Dean Forest Railway

An 08 has a max speed of 15mph but generally will not get up to that.

 

Pretty obvious don't you think?

 

And a bridge isnt designed to take energy in that form and direction. A good number of Well Theres Your Problem episodes have been about bridge collapses but on a higher scale.

 

It's interesting that all the 08s I see nowadays are governed to 15mph.
But I recall, back in the '70s, that the 08s used on the Southern Region were labelled as 20 mph. But drivers said they didn't like to go above 18, since they were fitted with an overspeed trip instead of being governed.
(The 09s at that time were allowed 27mph, but drivers preferred to keep to 25.)

On a light run from Hither Green to Hoo Jn, a loco suddenly stopping dead, because of an overspeed trip, could be rather embarrassing. (likewise Hoo Jn to Chatham Goods [Rochester], or the long haul from Chatham Goods back to Hither Green)

 

Been away a while and catching up... can I deduce that there was a miscalculation regarding the height of the arm on the JCB and that of the bridge?

 

In shipping circles it's known as the "air draft".

 

I wouldn't deduce anything just yet. Wait for the report, like the rest of us.

 

Exactly - speculation does no good at all - we will be told soon enough,

 

RAIB update today, they will be producing a safety digesthttps://www.gov.uk/government/news/collision-with-footbridge-on-the-dean-forest-railway

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Thanks for letting us know.

 

Just wanted to share some praise for the Dean Forest, the NWPG and 50008 and 50021's owning groups after having a really superb time at the DFR's combined Tanker Train and Cl.50 running day last Saturday.

Having expected to spend last weekend in the south-east doing a Spa Valley/Romney/Bluebell combo initially before it turned out I couldn't really be that far away from home for that long, I'd written the DFR event off thinking I'd be elsewhere. But seeing it again on social media and still having Saturday afternoon free for a more local trip, I headed up and was so glad I did. That tanker rake is a really impressive achievement and having seen it in the flesh now I'm so glad the DFR was able and willing to offer it a home.

Though I'm a lifelong 50 fan, I wasn't at all surprised that my best thrash of the afternoon came from the Pannier tank as it had to work a bit harder than the diesels with the 5-coach rake. The only downside was the late running at the end meaning I had to bail out of the evening 50 double-header at Norchard on the outward trip so I could get home in time for my late shift at work, but the 50s sounded good thrashing off into the forest. Couldn't work out what was going on with the Pannier brake van trip in the evening as it hadn't been in the timetable, and whether it was actually for the public to use, but it looked like fun as that set off into the night.

 

Video from Don Bishop's charter day with 78019 yesterday

 

Footage from a different selection of run pasts on Don Bishop's recent DFR charter

 

Any news regarding repairs/replacement of the demolished footbridge?

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...tbridge-on-dean-forest-railway-14-august-2025

Safety digest issued rather than a full report.

 

And people wonder why we need processes and procedures and follow them!

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As the bridge is now gone then maybe with the new bridge the manager can request to have longer legs so this can never happen again and more can get underneath and make a good change from a very bad situation

 

That's rather missing the point! If you raise the height of that bridge, you just find some other structure becomes the limit. The excavator could have been transported safely within the confines of the existing loading gauge - provided it had been stowed properly on the carrying vehicle. So there is no reason to raise the height limit when the bridge gets rebuilt.

(And in any case, we are supposed to be preservation societies, not do everything for the maximum convenience even if that means stripping away built heritage societies ...)

Tom

 

Healthy discussion includes speculation. Every football, corporate shareholders or political chatroom in the country contain nothing but speculation. it only seems to be in railway circles that any attempt to discuss anything is met with chorus of people saying "Shhh" as though operation of preserved railways is goverened by the Official Secrets Act. Speculate away/ Nobody s going to take a blind bit of notice of a bunch of amateurs talking about their hobby. In this case it is already clear what happened anyway.

 

Interestingly, the speculation didn't include why this happened - which is what makes the RAIB briefing interesting.