Tangmere

No - it can "Chicken Licken" - based on a nursery ryhme that I struggle to remember the detail of but involved a chicken running around things the sky was falling in! These days, there is always a healthy supply of such characters in all walks of life! I see from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Licken that it can also be Chicken Little", so I think we are on the same lines!

On a more serious note, I would echo Steve's comments that the Owners Rep on 60532 that fateful day is a top man - I was on the train and it was a dreadful thing to hear from a few coaches back, so how he kept his wits about and did all he could in the circumstances actually on the loco is a miracle.

Steven

 

Straightening rods would be routine for Blacksmiths in the quondam days. As long as it's not an exotic heat treated steel it's no problem. Clamp the rod between two sets of buffers, apply a bit of 'warmalene' to the wiggled bit and, with a jack against the buffer beam, straighten, as necessary. Take out any twist with a long bar through a bearing eye, check its set true with a bar through each eye and looking at how parallel they are. Adjust the length with eccentric bushes or jumping up/down and , Bob's your uncle; job done.

 

Chicken Licken, aka Chicken Little, aka Henny Penny - all one and the same.

 

Thanks to all for explaining the chicken references. I'm just finishing off a plate of the Southern Fried stuff so reading this now is highly appropriate, : )

 

According to UK Steam, 34067's current first duty, the Statesman Golden Arrow on 26th April is now 34067/TBA. Options a bit limited here as 34046 (the obvious substitute) is working the RTC's Great Britain from London to Exeter, and the usual standby, 44932, isn't air-braked and therefore can't work the stock. Given the restricted clearances in Kent and 70000's involvement with the Great Brtain tour as well, that leaves 35028 as the only possibility that I can think of.

 

If they haven't found the nut and cotter (not sure if there was a washer as well) by now, it's extremely unlikely they ever will; so they'll just have to assess the failure mode from what is available. The pin itself will provide a lot of info.

 

Stating the 'bleep' obvious .... IF the pin, crosshead and rod eye are intact, then the pin fell out. So then it's a question of trying to understand why, and making sure it doesn't do it again.

 

It would be quite remarkable if the pin could work its way out under load and remain completely undamaged. At an ill informed and completely random guess there will be recent wear marks from the pin being out of position during the failure, and the location and extent of these will provide some clues as to how long the pin was running in an unsatisfactory manner and how the failure could have progressed - whether for instance it dropped out almost immediately, ran loose for some miles or what.

 

Thanks for the pointer - fascinating pictures!

I'm always amazed by the aftermath of these accidents: like the picture of Blue Peter's mangled motion, they look like the components were made out of caramel, not steel! The power of steam...

Noel

 

Tangmere is out on test tonight between Southall and Didcot

www.uksteam.info/tours/t14/t0424q.htm

 

That picture still sends a shiver down the spine.

 

Looks as though there weren't too many issues if it arrived back 12 early. Lets hope that this locomotive will be in the news for the right reasons from now on.

 

The Raib report into Tangmere's incident at Winchfield is out.
http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/reports_2014/report132014.cfm

 

RAIB report now out ..... http://www.raib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/140616_R132014_Winchfield.pdf

Not read it yet, but here are the conclusions ........


Summary of conclusions
Immediate cause
118 The immediate cause of the accident was that the small end assembly came
apart (paragraph 41).
Causal factors
119 It is likely that one or more of the following factors was causal, but the loss of
some components means that RAIB cannot be certain which one:
a. The cotter may have come out following the breakage of one or both of its
legs; the gudgeon pin nut may then have unwound and the pin may have
come out (paragraph 44, Recommendation 1).
b. The design of some components had been modified during restoration of the
locomotive, possibly without full consideration of the potential effect of these
modifications (paragraph 69, Recommendation 4).
c. As a consequence of (b), there were deficiencies in the design and
manufacture of the cotter (paragraph 62, Recommendation 2).
d. The gudgeon pin nut may have split, as a result of either an inherent flaw or
fatigue cracking (paragraph 75, no recommendation).
Factors affecting the consequences of the accident
120 Factors that exacerbated the consequences of the event were as follows:
a. The train continued in service after an unusual noise was identified
(paragraph 81).
b. There was nothing to prevent the connecting rod dropping to the ground after
the small end joint came apart (paragraph 86).
Additional observations
121 Although not linked to the accident on 23 November 2013, RAIB observes that:
a. The maintenance arrangements for ‘Tangmere’ were not in accordance
with the principles of WCRC’s safety management system (paragraph 99,
Recommendation 3).
b. The on-train data recorder fitted to ‘Tangmere’ did not record the details of the
locomotive’s movements on 23 November 2013 (paragraph 104, Learning
point 1).

 

Talk about posting timing!

 

More importantly, there are 4 recommendations (pp. 37-38), all of which are relatively mild (e.g. "The Heritage Railway Association and the Main Line Steam Locomotive Operators Association should bring this report to the attention of their members and invite them to consider thoroughly evaluating and risk assessing changes to the design of steam locomotives that are made during restoration, overhaul or maintenance.").

Nothing more far-reaching about steam on the national network in general, the possibility of which there had been some concern about.

Noel

 

Having read the report it is clear that it is not steam per-se which is being blamed but post restoration modifications. The report has copies of steam era SR/BR drawings which it apears to quote as best practice. The drawing labeled "bright cotters" sugests that the split cotter used was mot manufactured to best locomotive engineering practice.

The inference must be that if best loco engineering practice is followed there are no issues with steam on the mainline

 

It was an interesting read.

One interesting point considered was the castellated nuts & the importance of rounded edges at the bottom of the slots. Stress fractures emanating from the stress concentrations of sharp edges? Unless the missing parts are located, we'll never know, of course, if this was the cause of the failure. One thing that we can all agree on, though, is that this was very much a 'near miss', and for that we must be thankful.