Coupling up

I have heard rumours that the fun police will soon require all heritage railway staff to wear hard hats when coupling up. How ridiculous! A hard hat won't help if somebody decides to move the loco whilst you are underneath or help prevent a vac bag black eye!

I know they say it is the most dangerous place on the railway - but that is only if you are working in an environment where there isn't a clear understanding of what is going on.

I hope I'm talking utter rubbish and it is just a stupid rumour.

 

There isn't room to wear a hard hat!

 

the silly poeple in these offices enforcing these ridirculous rules, clearly have never un-coupled a steam engine from a train. Otherwise they'd know theres no bl***y room for yourself, let alone a stonking great piece of plastic perched on ya noggin aswell...

 

I doubt that they would make the wearing of hard hats mandatory, more likely to be a 'bump cap' as worn by staff working under trains in depots on the National Network.

Don't forget that hard hats are quite restrictive in confined space, whereas the bump cap is basically a baseball hat with a hard plastic insert to reduce the pain when you bump your head.

Regards,

Dan

 

So presumably the idea is not to bump your head in the first place!

 

There's even less room when coupling or uncoupling two screw coupled corridor coaches

 

I would think that hand injuries are more likely than head injuries. Does any heritage line actually have any incidents of head injury recorded in their accident book ?

Bob.

 

Not on real vintage coaches......

 

The Big Railway rulebook GE/RT8000, Module G1, Section 2, Para 2.6 states:

"You must wear a bump cap if you regularly work below the sole bar. If you only work below the sole bar now and again, you must wear a bump cap if possible. You must take special care if you do not have a bump cap".

On that basis, while it is recommended, shunters and train crews do not have to wear a bump cap (no mention of a hard hat anywhere) when coupling or uncoupling vehicles.

Sounds like the rumour mill is no more accurate than usual!

 

Thanks for clearing this up kesbobby - I was thankfully being told rubbish!

 

They should try Buckeye Coupling - Now that would be painful! How ridiculous!! Seriously!! There isn't enough room to swing a cat! Let alone a Rat!!

 

Not sure where this has come from but surely any requirement to wear safety equipment for any task would arise from an individual railway's own risk assessments.

Hard hats will reduce the risk of serious head injuries but I personally have found when I wear any sort of hat with a peak, the loss of upward vision causes me to bang my head against things far more often!

 

For a moment there I thought we were taking another step closer to a world where it would be deemed too dangerous to get out of bed in the morning, or even to be in the bed for fear of collapse - actually, even existing would be too dangerous...Oh no, we are doomed, either way!

 

Was going to say the same, of course Gresley coaches had Pullman ends and Buckeyes from quite early, but western and LMS stock had BSI corridors and screws

 

And if you need to couple BSI gangwayed stock to Buckeyed stock, then you have the gangway buffer in the way as well as having to handle the screw. Or if a Buckeye fails then there is even less room under two gangway buffers, to use the emergency screw.

 

It doesn't strike me as being a particularly big issue. What are the requirements for a similar coupling when done on the big railway ?

 

Errr - see post 11 above?

 

All a hat does is get in the bloody way. I've been coupling passenger and goods stock and engines on the SVR for 35 years, without anything more protctive than a woolly hat when it's cold. So have large numbers of my colleagues. And yet, still we endure! I have occasionally banged my head...not hard, just irritatingly. It just makes you swear and be more careful next time. The worst thing to ever happen was when a very stubborn vac. bag on a goods wagon sprung off and smacked me in the mouth, chipping a tooth, about 30 years ago. A hard hat would not have prevented it at all. A suit of armour might have, but it would have introduced other problems...