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Old September 30th 12, 10:57 AM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
CJB CJB is offline
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Default Crossrail problem at Paddington?

On Sep 30, 10:45*am, Mark A wrote:
On 30/09/2012 09:25, Phil Cook wrote:
On 29/09/2012 23:56, Mark A wrote:
On 29/09/2012 21:28, CJB wrote:


Yup - a collapse of one of the main driving towers just west of Royal
Oak Station. It is currently being hoisted upright by a huge crane. I
guess it was lucky the train was underneath otherwise the wreckage
could have / would have fallen across adjacent tracks.


Four photos of the situation as of Friday afternoon, with a mobile crane
supporting the structure. It is quite close to the GW main line. Also,
it leaves some of us wondering how quickly it's possible to spot hire a
very large crane ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2587633...in/photostream


looking at this one in particular ...


http://www.flickr.com/photos/2587633...n/photostream/


I wonder just who signed that design off? The structure under the loader
seems no more robust than the rest of the conveyor.


A bit of background?:

http://industrialreporter.wordpress....usive-accident...


If the train had not been there then the collapsing gantry could have
fallen on the HEX / HConn overhead wires causing high tension sparks
all round.

Interesting that Metro and the Evening Standard haven't mentioned the
snafu yet. Nor have they mentioned the union picketing and the
reported 'lack of safety' issues with the Crossrail project. PHmm -
probably 'cos the ex-KGB Russian owners of the Standard are censoring
the news.

Another report - of this not so squeaky clean Crossrail project is at:

http://union-news.co.uk/2012/09/spar...tion-sackings/

And I see that Spanish-owned Ferrovial are also involved with
Crossrail. They are (or were) majority shareholders of BAA who own and
operate Heathrow Aiport. [Ferrovial recently sold a percentage of its
BAA holdings to the mega-rich Royal Family in Qatar. But quite why a
bunch of oil-rich Arabs would want a stake in a failing and bankrupt
company (BAA) is a moot point.

CJB.