edwin_m
Veteran Member
This is the only accident from this cause I can recall: https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/incident-involving-a-container-train-at-basingstoke-stationI'd like to know whether a high cube has ever been accidentally loaded onto the wrong kind of (railway) wagon, putting it out of gauge. Unless there is a systematic method in place then human nature must mean it has happened at some point.
What systems are in place to stop it happening, and to detect errors before they cause an accident? Are any of the systems and/or technology transferable to road freight?
More details on the link. Gauging is fairly conservative so it's possible an outsize load could make it through without hitting anything, in which case I guess nobody would be any the wiser.At 10:13 hrs on 19 December 2008, a shipping container, which was loaded on a freight train travelling from Wakefield Europort to Eastleigh, struck the canopy above platform one at Basingstoke station at about 25 mph (40 km/h)as the train passed through. The canopy was damaged over a length of 130 m, and pieces of wood were scattered along the platform. No-one was hurt.
The immediate cause of the incident was that the combination of the container and the type of wagon it had been loaded onto was too high for the route on which the train was travelling, allowing the left-hand top corner of the container to strike the canopy.
The system for identifying container types and container / wagon combinations was prone to human error, in that: