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[email protected] · August 18th 10, 01:00 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Clive Page)
wrote:

In message
,
martin writes
Something that I don't think had previously been released:
The crew of the grinding unit, who had no means of re-applying
the
brake, jumped off the unit as it passed through Highgate station.

That sounds a bit like the Rovos rail runaway near Pretoria on 21st
April, where (some reports say) the crew encouraged passengers
aboard to jump out, presumably while the speed was still modest.
Sadly 3 people were killed and many injured, and 15 out of 19
carriages were damaged beyond repair. I find it even more
extraordinary that on a long passenger train there was no way of
applying the brakes from on board: on older stock on BR I seem to
remember that if you pulled the communication cord it opened a hole
in the brake pipe at the end of the carriage, which was robust,
simple and effective under practically all circumstances.

The communication cord wouldn't work if the brakes had been isolated as
appears to have happened in this case.

I don't know what happens on modern stock but it looks to me as if
pushing the emergency button merely sounds an alarm in the drivers
cab, which is by no means as satisfactory.

The trouble in this case looks to be that the brake on the railgrinder had
to be isolated because it could not be controlled from the 95TS train.
That makes me wonder why they didn't attempt the rescue with a battery
loco or something else with compatible braking equipment.

--
Colin Rosenstiel