Another incident at the Great Central

tomstaf

Western Thunderer
37 198 moved off by itself and has smashed into the back of the TPO rake at Loughborough on the GCR, and quite heavily too:( Lots of damaged metal and bent bits... Twas only last year that the kettle derailed there.
Tom
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Oh sh**!
They need to start being very careful otherwise their operation will be restricted and it'll be the end of the 60mph running. Never mind the credibility gap with so much going on, including the bridging of the Midland main line.
I hope you're referring to the Mk1 TPO set; the LNER set is irreplaceable and they may yet be able to straighten out a Mk1 set...
Steph
 

tomstaf

Western Thunderer
Yeah, the MK1 set, but it must have hit it at some speed as both the 37 and MK1 now have perfectly flat ends.
37198 Loughborough.jpg
Cheers

Tom
 

tomstaf

Western Thunderer
That'll be a write off, the whole cab has been deformed as the under frame from the cab rear bulkhead has been bent downward. Even in BR days that would of been a very expensive whole end repair, for preservation I suspect they'll scrap it and use it for spares.
It's not theirs. Belongs to NR, was on long term loan...

Cheers

Tom
 

SteadyRed

Western Thunderer
That looks similar to when the D6700 was damaged at Barrow Hill. Not good, certainly this happening not good for the railway.

Dave
 

marsa69

Western Thunderer
All I know is that the ORR is going to be all over them like a tramp on a bag of chips. Irrespective of whether or not someone wasn't hurt they'll look at the 'what ifs' and the 'whys'. I can really see them getting hammered big time especially with an inspector of the ORR having direct relations with the GCR :(
 

Ian G

Western Thunderer
I was going to pop to Quorn for a photo session when up in Nottingham the other week but ended up at the Midland Railway Centre for a day
 

ZiderHead

Western Thunderer
Driverless from Quorn to Loughborough …

10295134_10152852960764698_2590589556341103982_o.jpg

(https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...97&set=p.10152852960764698&source=47&refid=13)

That looks pretty terminal :(
 

Osgood

Western Thunderer
I don't know - its not as if it is going to pull to the left if the frame is a little out of sorts, like a Landrover…...
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
As a founder member of what has become the GCR I'm very sad about this, particularly as the unification of the North and South sections is now so (relatively) close. Nevertheless, there clearly has to be a full investigation. I truly hope there's no issue of negligence. To our credit I note that no-one on this site has jumped to any conclusions about the cause. We should wait until more confirmed information is to hand. If there is only one good thing to come out of this it is that apparently no-one has been hurt.

Nowadays the GCR is such a highly technical and intensively worked section of railway with the four track section at Swithland and the double track through most of the rest of the southern section the rule book has to be absolutely water tight. Looks as though it may have a leak, though, or has one of the staff, paid or volunteer, made a bad error?

I'm also concerned that the owners of the mail train don't remove it from the railway, but they are now building a carriage shed so probably would have to carefully consider their options. They also own a number of Gresley teak bodied coaches.

All in all a bad day for the GCR and, I suspect, preservation more widely too.

Brian
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Its called sloppy operating, there is no excuse for it, its called following the rule book and someone clearly hasn't. They will end being shut down if they carry on like this. The Great Central is a proper railway and they have to take things seriously.

Richard
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Its called sloppy operating, there is no excuse for it, its called following the rule book and someone clearly hasn't. They will end being shut down if they carry on like this. The Great Central is a proper railway and they have to take things seriously.

Richard

With respect, Richard, you are now jumping to conclusions. I guess it's the most likely cause but let's wait until we get the official details.

Brian
 

marsa69

Western Thunderer
Either that, mechanical failure in a system or malicious tampering. Lets await the results of the investigation and hope that a succesful conclusion can be achieved from that investigation :thumbs:
 
S

SteveO

Guest
How does this sort of thing happen? Can it accidentally slip into gear, so to speak?

Perhaps it was a very badly planned robbery...
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Unlikely as it's a great big lever one pushes over, there's also the drivers key which needs to be in for the controls to be unlocked and cannot be removed unless all controls are safe, your supposed to take it out when you leave the cab for what ever reason.

So in theory a run away needs the key in, the direction controller selected, forward or reverse and the brakes off, then it'll creep off in idle if your unlucky.

Not suggesting that's the cause here, but it could be a cause :thumbs:

Sadly, Mick, that seems possible. Out of interest, supposing your scenario to be the case, what speed could the loco reach on tickover and on level track (or nearly so). A steam loco collision with stock at 5-10mph caused very little damage so this loco must have been travelling at a considerably faster speed than that to cause such damage.

Looking at the RAIB reports there are a surprising number associated with Heritage Railways - but at the same time there are many with similar consequences on the national network.

Brian
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Could it not just be a brake bleed off? I remember a couple of Class 31s ending up on the North Circular because of this problem.

Steph
 

InvernessTMD

Western Thunderer
One thing is for sure, it ain't gonna buff out easily!!
It could be a malfunctioning parking brake, as to get the drivers key out the direction switch needs to be in off, which also means neutral... if on a slight slope and the brake isn't on then away it will go.
Last time I was in Australia (2005) they had a runaway as the driver was changing ends somewhere, and that went about 20-30ks before hitting either a loco or a set of stops. That I think was traced to a faulty brake controller
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
One thing is for sure, it ain't gonna buff out easily!!
It could be a malfunctioning parking brake, as to get the drivers key out the direction switch needs to be in off, which also means neutral... if on a slight slope and the brake isn't on then away it will go.
Last time I was in Australia (2005) they had a runaway as the driver was changing ends somewhere, and that went about 20-30ks before hitting either a loco or a set of stops. That I think was traced to a faulty brake controller

I very much hope it's a situation such as you describe, or the one suggested by Steph. However, the GCR is nominally flat ie without gradients (well, there are a few but I'm not in to semantics!) so how a loco could pick up speed if parked in neutral escapes me.

Brian
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
A report on RMWeb indicates that the accident occurred during a propelling move... the Cl.37 was adding the TPO to other stock.
 
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