thoughts again are with the driver as one can only image what he is going through just now.

 

I was there tonight, on platform 15, so the wrong side to see what happened on platform 13. It wasn't clear to us on 15 what happened at the time but about three minutes after arrival, the train slowly started and moved about four feet before stopping again. The attached photo shows the train at the moment of moving and as can be clearly seen, the green signal aspect is clearly visible. Everybody on that side of the cab looks to be focused on the task in hand, which doesn't seem unreasonable.

It only became apparent what had happened some time later, when I spoke to some people who had been on platform 13. I did speak to the duty manager but as you can imagine. she wasn't saying anything substantive to a complete stranger.

 

Lets wait for more facts first, remember 47500 at Ordsall ?, people coulden't wait to stick the knife in, then it came out it was NR and their dodgy track to blame, it is possible that the RA was given, then someone decided to take it upon themselves to release the secondary door lock, if so it would be difficult to blame the crew.

Hopefully the proper response will be forthcoming from WCRC, as treating incidents with the seriousness they deserve gets a less harsh view from NR.

 

If you are saying that this picture was taken at the exact time the train started to move then this is quite interesting as the RA indicator (below the signal head) is not lit.

I understand WCRC also use back to back radio for train despatch purposes however the normal method of working at Reading station is to use the RA indicators for trains not fitted with built in Driver - Guard coms...

I've saved that picture file by the way.

 

I was sitting on the fence on this one the awaiting of reaction from both sides.

 

Gave this trip a miss in the end as other things cropped up but I did follow it's progress when I could. What a very sad end to the day for all concerned. I hope this incident and the events with the test run of 60009 don't have a further detrimental effect on the future of ML steam operations. With Network Rail also under investigation by the ORR they will be under pressure too.

 

There has been a video posted of the event and the immediate aftermath but in view of the delicacy of the situation I have elected not to post a link to avoid a trial by video - suffice to say that it was taken from the platform adjacent to the cab and shows the environment at the time of the incident; it is a 2 minute sequence that starts with the movement of the train.

 

Seen it Fred and as you say best to keep it away from here

 

Pretty sure it was already linked to on here but seems to have disappeared. I caught it before it went. It's also on other forums.

 

Yes I thought I saw it here earlier

 

Indeed it is.

 

I come from a large Great Western Swindon family,travelling behind Castles,Halls,Saints & Manors during the war years and post war between Paddington,Reading,Swindon,Didcot and Oxford..semi-fast and stoppers..smokers,housewives and kitbags belonging to the forces standing in corridors,package knee deep in luggage vans that even the guard could hardly move..but the GWR worked,it never moaned it just got on with life..now then,I had friends travelling on this Train to Worcester,and they had a wonderful day out,first class food,excellent service..
Thank goodness we say they were only going to Reading...NOW my moan and the poor souls on board are NOT youngsters anymore-and to say 'jump aboard' you have 3 minutes to do this is sheer madness,these are not modern carriages where the platform is the same level as the carriage.it is a job to climb up and down...even an army personal with a kitbag would struggle in 3 minutes to board a train with this design within this time.Even my friends were helped from the train at Reading (especially after a nice meal).
I suggest NR or whoever plans these times go back to the drawing board and re-work the timings-yes,I know,we are holding up the express following=I will not except that as an excuse.The network is full of excuses-if world war 3 started tomorrow H&S would go straight out of the window because we wouldn't have time to fill out form b,section 9 because a land mine has fallen on the line a mile ahead...Get your timing right and remember most of these passengers that go on these trips are pensioners who don't disembark at a given time.In fact some didn't even know the rule was 3 minutes that you take your life in your hands.
Did I join the family tradition by going to the railway to work,no I became a journalist in Fleet Street.

 

Blimey!

Sub-editors really earned their money in those days.

;-)

 

A short clip of the train passing Goring and Streatley. I did stop off at Maidenhead to visit the bridge after this as I was on my way East anyway, wondered why there were still plenty of photographers hanging around. Saw the 37 light engine heading to the rescue which just confirmed the cancellation already showing on RTT. Shame this trip ended this way, glad to hear no-one was hurt. We'll have to see what more comes of this...

 

I've lost count of the number of trains I've been on over the years that have set off and then stopped a second or two later whilst still at the platform. If the explanation from the passenger (a few posts above) is correct, then I'm going to stick my neck out and ask what's the big deal? Obviously, everyone is very nervous and on edge following what has happened recently, which is understandable, but I hope a sense of perspective prevails on this occasion following what appears on face value to be a relatively minor incident.