Abandoned freight train

[Old Yard Dog]

An abandoned freight train caused mayhem today after the driver dumped his 36 wagon set outside Nottingham station. The eastern approach was blocked for over an hour while a replament driver wasferried in from Toton. The 1227 to Lincoln was cancelled while the 1245 to Skegness left 50 mins late & terminated at Boston having done the Grantham avoider.

 

[Juniper Driver]

An abandoned freight train caused mayhem today after the driver dumped his 36 wagon set outside Nottingham station. The eastern approach was blocked for over an hour while a replament driver wasferried in from Toton. The 1227 to Lincoln was cancelled while the 1245 to Skegness left 50 mins late & terminated at Boston having done the Grantham avoider.

If that's correct that's total madness.

Link?

 

[GB]

It wasn't abandoned and it wasn't dumped. The driver didn't have the required route knowledge and no forward driver had been booked on in error.

 

[Juniper Driver]

It wasn't abandoned and it wasn't dumped. The driver didn't have the required route knowledge and no forward driver had been booked on in error.

Fair enough...we don't actually know what happened.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

An abandoned freight train caused mayhem today after the driver dumped his 36 wagon set outside Nottingham station. The eastern approach was blocked for over an hour while a replament driver wasferried in from Toton. The 1227 to Lincoln was cancelled while the 1245 to Skegness left 50 mins late & terminated at Boston having done the Grantham avoider.

Are you practising writing for the tabloid press or what?
Don't forget the driver's age and any similarly irrelevant personal details (tattoos, hairstyle, enthic origin, orientation etc.)

 

[Minilad]

Are you practising writing for the tabloid press or what?
Don't forget the driver's age and any similarly irrelevant personal details (tattoos, hairstyle, enthic origin, orientation etc.)

And if its it the Daily Mail how much his house is worth

 

[The Planner]

Presumably the Ratcliffe train, 36 wagons on a coal service doesn't sound right or is Ratcliffe biomass now?

 

[SPADTrap]

And if its it the Daily Mail how much his house is worth

and HS2 and ticket prices!

 

[TB93]

23 coal sets go into Ratcliffe,30/32 oil tanks for Kingsbury so I don't know what would be 36 wagons as someone else said DM all over this.lol

 

[Bertie the bus]

36 HAAs. Not that power station coal trains have consisted of HAAs for a number of years.

 

[Crossover]

Well the 1245 to Skegness from Nottingham ran 15 minutes late and ran right through to Skegness....

 

[Old Yard Dog]

It wasn't abandoned and it wasn't dumped. The driver didn't have the required route knowledge and no forward driver had been booked on in error.

If that is true, couldnt they find some siding, loop or freight line to stick the thing in? I didnt count the wagons but there were loads of them and they were covered. DRS? The trsin still fouled the junction aftrr moving forard into the station

 

[Legzr1]

If that is true, couldnt they find some siding, loop or freight line to stick the thing in? I didnt count the wagons but there were loads of them and they were covered. DRS? The trsin still fouled the junction aftrr moving forard into the station

I'm not familiar with the area but I'd take a stab in the dark and say if there was a loop or siding that could have been used perhaps that's the first thing they'd have done!

Or perhaps it really was an ignorant driver prepared to risk his career and refuse to move without good reason just to annoy a few passengers

I know in other parts of the country, signallers will require contact with the relieving driver before allowing a train booked for relief to get close to the point of no return/no loop etc (especially if they've been stung before...)
Having said that, FOC controls have been know to arrange out of course relief without actually telling NR, the relieving driver or even the current driver - they're human, they're fallible.

 

[CallySleeper]

If that is true, couldnt they find some siding, loop or freight line to stick the thing in? I didnt count the wagons but there were loads of them and they were covered. DRS? The trsin still fouled the junction aftrr moving forard into the station

No, if I'm understanding the OP correctly I'm surprised that the driver's route knowledge stopped at Eastcroft and didn't include the station.

 

[Ploughman]

Not the first and certainly will not be the last.

When I have acted as an ES or PICOP in the past I have had numerous occasions when I have gone up to the driver of a Ballast train and asked him to move within the worksite / possession and even to get rid of him off possession and had the disgruntled mutter of "Don't know the road mate"
Phone call to control and threat of delay minutes sometimes got results from the train company.

 

[Tomnick]

This one? As an educated guess, it was possibly held short of the station awaiting the forward driver, as running it into the station (with the back end now fouling the whole of the east end) really would stuff the job up if the driver signed no further. The new layout does seem very much lacking in this respect - as they could be run through and beyond platform 6 (as was) to the relieving point on the Up Slow. I seem to remember a sectional appendix instruction that trains were to be taken forward onto the Up Goods towards Beeston if relief wasn't immediately available though - did the route knowledge previously guarantee that this would be an option?

 

[High Dyke]

Well the 1245 to Skegness from Nottingham ran 15 minutes late and ran right through to Skegness....

God bless the OP for the report...despite its inaccuracies...:roll:

Crossover is correct. It was the previous Skegvegas that was affected (11:45 ex Nott'm). Likewise the 12:27 ran ECS to Lincoln to commence its next working.

For the record Tomnick is spot on with the train, and his theory. The train was loaded to 23 HTA wagons.

 

[Bodiddly]

If you don't sign the route, you don't go any further. It's really as simple as that. It looks like the roster clerk is going to get a size 9 planted firmly .................!

 

[Old Yard Dog]

I think a Liverpool Norwich may also have been split and half sent back
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

God bless the OP for the report...despite its inaccuracies...:roll:

Likewise the 12:27 ran ECS to Lincoln to commence its next working.

... after dumping all the passengers off the train and back on to Platform 1. I'm guessing that the conductor must have been marooned in the queue of trains east of the station.

There is nothing more frustrating than being turfed off a train and then see it depart empty stock to its intended destination.

 

[HSTEd]

To be honest I am not sure the Nottingham rebuild has turned out to be very succesful.

 

[TB93]

No it hasn't we have lost 2 through roads because of it.

 

[MichaelAMW]

No it hasn't we have lost 2 through roads because of it.

And the connections to the platforms at the west end haven't reduced conflictions as much as they might have, in spite of effectively changing from paired by direction to paired by use, plus reversible working. If you think of it as a pair to Mansfield and a pair to London, the Mansfield pair connect to 4 platforms and the London pair to only 2, so there are still more conflictions than there need to be. You need an extra crossover - I know, it costs - to allow direct access from pp 4 & 5 to the "down London." The timetable is also a factor as, generally, 5 & 6 are only used by the two London trains, which have long turn-round times, so a fifth of the 10ish tph westwards use a third of the platforms.

 

[D1009]

Given the amount of delay minutes which would be attributed to the FOC by this sort of incident, I find it strange that the drivers route knowledge cannot be extended to a point where the train could be conveniently recessed should this situation arise.

 

[HSTEd]

The signal placement at Nottingham is also... interesting - can't help but wonder if they could have fitted in a second bay by doing the same thing with the other through line.
But there we go - we are stuck with it till electrification now.

 

[edwin_m]

I'm not sure the through roads at Nottingham would have helped in this situation. As someone has posted, if the train had been brought into the station it would still have tailed back over most of the east end throat, and this would be the same whether in a through road or a platform. A long loop east of the station would have helped, but there probably isn't space for one.

As someone has suggested, the best idea would be to make sure that whoever just has route knowledge east of Nottingham also extends signs as far as Beeston so the train can be dumped on the Up Slow or Beeston yard if unable to go forward.

I agree the layout at Nottingham isn't too logical, although it does seem to have reduced waits at the station - if a London arrival is a bit late it can pass the next London departure on the right rather than having to stand outside until the departure has cleared. With hindsight they should have built the platform 8 that they have made provision for, or at least the western half of it.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

I'm not sure the through roads at Nottingham would have helped in this situation. As someone has posted, if the train had been brought into the station it would still have tailed back over most of the east end throat, and this would be the same whether in a through road or a platform.

This is what happened after the driver arrived from Toton. The freight train moved forward into platform 3 and stopped there for 10-15 minutes, still fouling access from the east to P1 & P2.

 

[HSTEd]

I agree the layout at Nottingham isn't too logical, although it does seem to have reduced waits at the station - if a London arrival is a bit late it can pass the next London departure on the right rather than having to stand outside until the departure has cleared. With hindsight they should have built the platform 8 that they have made provision for, or at least the western half of it.

Where would this Platform 8 be? the Railway seems to be hard up against the perimeter fence on both sides, and the only place left is the one track width gap where the second through road used to be.

 

[LowLevel]

It was stuck awaiting a relief driver as the depot incoming only sign to Nottingham. As mentioned it was still too long for the station so no point blocking a platform as well.

It was of course compounded by two issues.

Firstly that DBS failed to roster it's relief driver in the first place which is why the delays are coded as rostering error.

Secondly that a route conductor was requested from EMT, I believe, to get it to somewhere more convenient (the up Nottingham slow on the other side of the station as a guess), but some useless waste of oxygen in control, presumably EMT not Network Rail, vetoed it 'because the EMT driver didn't sign the traction so they weren't willing to allow it despite both drivers being quite happy with the arrangement and it being perfectly legal by the rulebook'.

This is of course hear-say but from a usually good source !

 

[fgwrich]

I think DBS must be suffering 'rostering issues' as of late as about a month ago a friend witnessed a similar situation at Didcot, whereby a 66 come in to the station heading Northbound, driver started to prep it for a crew changeover, got out. Looked around, no sign of anyone from DBS around and left it to shut down. Eventually a DBS member of staff came around an hour later but not after several FGWs and other DBS's were looped past it and blocked a platform in the process.

 

[edwin_m]

Where would this Platform 8 be? the Railway seems to be hard up against the perimeter fence on both sides, and the only place left is the one track width gap where the second through road used to be.

There is a gap between platform 7 and the car park, most easily seen near the steps down from the main concourse, with potential rail access via a southern span of the station bridge. This was a goods avoiding line many years ago but I don't think it has ever been a platform road.

Opening this would involve relocating the platform 7 steps of the middle footbridge closer to the centre of the island platform, and if it was a through platform the building alongside the east end of platform 7 would also have to go. There is a service road along the trackbed at present but alternative road access could be created from Queens Road.

I believe the second through road was taken out because the track spacings were sub-standard.