On May 28, 3:47*pm, tony sayer wrote:
I then stopping being interested in my comics and started to look out of
the window. *I was in the 3rd carriage, level with the 3rd carriage of
the Southend which was just under the western Girder of Bridge GE19,
newly installed over the tracks. * I then looked up and saw various
'holes' in the decking of the bridge. *It appeared that a number of
steel reinforced concrete 'deck' panels or planks (I don't know the
technical name) had fallen onto the Track. *The Southend had obviously
hit one or nearly hit one, because his emergency brake application meant
he had come to rest exactly half way under the bridge.

The panels or planks were about 2 Metres long and about 10cm by 10cm or
so. *I could see at least 4 or bits of 4 on ether side of the down main..
The other thing that mildly alarmed me was how titchy the supports
were for the north end of the bridge. *Obviously there was a lot of work
to be done in future, but still not a great comfort at the time sitting
under several hundred tons of steel and concrete that was falling down.

It took approx 30 minutes after the 'incident' that we started to be
detrained. *The Southend was obviously done first then my Harwich and a
West Anglia 317 that was also stopped under the Bridge. *We all walked
down (or rather up the slope) to Bethnal Green and then guided out onto
the street to make our own way to Bethnal Green Tube. * I got back to
Witham at 22.40 via Stratford!

Concious of my duty to uk.Railway and knowing what matters to it's
readers, I specifically stopped on my walk up the down Electric, looked
back and made a note that the unit number of the Southend was 321333 *;-)

Yes thank god we've got the all important number !..

Well done that man..

The bridge?. Suppose they'll have that sorted first thing in the
morning;!...

Or we'll be tubestituted;!..
--
Tony Sayer

Indeed, Peter is a credit to the Railway Enthusiast community.

GE Line commuters are in for an interesting few days. I expect there
will be some insurance claims on this one.

Things haven't been the same since the "concrete commies" took over
from real civil engineers in the 1960s. And, yes I do refer to our
resident pain :-)