How safe was this

Wonder how safe this was

34098 Templecombe running over washed away tracks & ballast unknown location
https://tinyurl.com/mhj3dtan

Neil

 

Whole railways were closed for less. The last nail in the coffin of the original Corris was erosion from the Afon Dyfi reaching the ends of the sleepers, which as it turned out, was as far as it ever got!

There are several photos of much scarier (commuter) operations across a bomb damaged viaduct in Brighton.

 

Great picture!

Looks like wrong line working, so hopefully the ballast under the operational line is not quite as bad as under the line nearest the camera.

Somehow can't see that happening today though!

 

It must have been 100% safe.

 

Well the locomotive and coaches obviously were able to run over that section of track without coming to grief - under the watchful eye of the track worker. It was not running along the track that did have some ballast washed away.
Standards have indeed changed though.

 

If you speak to anyone from the nuclear industry, nothing is 100% safe.

 

The line would not have been in use if it had been considered unsafe. The decision would have been taken by experienced railwaymen using the knowledge of local staff and having thoroughly checked the line(s), with test train(s) run and a low speed limit applied.

In the British Railway Journal number 36 there is a series of 10 photographs taken at Gloucester in March 1947 showing the problems caused by the Severn following the thaw from the recent harsh winter. It actually shows the inspection being carried out by the officers as well as the after effects on the railway. The line to the west to Cardiff runs on an embankment and it is shown as one line being in operation and the other out of use and the reason was due to the cant of the track. A flagman is shown as an added safety precaution once services started.

( The previous edition has a series of pictures at Gloucester during the winter snows of that year and how staff combated that problem. )

 

February 2nd 1916. A Leeds to Penistone train had come over the viaduct and into Penistone station. The loco, an L & Y 2-4-2 tank, ran around and had to go onto the viaduct to clear the pointwork. The driver felt some movement and he and the fireman scarpered. As they got to dry land the 2nd and third arches of the viaduct collapsed, leaving the loco on the track suspended in mid-air,momentarily, before the loco fell into the River Don.
The loco was stripped of all movable parts then cut up into large pieces, which were retrieved and taken to Horwich Works. This was not the end for No. 661. A new loco emerged from Horwich having used items retrieved from the original loco as well as new components.
How lucky the passengers on that train were.

 

I see the rail fastenings are the good old Heyback, still in use in Sweden, I believe.
Pat

 

We also do not know what speeds were involved (I hope walking pace but...), and what condition the rest of the embankment was in to support wrong line working.

 

If you speak to anyone from any industry and they tell you something is 100% safe ... run away! They don't know what they are talking about! (Well, maybe walk briskly away whilst looking for dangers. Safer. but not 100% safe ;-) )

 

After the event, we know it was safe (unless the next pic is of the MN upside down at the bottom of the bank).
The real question is "how safe was it to undertake the manoeuvre before hand"?

There is clearly no way of knowing if it was "100% safe" beforehand.

 

This was probably a late fifties's/early sixties happening. In real time that was not long after WWII and the civil engineers and operating people would be quite used to doing such things following bridge damage due to bombing. Fast forward to 2021 and we probably have no one of working age and very few alive who has any experience of keeping the line open in this way.

 

Point of order: it's a WC/BB (straight nameplate on running board), the MNs carried their's higher up on the boiler .... that and the photos in a flickr folder called Light Pacific Class>34098-34100!

 

That's Christchurch bank , There were several embankment slips on the down line including two while I was a guard.
A rather grubby 34098 is obviously running over the up line in the down direction, emergency single line working between Hinton Admril and Christchurch There is conductor rail in place, so I would say around the period 1966-1967.
The last bank slip I encountered , probably ten or twelve years ago It was SLW over the up line was between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth,
Totally screwed up the timetable and I suspect if it happened today, it would be a case of JOB STOPPED!

 

That slip must have actually been around 2002 as I was in training at the time so was drafted in to get first hand experience of P1 working. Must have travelled over that section 20+ times with the downside rails hanging. Every time I go passed I can still see where the slip occurred due to huge backfill on the embankment.

The last slip I had to deal with was just over a year ago when a driver reported a "slight jolt" near Milford Curve just outside Salisbury at around 7.30pm. When I got there, the track on the downline definitely didn't look quite right. Remember standing with a colleague on the sleepers of the now closed line on a conference call with the earthworks team as they said the bank could collapse. Cue syncronised jumping from the up line into the sound (but closed) down line.

Yes the JOB STOPPED for the rest of the day until it could be assessed properly over night when the professionals could get to site to inspect it first hand. The following morning, SLW was set up for GWR services but the chaos caused to these services and the knock on effect to the greater timetable from Cardiff to Portsmouth was deemed too great to continue so the next day buses were put on for passengers. This is the main reason for "bustitution" when things like this happen rather than "can't be done". Freight services still ran and were piloted between Laverstock to East Grimstead for just over a month while the surrounding flooded land dried and the bank was rebuilt and reinforced.

 

It crashed so hard it changed class...

The issue is that nothing is 100% safe. Sitting at home doing nothing raises your obesity/heart disease risk.

The proper H&S test is "as low as reasonably practicable", not "zero risk". The tricky bit is balancing risk is almost impossible as no-one (since Captain Scott) has ever gone "oh well, it went pear-shaped", so there is always a blame game after the event.