'The Capital Christmas Express'. 23rd November

I suppose the question now is how it became damaged and at what point did this take place.

 

Could be anywhee. When I had theexcitement of dropping rods they came off at Levisham; the missing fastenings were found at Esk Valley, a good 11 miles away. It had run that far quite happily with no problem.

 

There was a very serious incident at Ais Gill in 1960 in which a Brit dropped it's motion and caused a derailment resulting in a number of deaths. In that incident the motion came to bits over a long distance. Subsequent examination found the first part almost 30 miles from the final derail.

 

Settle rather than Ais Gill. The report is here. Sobering reading.
http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Settle1960.pdf

 

I posted this back at #117

 

Reading the report, to me, the things that stand out most are the fact that ambulances were on the scene within 10 minutes and that the line had been cleared and normal working resumed in 14½ hours. Bearing in mind the means of communication available then, such speedy actions would never occur today. It would be a potential crime scene and stuff Joe Public wanting to go about his normal business. Which is right? Restore normality as quickly as possible or inconvenience a lot of people whilst a thorough investigation is carried out? I'm afraid that I'm old school and vote for the former.

I'm getting to be a grumpy old man, just like Victor!

 

It's not just inconvenience. There is a huge economic cost that is not considered in the contemporary system and, worse, increased injury and death.

 

A piece about this incident in the latest SR which arrived today. Has the stock "West Coast declined to comment" remark.
There is still some confusion whether it was the big or small end that failed. NR said it was the big end, now it seems it could of been the small end.

 

Found this online: assume it is genuine. Main flash-over at 12 seconds, but there are sparks prior to that. Soundtrack is strange though....

 

Soundtrack is similar to third rail EMU trying to pick up on ice. A dangling con rod might make a similar sound. Purely on a logic basis for the con rod to be in contact with 3rd rail for so long my money is on it trailing so big end failure. If the little end had gone the chances of the rod running allong the 3rd rail and not falling off either side seem remote. Thed fact it did not appear to dig in might support a big end failure IN THEORY

 

The video is genuine.

For those with the software, scroll frame by frame to 12 secs.. you see the same major flash (fraction of a second and barely visible to watch, it is literally only 1 frame) followed by the sparks.. that frame is the same as the picture several pages back though the detail level is substantially better in the video.

 

Rumour control has it that the gudgeon pin nut came off (for whatever reason) and the little end dropped and fortunately ran along the third rail. No first hand account, though, only rumour and seemingly at odds with what tour participants were told!

 

If it's true that the small end rather than the big end had the "issue", that somewhat rains on the parade of those who were postulating that the big end failed because it was original style with screwed on disc and circlip rather than 4 bolt LMS style..

Keep guessing boys, until the reports are out!

 

Are you able to say what reports,if any,will be published? RAIB,obviously, if they become involved. But WCRC are not going to say anything are they?

 

No, I don't know what reports will actually be published. I am surmising that some will be though!

 

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/current_investigations_register/131123_winchfield.cfm

 

A RAIB investigation has started.

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/current_investigations_register/131123_winchfield.cfm

Was composing this while post above was being made. Sorry to have doubled-up

 

The RAIB webpage also says the following:

The link in the quote should give you an RAIB email address (enquiries@raib.gov.uk) to use.

Richard