Totley Tunnel closed for safety reasons (04/03)

[xfield]

https://www.matlockmercury.co.uk/ne...istrict-tunnel-has-had-to-be-closed-1-9046617

Trains across Derbyshire are being disrupted after Totley tunnel at Grindleford has had to be closed for safety reasons during bad weather conditions. National Rail announced today, Sunday, March 4, how the TransPennine Express between Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly has been affected after the closure of Totley Tunnel which runs to and from Grindleford, in the Peak District.

Read more at: https://www.matlockmercury.co.uk/ne...istrict-tunnel-has-had-to-be-closed-1-9046617

Anybody know any more detail as to what the problem is?

 

[Mag_seven]

https://www.matlockmercury.co.uk/ne...istrict-tunnel-has-had-to-be-closed-1-9046617

Anybody know any more detail as to what the problem is?

It could be icicles?

 

[AndrewE]

or maybe stone blocks or bricks dislodged by water freezing behind them? Interesting that Manchester to Sheffield is unaffected. Good to see that they are keeping their photo library up to date as well (not!) Maybe they think the "Historic tunnel" headline justifies the ancient picture. How many tunnels are not historic? Kidsgrove...

 

[jimm]

Could well be rather large icicles inside the tunnel - there is a picture on the Network Rail West Twitter of the ice build-up inside Rainbow Hill Tunnel at Worcester on Friday

https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/969541705492987905

Extreme weather conditions are being seen all across the route. This spectacular scene from Rainbow Hill Tunnel in Worcester shows just how cold it is. Team Orange continue to tackle the elements to keep the railway running

 

[Domh245]

Could well be rather large icicles inside the tunnel - there is a picture on the Network Rail West Twitter of the ice build-up inside Rainbow Hill Tunnel at Worcester on Friday

https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/969541705492987905

A bit closer to Totley Tunnel is this picture from Cowburn Tunnel (between Edale and Chinley)

 

[Harpers Tate]

NRE:

Ice was blocking a tunnel between Sheffield and Manchester, train services were unable to go through the tunnel, the tunnel was then handed back following the ice being removed.
However, since then there has been new reports of hanging electrical wires in the tunnel that need to be checked by engineers.

 

[6Gman]

May I be the first to say that this is further evidence that the Woodhead should never have closed/ should be reopened?



(Yes, I am being sarcastic.)

 

[Bletchleyite]

A bit closer to Totley Tunnel is this picture from Cowburn Tunnel (between Edale and Chinley)

That's actually really freaky for some reason.

 

[Ash Bridge]

or maybe stone blocks or bricks dislodged by water freezing behind them? Interesting that Manchester to Sheffield is unaffected. Good to see that they are keeping their photo library up to date as well (not!) Maybe they think the "Historic tunnel" headline justifies the ancient picture. How many tunnels are not historic? Kidsgrove...

I do rather like that shot, when will these futuristic looking new trains be entering traffic then?

 

[lyndhurst25]

The Network Rail drift snowploughs have icicle-breaker hoops for situations like these but I still wouldn't like to be in the leading cab of the loco pushing the plough with all that ice coming down. Are locos driven from the rear cab when clearing ice from tunnels, i wonder?

 

[1B85]

A few years back I was travelling Leeds-Carlisle and was seated in the coach directly behind the driver - it had snowed heavily that morning and we were the first train of the day. For every tunnel the train went through, we could hear the crashing of icicles as the train broke them away and we could see the ice tumbling around the windows as we went through...

 

[TBirdFrank]

May I be the first to say that this is further evidence that the Woodhead should never have closed/ should be reopened?

Well I'll be the second - I was in the cab of 56035 the penultimate train through Woodhead eastbound and the condition and lack of water ingress compared to Dore and Cowburn on the way home was a revelation.

And I am NOT being sarcastic!

 

[furnessvale]

The Network Rail drift snowploughs have icicle-breaker hoops for situations like these but I still wouldn't like to be in the leading cab of the loco pushing the plough with all that ice coming down. Are locos driven from the rear cab when clearing ice from tunnels, i wonder?

When ploughing, driving from the lead cab of the second loco is permitted.

 

[InOban]

If you look at the network rail scotland Twitter you will find pictures of spectacular icicles. If the line has OHLE, you can't use the first train to bash them off! It's the reason several routes such as gourock and Helensburgh only opened today.

 

[Chris M]

Maybe they think the "Historic tunnel" headline justifies the ancient picture. How many tunnels are not historic? Kidsgrove...

Gerrards Cross, Crossrail (excluding the Connaught Tunnel), Heathrow, HS1, DLR, Jubilee Line Extension, Northern Line extension, ...

 

[Dr Hoo]

Totley Tunnel is notoriously wet, especially at the Dore end. Massive pumps had to be used to keep the shafts clear of water when it was being excavated.

I caught a pacer that the was the first Westbound train for several hours on Friday evening and we were cautioned from Totley Tunnel East signalbox. During a very slow passage of the Tunnel the icicles could be heard crashing onto the roof.

 

[bonzawe]

Totley Tunnel is notoriously wet, especially at the Dore end. Massive pumps had to be used to keep the shafts clear of water when it was being excavated.

I caught a pacer that the was the first Westbound train for several hours on Friday evening and we were cautioned from Totley Tunnel East signalbox. During a very slow passage of the Tunnel the icicles could be heard crashing onto the roof.

I remember in, I think, 1981 being stuck in Leeds after day release classes. Line to York blocked. Eventually a scratch set of Mark 1 turned up with I think a 40. Set off as an extra to York via Harrogate - got though eventually but I remember the frightful noise as we were hit by ice climbing out of Leeds though the tunnels to Harrogate. Freezing cold, ice on insides of widows, sat outside York by the waterworks for ages.

 

[83G/84D]

I went that way on Friday morning and we ran at caution through two tunnels. Looking out I saw big icicles inside Totley tunnel. I thought that something would have been done then to clear them.

 

[Jona26]

Wasn't there a case 3 or 4 years ago of a derailment in a tunnel in the north-west somewhere caused either by hitting a large block of fallen/falling ice and the train scraping along the tunnel wall?

 

[muz379]

Wasn't there a case 3 or 4 years ago of a derailment in a tunnel in the north-west somewhere caused either by hitting a large block of fallen/falling ice and the train scraping along the tunnel wall?

TPE 185 in summit tunnel

https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/derailment-in-summit-tunnel-near-todmorden-west-yorkshire

In the early hours of 28 December 2010, a passenger train was travelling from Manchester to Leeds when it struck a large amount of ice that had fallen onto the tracks from a ventilation shaft in Summit tunnel. All wheels of the front bogie were derailed to the left in the direction of travel causing the front driving cab of the train to strike the tunnel wall. The train remained upright and once it had stopped, the train crew took action to protect the train and raise the alarm. About three hours later, the passengers and train crew had been led out of the tunnel by the emergency services. No injuries were reported, while the train suffered damage to its cab windscreen, a coupler, bodywork and underframe. There was minor damage to the track.

The ice formed as water, seeping through the lining of a ventilation shaft, froze during a long period of freezing temperatures. This ice fell onto the track after a thaw which started on 27 December 2010. The train, which was the first to pass through the tunnel in over three days due to the Christmas holiday period, then collided with it. A combination of factors led to this accident:

 

[Jona26]

Beat me to it!

 

[AndrewE]

Gerrards Cross, Crossrail (excluding the Connaught Tunnel), Heathrow, HS1, DLR, Jubilee Line Extension, Northern Line extension, ...

None outside London/NSE then - plus the Channel Tunnel, but of course for passenger trains that is only for London too. Gerrards Cross doesn't count as it was a way of selling railway airspace.

I went that way on Friday morning and we ran at caution through two tunnels. Looking out I saw big icicles inside Totley tunnel. I thought that something would have been done then to clear them.

The one-way blockage puzzled me... but I think I remember (now) that Totley Tunnel has at least one ventilation shaft that is at the side of the main running tunnel rather than directly above it. Maybe it supplied the water which froze and built ice out the track on one side only, so one line was blocked, the other not?

 

[Ianno87]

Summit Tunnel has also been closed today due to icicles. Northern Calder Valley services running east of Todmorden only (west/south of Rochdale planned block anyway today)

 

[edwin_m]

None outside London/NSE then - plus the Channel Tunnel, but of course for passenger trains that is only for London too. Gerrards Cross doesn't count as it was a way of selling railway airspace.

The Farnworth re-bore was effectively a new tunnel in the North. HS2 will eventually have a long tunnel under Manchester and various shorter ones in the North too.

 

[AndrewE]

The Farnworth re-bore was effectively a new tunnel in the North. HS2 will eventually have a long tunnel under Manchester and various shorter ones in the North too.

Thanks, I should have remembered that one, maybe I shall once I have travelled through it. I'm not putting any money on riding HS2 north of Brum before I snuff it though.

 

[Crossover]

When ploughing, driving from the lead cab of the second loco is permitted.

On a related point, how does the driver see in such conditions (for signal sighting and such like?) Even driving from the front cab, some of the snowploughs look to obscure, to a sometimes large degree, the forward view

 

[route:oxford]

None outside London/NSE then - plus the Channel Tunnel, but of course for passenger trains that is only for London too. Gerrards Cross doesn't count as it was a way of selling railway airspace.

There was the £45M demolition of the twin-bore carmuirs tunnels and replacement with an aqueduct in Scotland.

http://www.egip.info/news/2015/03/new-£45m-aqueduct-carries-canal-at-carmuirs

 

[skifans]

Derbyshire times reported that while ice was a problems, that there may have been some problem with some cabling in the tunnel as well: https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/n...-s-totley-tunnel-with-hanging-wires-1-9046847