Broken Rail at Edinburgh ,-28/04/2023

[Strathclyder]

Ah perfect, I thought that it might have already been plain-lined so that does clear everything up. Definitely a terrible one to try and signal around, but ultimately nothing of value will be lost from plain lining this.

Agreed.

Really don't envy those on the ground dealing with this, nor the passengers caught up in the resulting bedlam trying to get in and out of Edinburgh. Least it wasn't the OHLE yet again!

 

[waverley47]

Agreed.

Really don't envy those on the ground dealing with this, nor the passengers caught up in the resulting bedlam trying to get in and out of Edinburgh. Least it wasn't the OHLE yet again!

The WCML was closed south of Carstairs as well today, so definitely a bad day for everyone involved

 

[Strathclyder]

The WCML was closed south of Carstairs as well today, so definitely a bad day for everyone involved

Definitely a day to forget then!

 

[800001]

Definitely a day to forget then!

That was closed for pre-planned engineering work, so couldn’t be helped?
Just unfortunate that this cracked point occurred today.

 

[Scotrail12]

That was fun - 77 minute delay getting into Edinburgh, 6 hour journey in total from Kings Cross. They even let a freight train pass before us. Not home until 11pm.

 

[Scotrail314209]

Edinburgh was absolute bedlam today with a massive queue from about 11am all the way to 5pm, it got to the extent where it was going all the way from Platform 2, onto Waverley Bridge, along the bridge and onto Market Street.

Some passengers were sent on the replacement buses via Carlisle in order to get to Newcastle/Manchester or Liverpool. There were shuttle buses in place between Edinburgh and Newcraighall, and between Edinburgh and North Berwick.

TPE were starting some services at Berwick-upon-Tweed, with nothing from XC.

Today I spotted a Stirling to Edinburgh service which is normally a 3 car 385 as a 2 car 158. Has this got anything to with this broken rail? I know that some 385's are kept at Millerhill.

Not as rare, but 170407 was also doing some Dunblane services.

 

[800001]

Edinburgh was absolute bedlam today with a massive queue from about 11am all the way to 5pm, it got to the extent where it was going all the way from Platform 2, onto Waverley Bridge, along the bridge and onto Market Street.

Some passengers were sent on the replacement buses via Carlisle in order to get to Newcastle/Manchester or Liverpool. There were shuttle buses in place between Edinburgh and Newcraighall, and between Edinburgh and North Berwick.

TPE were starting some services at Berwick-upon-Tweed, with nothing from XC.


Not as rare, but 170407 was also doing some Dunblane services.

Nothing from XC because as part of contingency they were required/asked to start and terminate at Newcastle

 

[Gostav]

Just been past the affected points on the very late 1E26, it's the ones in the attached screenshot - team of engineers on site as we speak. Bang road services are crawling, would say we aren't going much above 20mph which explains why delays are so hefty.

It seems the broken point is on a gentle curve, which meaning the frog is a non-standard component.

That is why non-standard track components are removed as much as possible from railway networks in various countries.

 

[thealexweb]

Nothing from XC because as part of contingency they were required/asked to start and terminate at Newcastle

What’s the rationale behind this? Is Berwick turn back capacity maxed out? Could XC turn back at Dunbar instead?

 

[30907]

What’s the rationale behind this? Is Berwick turn back capacity maxed out? Could XC turn back at Dunbar instead?

Don't think Berwick is ideal for turnbacks, though I notice TPE did so.
If you ran to Dunbar (where most XCs don't stop anyway), what would you do with the passengers? And what would you do with the trains and crew? Far better to use Newcastle.

 

[thealexweb]

Don't think Berwick is ideal for turnbacks, though I notice TPE did so.
If you ran to Dunbar (where most XCs don't stop anyway), what would you do with the passengers? And what would you do with the trains and crew? Far better to use Newcastle.

Only having to bus passengers a single stop before continuing normal journey. Looking up a few posts some passengers got buses via Carlisle.

 

[Strathclyder]

That was closed for pre-planned engineering work, so couldn’t be helped?
Just unfortunate that this cracked point occurred today.

Well yeah, that was exactly my point, clumsily worded as it was. Of all the days it could've happened on is what I was was getting at.

 

[Class 170101]

It seems the broken point is on a gentle curve, which meaning the frog is a non-standard component.

That is why non-standard track components are removed as much as possible from railway networks in various countries.

But if they cannot be phased out why aren't spares kept for these? It seems to be unholy mess when this happens with TOCs expected to produce a train plan for several weeks whilst the part os constructed, see Lewisham and near Dover in recent years

Don't think Berwick is ideal for turnbacks, though I notice TPE did so.
If you ran to Dunbar (where most XCs don't stop anyway), what would you do with the passengers? And what would you do with the trains and crew? Far better to use Newcastle.

Its a shorter distance between Dunbar and Edinburgh for the bus than Newcastle and Edinburgh if you only have a limited number of buses.

 

[800001]

But if they cannot be phased out why aren't spares kept for these? It seems to be unholy mess when this happens with TOCs expected to produce a train plan for several weeks whilst the part os constructed, see Lewisham and near Dover in recent years


Its a shorter distance between Dunbar and Edinburgh for the bus than Newcastle and Edinburgh if you only have a limited number of buses.

But is Dunbar suited to detraining 400+ customers off a train and then getting them onto buses?

 

[MadMac]

It seems the broken point is on a gentle curve, which meaning the frog is a non-standard component.

That is why non-standard track components are removed as much as possible from railway networks in various countries.

Back in the day, the nearby Baileyfield S&C works (now Voestalpine?) could probably have come up with something.

 

[Class 170101]

But is Dunbar suited to detraining 400+ customers off a train and then getting them onto buses?

May or may not be but if you have only a limited number of buses I would say run trains as far as possible to the point of obstruction.

 

[800001]

May or may not be but if you have only a limited number of buses I would say run trains as far as possible to the point of obstruction.

So my point stands, is Dunbar a suitable place to detain several hundred people? I say not!

Better to do Newcastle where there is plenty of cover and plenty of facilities, plus staff, ease of access for buses etc.

No good running to nearest station to obstruction if you then struggle to move those people onwards.

 

[Class 170101]

So my point stands, is Dunbar a suitable place to detain several hundred people? I say not!

Better to do Newcastle where there is plenty of cover and plenty of facilities, plus staff, ease of access for buses etc.

No good running to nearest station to obstruction if you then struggle to move those people onwards.

But you will struggle to move people if you only have a few buses over a very long distance in the case of Edinburgh to Newcastle its around 120 miles by road (route dependant).

Edinburgh to Dunbar is 30 miles. 45 minutes by road compared to over two hours to Newcastle.

 

[skyhigh]

But if they cannot be phased out why aren't spares kept for these

Simply because NR are under massive cost pressure and therefore it's 'better' not to have £x thousand tied up in spares sitting around the network.

 

[Class 170101]

Simply because NR are under massive cost pressure and therefore it's 'better' not to have £x thousand tied up in spares sitting around the network.

But how much is it costing having the spares versus not having the spares and having to wait weeks for them to be constructed? That has a cost too in delay minutes etc.

 

[skyhigh]

But how much is it costing having the spares versus not having the spares and having to wait weeks for them to be constructed? That has a cost too in delay minutes etc.

I don't disagree with you, but that is what I was told when a fairly important crossover around here was plain-lined for around 4 months because it was unique and there were no spares.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

I don't disagree with you, but that is what I was told when a fairly important crossover around here was plain-lined for around 4 months because it was unique and there were no spares.

This was an oou connection should have been plain lined to remove the risk years ago but no doubt one of the freight operators never agreed to the network change so its left in the infrastructure. Mind you its unusual for a cast manganese crossing to suffer from a catastrophic failure, necessitating block the line, that hasn't been detected by ultrasonics so at least at can be managed with a temporary speed but given there are thousands of these across the network its just unfortunate it was here.