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Great Central Railway 37 runaway, May 2014 - RAIB report out

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sprinterguy

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There was an initial thread for this incident, but it has been closed. This is just a heads up to say that the RAIB report for the runaway and collision of a class 37 loco and coach at the Great Central Railway, on the 12th of May last year, has been released:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-042015-runaway-and-collision-loughborough-central-station
At approximately 12:35 hrs on Monday, 12 May 2014, an unmanned train ran away for a distance of around 1.8 miles (2.9 km) before colliding with a set of unattended coaches. The collision occurred about 450 metres south of Loughborough Central station, located on the Great Central Railway. This is a heritage railway, and no train services for public use were being operated on the day of the accident. Nobody was injured as a result of the collision, although significant damage was sustained by some of the rail vehicles involved. The train which ran away had been previously left unattended within a possession on a main line opposite Quorn signal box. The railway at Quorn is on a gradient which descends towards Loughborough.

The train which ran away consisted of a locomotive, coupled to a single coach. RAIB’s investigation found that, before the train was left unattended, the air brakes on the locomotive had been applied by the driver and a single wheel scotch had been positioned against one of the locomotive’s wheels by a member of staff. The handbrakes on the locomotive were not applied and the coach was not secured with either brakes or a wheel scotch.

RAIB has concluded that the train ran away because the wheel scotch was positioned against the locomotive’s wheel in a way which made it ineffective. The RAIB determined that the handbrakes on the locomotive, had they been used, would have provided sufficient braking force to have held the train. The driver did not apply the locomotive’s handbrakes because he believed that they were not effective on this class of locomotive and that the wheel scotch would provide sufficient braking force, should the pressure in the air braking system leak away. The driver may also have been influenced by the prevailing practices on the railway which related to the use of handbrakes.

The train was not left in a location where it would have been protected from running away by the arrangement of the infrastructure. This was probably because the staff involved thought that these locations were either not available or needed disproportionate time to access. It may also have been because they had a reduced perception of the risks of leaving trains unattended outside of these locations.

RAIB found that checks by the Great Central Railway’s managers did not detect the full-extent of the unsafe and non-compliant practices present within possessions. The investigation also found that some of the rules relating to the way in which rail vehicles were to be left unattended were inconsistent and potentially unclear.
Shades of the Calton tunnel collision, Edinburgh between 43180 and the errant 37113 in 1994 which concerned similar circumstances. A mate of mine, when working as a secondman on Network Rail test trains, is also familiar with the tendency for air brakes on a class 37 to "leak" off as well.

This incident caused considerable damage to the nose end of 37198 and seemingly to one of the GCRs' superbly restored Travelling Post Office vehicles. Looking at the level of damage it seems that the loco must have picked up quite a pace between Quorn and Loughborough, despite the fairly gentle gradient.

After a bit of searching it appears that the class 37 has since been moved to Burton, but has not been repaired:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/90265707@N03/16176384223/
 
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alexl92

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Thanks SprinterGuy.

This loco is technically Network Rail's, isn't it?
 

sprinterguy

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This loco is technically Network Rail's, isn't it?
Apparently it is, which is something that I had wondered about in the past.

Locomotive 37198 is a Class 37 diesel-electric locomotive and was built in 1964. It operated on the main line network in Great Britain until 1999 and was then placed in storage until it was sold into the heritage railway sector in 2004. In 2008, it was purchased by Network Rail as a spare Class 97/3 locomotive for the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) testing programme. In 2009, Network Rail sent the locomotive to the GCR for some repair work; after this work had been completed, the locomotive was not immediately required by Network Rail. It was therefore left in storage on the GCR.

At some point during this period of storage, the Type One Locomotive Company asked Network Rail if it could carry out some restoration work to the locomotive in order that it could be operated on the GCR. Network Rail stated that it had no objection to this. The Type One Locomotive Company subsequently completed this restoration work and, in 2011, returned the locomotive into an operating condition. It was then assigned by the GCR on a full-time basis to its permanent way team, although it occasionally also hauled passenger trains during galas.
Wouldn't be surprised if Network Rail use it as a source of spares to keep the 97/3s running now.
 
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He looks ever so sad...

YYDrSh1.png

"Aww, guys, you're not looking after me very well..."

Poor old train!
 

E&W Lucas

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How much taxpayers' money spent "investigating" this?
If you don't leave a rail vehicle secured correctly, it won't be there when you come back. Simple!
 

Pinza-C55

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How much taxpayers' money spent "investigating" this?
If you don't leave a rail vehicle secured correctly, it won't be there when you come back. Simple!

If you read the whole report (I did) the RAIB identified a number of factors which led to the collision and the GCR have now taken action on the recommendations which will hopefully mean this won't happen again. This process has been followed for about 180 years.
 
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