How did the railways cope with the 1976 heatwave?

[ChiefPlanner]

Bit of corporate memory - 1975 , hot weather , buckled track. Derailment.

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoT_Sarnau1975.pdf

Note the parameters of "hot weather" and CWR seem to be a bit similar.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

as said over the years a lot off the over engineering has been removed from the infrastructure and stock meaning less safety margin so more failures .

TBF it's not so much less safety margin, more that much heavier use means more wear and tear leading to safety margins being encroached more often and thus seemingly lots more failures. I suspect that in practice safety margins themselves are more onerous today than in 1976. Perhaps the real issue is a well established culture of minimising maintenance, even within safety parameters, which exacerbates the effects of heavier use.

 

[big all]

TBF it's not so much less safety margin, more that much heavier use means more wear and tear leading to safety margins being encroached more often and thus seemingly lots more failures. I suspect that in practice safety margins themselves are more onerous today than in 1976. Perhaps the real issue is a well established culture of minimising maintenance, even within safety parameters, which exacerbates the effects of heavier use.

what i meant by that was for example the third rail pick up shoe spring loads where perhaps 3 or 4 times as much on say a sub or epb over a more modern unit with a massive beam meaning better contact and fairly impossible to damage and fight well through ice and snow

also look at the original complicated catenary on the west coast out off euston and how simple it is now ??

off course removing extra cost and weight can same money and improve speed and efficiency and be well worth it say 95% off the time but there can be a trade off in extreme situations

 

[Bald Rick]

Bit of corporate memory - 1975 , hot weather , buckled track. Derailment.

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoT_Sarnau1975.pdf

Note the parameters of "hot weather" and CWR seem to be a bit similar.

A great read!

In short - 24 sleepers/length (!), insufficient ballast shoulders, recent tamping, stressing records incomplete and/or unclear, warmish day, heavy train....

 

[ChiefPlanner]

A great read!

In short - 24 sleepers/length (!), insufficient ballast shoulders, recent tamping, stressing records incomplete and/or unclear, warmish day, heavy train....

Knew you would appreciate this find !

 

[Bald Rick]

Knew you would appreciate this find !

I did, thank you! I know from my reading of accident reports, that this one was by no means unique.

 

[geoffk]

I've a recollection of buckled rails somewhere in Somerset, and earlier than 1976, maybe even late 1960s.

 

[Cowley]

A great read!

In short - 24 sleepers/length (!), insufficient ballast shoulders, recent tamping, stressing records incomplete and/or unclear, warmish day, heavy train....

Very interesting.
I think somewhere in one of my books I remember reading about a derailment caused by a buckled rail that caused one of the coaches to clout the side of a bridge as it passed through, but I’m not at home at the moment so I’m not sure when it was or if it was caused by heat distortion?

 

[Springs Branch]

....... can anyone remember how well BR coped with the prolonged hot spell in the summer of 1976........

My family had one of BR's 7-day North West Family Rover tickets in the summer 1976 - I think the ticket was called a "Runabout".

This basically involved 2 parents & 3 children doing a week of consecutive day trips from Wigan to nearby destinations such as Windermere, Llandudno, Morecambe, Southport & Blackpool (i.e. it wasn't a track or traction-bashing exercise, and according to my mother it wasn't any sort of a holiday for her, but the rest of us enjoyed it).

I'm not sure whether we did it in the peak of the heatwave, but I do recall it being a warm 'un, and compared to previous years more ice creams and cans of Tizer were consumed and fewer urgent diversions were needed to find a toilet for my younger siblings.

I remember riding in a good few 1st generation DMUs and several Mk.2a carriages where every window slide in the coach was fully open - for maximum DMU engine noise, clickety-clack on jointed track and noisy hunting on CWR. And entering a baking hot Mk.1 compartment at Llandudno, then being allowed to adjourn to the vestibule for the first part of the journey with both drop-lights fully down for dual benefits of fresh air and Class 40 thrash along the North Wales coast.

But I don't remember any disruptions to any of our journeys, some of which used part of the recently electrified WCML. My father had each day's itinerary worked out from our BR All Lines Timetable, and everything was completed as planned, give or take the usual few minutes here & there. Certainly no cancellations or serious disruption over that week.

As mentioned by @ac6000cw, most of the trains we travelled on were relatively lightly loaded, considering we were going to seaside resorts in the middle of school holidays and in most cases one train per hour was as good as the frequency got.

 

[Bald Rick]

Very interesting.
I think somewhere in one of my books I remember reading about a derailment caused by a buckled rail that caused one of the coaches to clout the side of a bridge as it passed through, but I’m not at home at the moment so I’m not sure when it was or if it was caused by heat distortion?

Most buckles are caused by heat distortion in some way - usually too much, but occasionally not enough!

Derailments caused by buckles are relatively rare now, but they do still happen, I can think of several examples over the past few years.

 

[Cowley]

Most buckles are caused by heat distortion in some way - usually too much, but occasionally not enough!

Derailments caused by buckles are relatively rare now, but they do still happen, I can think of several examples over the past few years.

There’s an interesting video on YouTube somewhere of an Australian freight train hitting one filmed from the drivers cab. A bit bottom clenching I must say.
I’ll try and find it later.

 

[coppercapped]

Out of interest I looked at some old issues of Modern Railways for the summer of 1976 to see if there were any reports of heat related incidents.

Apart from a light-hearted photograph taken at Savernake on 27th June 1976 of a domestic thermometer propped against a rail clip showing a temperature of 55 deg C and mentions of trackside fires near Clapham Junction and Wimbledon on 7th June causing some delays on the Southern Region, there are no other reports of delays.

One has to remember that all the pages of information, reports, gossip, rumours and wibble which are published on this website in a day is in a different order of magnitude to Modern Railways' 'Traffic Report' of those days which covered a month of operation over the entire country in, at most, a page and a half and a couple of black and white photographs.

I wasn't in the country at the time, but I remember that my parents were more concerned about the drought than the heat. I drove back home from a lush and green southern Germany through an increasingly arid northern France and a brown southern England thinking it looked like the backdrop for a western cowboy film. I was home for two days - and then it poured with rain...!

 

[ac6000cw]

but I remember that my parents were more concerned about the drought than the heat

Yes, it was the drought that was the real problem in '76 - we even had a 'Minister for Drought' for a while. The aftermath of that was a serious look into the state and capacity of our fresh water supply system.

 

[coppercapped]

Yes, it was the drought that was the real problem in '76 - we even had a 'Minister for Drought' for a while. The aftermath of that was a serious look into the state and capacity of our fresh water supply system.

Going a bit off-topic, but feeding in to the eternal debate in this Forum about privatisation, one of the results was that the water supply system needed several billions of capital investment to meet higher standards for water quality, reliability and sewage disposal - all those seaside towns then pumping raw sewage straight into the sea near their beaches...

At the same time British Airways approached the Government for the capital to buy some Boeing 747s and the Post Office wanted more capital to improve the phone network - and the Treasury couldn't afford all these demands. This is one of the less loudly emphasised but most significant reasons behind the privatisation programme of Thatcher's government in the 1980s.

 

[randyrippley]

Bit of corporate memory - 1975 , hot weather , buckled track. Derailment.

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoT_Sarnau1975.pdf

Note the parameters of "hot weather" and CWR seem to be a bit similar.

My memory is that 1975 was hotter than 1976
As others have said, the big problem in 1976 was the drought with many water courses dried up

 

[ChiefPlanner]

De

Yes, it was the drought that was the real problem in '76 - we even had a 'Minister for Drought' for a while. The aftermath of that was a serious look into the state and capacity of our fresh water supply system.

Dennis Howell - almost as soon as he was appointed , the drought broke.

There were some mad ideas of towing icebergs to the UK , and even moving bulk water in 100 ton tank wagons from area to area. They did use some National Coal Board pumped water for non essential (i.e no drinking purposes)

Course in those days - the plastic water bottle industry did not exist.

 

[6Gman]

TBF it's not so much less safety margin, more that much heavier use means more wear and tear leading to safety margins being encroached more often and thus seemingly lots more failures. I suspect that in practice safety margins themselves are more onerous today than in 1976. Perhaps the real issue is a well established culture of minimising maintenance, even within safety parameters, which exacerbates the effects of heavier use.

Also worth pointing out that if something did sit down, there would be a 47 and a traincrew nearby to come to the rescue. *


* Other classes of loco were available.

Anecdote. A hot day in Swindon, possibly in 1976. An ailing 47 comes in on a Down train; within, well within, ten minutes 47 off, standby 52 attached, traincrews swop over, Right Away Bath!

 

[6Gman]

Very interesting.
I think somewhere in one of my books I remember reading about a derailment caused by a buckled rail that caused one of the coaches to clout the side of a bridge as it passed through, but I’m not at home at the moment so I’m not sure when it was or if it was caused by heat distortion?

Waverton? School special from the West Midlands to North Wales. Two children died IIRC.

 

[Cowley]

Waverton? School special from the West Midlands to North Wales. Two children died IIRC.

I think that was probably it yes.

 

[47271]

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=131

Tattenhall Jn on the Crewe to Chester line, 2 July 1971, so quite bit before 1976.

Way before my time so I'd never heard of it before, but very briefly a ten coach schools special returning from Rhyl to Smethwick partially derailed and separated at speed over track deformed by heat and other factors and the rearmost mk1 collided with an overbridge. Two children, aged 10 and 11, were killed as well as a large number of injuries. Given the age of the victims, an extremely sad incident by any standard of rail accidents.

Air temperature at the time was only 24C, so not that hot by comparison with the last few days, or 1976.

 

[randyrippley]

De


Dennis Howell - almost as soon as he was appointed , the drought broke.

There were some mad ideas of towing icebergs to the UK , and even moving bulk water in 100 ton tank wagons from area to area. They did use some National Coal Board pumped water for non essential (i.e no drinking purposes)

Course in those days - the plastic water bottle industry did not exist.

I've always thought it strange that during 1976 the Green Goddess fleet weren't pulled out of mothballs and used for what was their intended purpose: relay pumping of water over long distances (they were never intended as fire engines). The fire service struggled at times that year: I remember one hill fire in Somerset that required the use of the local milk tanker fleet, pulling water from the River Parrett.

 

[36270k]

Also worth pointing out that if something did sit down, there would be a 47 and a traincrew nearby to come to the rescue. *


* Other classes of loco were available.

Anecdote. A hot day in Swindon, possibly in 1976. An ailing 47 comes in on a Down train; within, well within, ten minutes 47 off, standby 52 attached, traincrews swop over, Right Away Bath!

Overheating failures on Class 47's were often caused by oil leaks on the hydraulic fan drive.

 

[furnessvale]

De


Dennis Howell - almost as soon as he was appointed , the drought broke.

There were some mad ideas of towing icebergs to the UK , and even moving bulk water in 100 ton tank wagons from area to area. They did use some National Coal Board pumped water for non essential (i.e no drinking purposes)

Course in those days - the plastic water bottle industry did not exist.

I remember one drought where road tankers were used to move water about the country. A 20 x 100 ton tank train would have moved a lot more water.

I also recall special trains of bottled water being used to take water to the West Country (I think), so such ideas are not beyond the realms of possibility.

Of course, the proper solution is to use our existing canal system to move water south, but for some reason the authorities have set their faces against the idea. An example being a pipeline built from near Whaley Bridge over the hills to Windlehurst near Hazel grove rather than using the very adjacent Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals. Indeed, water introduced into the PF/Macc canals can flow downhill unrestricted all the way to Tamworth before any backpumping would be needed to climb over obstructing hills.

 

[big all]

i can remember reading perhaps in the rail news probably around mid 80s somewhere on the south eastern about an mlv tank wagon and another mlv to get water to a carrage washer during a severe shortage ??

 

[yorksrob]

i can remember reading perhaps in the rail news probably around mid 80s somewhere on the south eastern about an mlv tank wagon and another mlv to get water to a carrage washer during a severe shortage ??

Yes, I understand that BR owned a well in the Dover area. I certainly saw a picture of some MLV hauled water tanks in the Railway Magazine during the early 90's hosepipe ban.

Train windows were very dirty at that time !

 

[Journeyman]

The ECML and WCML had CWR and WCML was overhead electrification, however then we got on with life. Now if there is a percieved problem it is all stop regardless how small

...and we now kill far fewer people on the railway than we used to, so I'm not going to hark back to the way we did things before.

 

[Comstock]

Access to news of any sort was also much more limited so you simply didn't get to hear stuff .

I would say to that...yes and no.

There was obviously no internet media, but there was regular TV news (which almost everyone watched) and almost everyone read a newspaper of some sort, be it the Mirror or the Times. And the radio with its hourly bulletins was on in many more homes and shops and cafes and workplaces than today. People were aware of current events well before Sky News and the net came along.

In many ways things weren't that much different by 1986 or even 1996.

 

[edwin_m]

I would say to that...yes and no.

There was obviously no internet media, but there was regular TV news (which almost everyone watched) and almost everyone read a newspaper of some sort, be it the Mirror or the Times. And the radio with its hourly bulletins was on in many more homes and shops and cafes and workplaces than today. People were aware of current events well before Sky News and the net came along.

In many ways things weren't that much different by 1986 or even 1996.

You would hear about the big stories quickly such as a rail accident or major disruption. But without the internet the circulation of more specialist material was limited to magazines, whose monthly content was a fraction of that on this forum (though probably on average more accurate!) and several weeks out of date by the time of publication.

 

[matchmaker]

I was on an official visit to Dalmuir Park signal box on the Glasgow North lines. Colour light signals, but absolute block and mechanical points. The switch diamonds didn't like the heat and kept jamming. This resulted in the signalman running back and forth with buckets of water to cool them down, the District Inspector heaving at them with a crowbar, and an 18 year old student (me!) working the block instruments, signal switches and point levers.

 

[Comstock]

You would hear about the big stories quickly such as a rail accident or major disruption. But without the internet the circulation of more specialist material was limited to magazines, whose monthly content was a fraction of that on this forum (though probably on average more accurate!) and several weeks out of date by the time of publication.

Yes I would broadly agree with that