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[email protected] · June 18th 16, 11:39 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Anna
Noyd-Dryver) wrote:

NY wrote:
"D A Stocks" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
In article ,
() wrote:

So is it the intention of these deliberate derailers, or catch points
as those of us not in the press know them, to cause the train to
smash into an overhead wire support with such force that it bends in
two? What would be the result if the driver, who was presumably in
the cab at the time, or passengers had been killed or seriously
injured as a result?

Is this another feature of the signalling design that gave us the
Ladbroke Grove crash? Looks like stupidity piled on stupidity.

How many other London Terminal approaches have derailers to handle
SPADs?

I asked a similar question a year or two back in relation to a set of
catch points that regularly cause chaos at Brighton station - the last
time was 15 April 2015. There are a number of circumstances where trap
points will be provided, especially on the exits from yards or depots
(or other lines) where shunting takes place. A falling gradient to the
main line might be another candidate for trap points because TPWS won't
help if a train is running away due to brake failure.

I wonder about the sanity of siting catch points so they derail a
train into an OHLE mast. Derail the train into anything else -
preferably broadside-on into a platform edge so the friction slows
the train down fairly gently. Let it even foul the line that it is
joining, as long as the train isn't derailed into the path of an
adjacent line. But hitting an OHLE mast, with the loss of power to
all electric trains, seems stupid.

I suspect that the OHLE mast came after the trap points. The train *was*
diverted into a platform edge as you suggest. 'Let it foul the line that
it is joining' is the line into/out of Platform 1!!

Why did the derailment cause *all* departures to be cancelled? Why
couldn't diesels continue to use any tracks that weren't fouled by
the derailed train, with only HEX having to be cancelled? Did the
derailment happen at a place where all the tracks were fouled by
either the train or by the fallen wires?

The damage to the OHLE mast is considerable - the wires attached have
fallen by several feet. In an area such as a station throat that naturally
affects all nearby lines as you don't immediately know what's broken,
what's not at the correct height etc, even if you don't run electric
trains (for which you want to know that the tensions have not been
affected).

AIUI the arrangement of isolation switches mean that until someone can
physically isolate the required sections at the trackside, the whole
section from the nearest neutral section has to be isolated. That
meant
that three of the four lines west of Ealing Broadway were blocked by
stranded EMUs. Lines 4 5 and 6 and platforms 7+ were available for use
again by 1845, unfortunately, the only way out would be via Greenford
avoiding the stranded EMUs.

Do TOCs have disaster plans for turning trains at a nearby station
that has transport links? Ealing Broadway would have been good
because it has Central and District line links. And what about
Reading? Were westbound trains running from there for people who
used the Waterloo-Ascot-Reading line?

Passengers were initially sent to EB but as I've said, that plan was no
good in the circumstances. Many services were turned at Reading or Slough
which now has a much more flexible layout.

I presume all other TOCs accepted tickets for journeys from
Paddington over any reasonable route to Ealing/Reading.

I would expect so. I bet the trade from Marylebone to Oxford Parkway was
brisk, too...

I see the unit was only rerailed this evening. What on earth took them so
long?

--
Colin Rosenstiel