RAIB Statement and urgent safety advice re steam locomotive reversers

The RAIB has issued an initial statement following the recent incident at the NYMR. It may be found at
Rail Accident Investigation: 120521_Grosmont

The RAIB has also issued an Urgent Safety Advice Note relating to steam locomotive reversers, following tests conducted on SR Class S15 no 825. The notice highlights the risk that if the reverser is not locked, the reversing mechanism can change from reverse to full forward gear while the loco is moving with reglator closed. If this is not noticed, then when the regulator is subseqently opened, the loco can change direction unexpectedly. This is most likely to happen when the loco is initially moving in reverse with the weight of the radius rod acting to pull the reverser into forward gear.

David

 

I'd suggest not putting 2 and 2 together regarding events till a full report is published.....

 

=4. RAIB don't habitually issue urgent safety advice notes on a whim. And the reverser feature of an S15 isn't an unknown and unforseeable item. Fully confident that, as per the Kirklees boiler incident, the urgent safety advice points the way to the eventual report.

Roger

 

May I suggest that we all refrain from comment until the final report is published and any actions decided upon, for the benefit of all concerned.

Anyone with serious information relevant to this incident should contact RAIB direct. If it is speculation then for your own good please keep quiet at present and not post on this forum.

 

IMHO to close threads involving very serious issues - and there's none more serious than those which involve loss of life - runs contrary to the whole point of a forum such as this.

Nothing posted here is going to be libellous; it'll get moderated, and rightly so. People have legitimate concerns about safety on our preserved railways, and their interests are not served by stifling debate until someone in authority reveals the answers after perhaps months of delay. And by that time, there isn't much left to be said and the topic tends to get largely ignored.

Allowing in-forum debate inevitably means accepting some uninformed opinion, but this can be questioned and set right in open forum. Nat-Pres has a good number of members who know useful stuff and can be interesting and helpful. The alternative leaves speculation to the published, broadcast and online media, in which there is always a preponderance of the most erroneous information.

Safety is never, ever compromised by people talking about it.

Roger

 

The moderator team are monitoring this thread carefully.

As pointed out, a serious incident occurred and therefore posters are recommended to keep to facts, out of respect to the affected family and not to speculate on cause unnecessarily.

Any squabbling, dis-respect, speculation in this thread will be treated in line with forum rules without exception.

 

Could I just point something out here. The people that need to know will already have been notified of possible safety and operational problems with an S15 Class reverser. These people are the owners and Railways using operational S15s. No doubt, the railways involved will pass the warning onto their loco crews. For the rest of us, commonsense tells me that we should wait for the final RAIB report.
Please show some respect for the family of the chap that died.

 

I read the RAIB report the other day and purposely didn't link to it on here for the reasons you state. It was the Safety Alert I believed to be worthy of a wider audience, unless it is only S15 specific?

 

I have moved a number of posts to the bin for now.

Please keep to discussing the report rather than personalities.

Thanks, Neil.

 

The RAIB have been very quick to issue both an initial report and an Urgent Safety Advice which should quosh any speculation and rumour. Their formal report will obviously take some time but it is pointless putting an embargo on any sensible discussion on the matter as most of the pertinent facts have been put in the public domain. Having said that, I can think of little that now needs to be discussed.

 

The Urgent Safety Advice issued yesterday by the RAIB is NOT specific to just the Class S15. It is addressed to operators of all steam locomotives with screw reversers and also covers safety issues involved with shunting operations. It has been widely circulated by the HRA to Heritage Railways. ALL footplate and operational staff on Heritage and other railways should make sure that they read it. The speed with which it has been issued is a measure of its importance and urgency. But as Steve points out the essential facts are now in the public domain, and there is no justification for further speculation here.

 

Agreed, but there is no need to shout. Having worked with the RAIB, on behalf of BRSLOG, following the blowback incident with 75029 at the NYMR a few years ago, I think you'll find that the owners of operational S15s will have been contacted as a matter of course. As I have said previously, we should all await the full RAIB report.