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Train hits buffers at Victoria (08/05)

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Islineclear3_1

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Hopefully the driver is ok and is being given the support he needs at this time

The driver is always the first to blame but there could be a multitude of technical or mechanical reasons why the train didn't stop in time

Let's wait for the RAIB report
 

Deepgreen

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Cracking around the headlights is superficial damage. Do you know how much energy a train travelling at 4mph has? I believe the train involved in the Canon Street crash was travelling at about 5mph - have you seen the pictures from that crash?
The friction buffers such as those at Victoria are far more effective at bringing a train to a controlled stop than the older hydraulic buffers such as those at Waterloo - otherwise we'd have hydraulic buffers everywhere, surely?
Yes, and yes, but I think it was nearer 10mph. The point remains that this was not a "non-event". The effectiveness of the buffers is not the question - the cost of the current type is far less for comparable function - rather the actual collision is the issue. Not much further will be gleaned until the driver assessment is done, I think.
 

Deepgreen

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Hopefully the driver is ok and is being given the support he needs at this time

The driver is always the first to blame but there could be a multitude of technical or mechanical reasons why the train didn't stop in time

Let's wait for the RAIB report
Agreed, and I'm pleased to see that there is no overt blame being directed at the driver on this thread.
 

E759

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Lest we remember several people died during a low-speed collision with the stop blocks at Cannon Street in 1991, so it’s never a total non-event. The nasty thing with a low-speed collision is no one is expecting anything, so it can catch people completely off guard - especially those standing in readiness to alight.

However equally a sense of proportion is required.
That one I won't forget. Was walking down the platform as it came in. Very distressing.
 

zn1

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for any driver in any loco/multiple unit, low speed shunts in to the blocks or another vehicle are scary as hell..lets face it any shunt in any vehicle isnt good for the driver,
 

Tio Terry

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It's way off to suggest that 4mph (fast walking) is the limit of effectiveness - it depends on the design of buffers, but, for example, the massive hydraulic buffers at Waterloo could cope with far more. TPWS also only works if the brakes do. You say "there is probably minimal damage", but the picture I saw (from a link to the Evening Standard on this thread) shows significant cracking around the headlights, etc.

Just out of interest, the buffers on platforms 1 to 19 at Waterloo do not meet the current Standard for buffer stop risk assessments, those on 20 to 24 do. 1 to 19 are only allowed to continue to be used because there is special dispensation in place, to fit compliant buffer stops would mean shortening the usable platform length and therefore train length for some platforms or major infrastructure changes to Waterloo throat. TPWS is designed to minimise the risk but it has not abolished it.
 

bramling

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for any driver in any loco/multiple unit, low speed shunts in to the blocks or another vehicle are scary as hell..lets face it any shunt in any vehicle isnt good for the driver,

Quite so, any kind of collision above normal coupling speed makes a surprisingly big noise and jolt. There’s a bit more metal involved than the average go-kart!
 

Ken H

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I used to get a train to Folkestone to see my grandparents when I was a kid, so 1960's
The train from CX had to b coaxed all the way to the buffers so it fitted on the platform.
is that allowed now or do they run shorter trains?

the buffers at st pancras were meant to be compressed by incoming trains. that pushed water up into a tank high in the hotel, to be used by hydraulic lifts.

But as a kid I remember the magnificent massive Ransoms and Rapier buffers at places like Kings Cross.
 

yorksrob

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Was this pre-electrification ?

All the Folkestone main line stations only had through platforms after the route was electrified in the early 1960's.
 

Ken H

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Was this pre-electrification ?

All the Folkestone main line stations only had through platforms after the route was electrified in the early 1960's.
No. After Kent coast electrification. I am talking of Charing Cross station - CX (sorry, should not have used abbreviation without saying what it was.)
 

matchmaker

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Lest we remember several people died during a low-speed collision with the stop blocks at Cannon Street in 1991, so it’s never a total non-event. The nasty thing with a low-speed collision is no one is expecting anything, so it can catch people completely off guard - especially those standing in readiness to alight.

However equally a sense of proportion is required.

Or St Enoch 1903 - 16 killed.
 

yorksrob

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No. After Kent coast electrification. I am talking of Charing Cross station - CX (sorry, should not have used abbreviation without saying what it was.)

Ah yes, it's always been cramped by the river.
 

t_star2001uk

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the buffers at st pancras were meant to be compressed by incoming trains. that pushed water up into a tank high in the hotel, to be used by hydraulic lifts.

That's an urban myth i'm afraid. The lifts at St Pancras and the Hydraulic buffers were indeed both made by Ransomes and Rapier and that's where the similarity ends.

The following is courtesy of the Greater London Archaeology Society:

At the north end of the passenger station there was a hydraulic wagon hoist (the 'beer hoist') used to take wagons to and from the cellars. In addition there appear to have been one or more hydraulic capstans and possibly a couple of cranes. (Records do not distinguish between the passenger station and the goods station further north). Just how many lifts were installed in the hotel is unclear. But there were two passenger lifts and at least two dinner lifts. All the hydraulic machinery in the passenger station and all except one of the passenger lifts at the hotel were powered from a small hydraulic pumping station to the north of the station. Under one of the arches carrying the approach lines there was a 40hp steam pumping engine. In an adjoining arch there were two boilers. The tall chimney was on the east side of the lines, near the gasholders. Next to it was an accumulator tower, not unlike the water tower to its south in architectural style. (The water tower was moved to a position alongside St Pancras Basin and is now known as the 'Waterpoint'). A number of photographs of Midland Railway locomotives posed in front of the accumulator tower have been published.
 
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