Incident at Enfield Town 12/10/21

[507 001]

It would appear that a London Overground 710 has overrun the stop blocks at Enfield Town…

(images sent to me by a friend, also widely circulating on social media)

 

[Horizon22]

I did notice TfL were reporting no service between Enfield Town & Edmonton Green due to an "operating incident" since about 0845.

 

[flitwickbeds]

My (non-rail) colleague's photo

 

[Horizon22]

That really has lifted up quite significantly. Service was 2U14 and has partially derailed. RAIB have been informed.

 

[Mike395]

Yikes, hope everyone's ok, would have been quite an impact and particularly felt if that was an arriving service train with standees waiting to alight.

Although they possibly caused the front coach to derail, it does, on the face of it, at least look like the buffer stops did their job in terms of stopping any damage to the station building behind it.

 

[Horizon22]

Yikes, hope everyone's ok, would have been quite an impact and particularly felt if that was an arriving service train with standees waiting to alight.

Although they possibly caused the front coach to derail, it does, on the face of it, at least look like the buffer stops did their job in terms of stopping any damage to the station building behind it.

Hopefully it was low speed, although to lift that much perhaps not. I wonder if TPWS is installed there?

 

[Spartacus]

Hopefully it was low speed, although to lift that much perhaps not. I wonder if TPWS is installed there?

Initial witness reports suggest it came into the platform at normal speed, but just never stopped.

Seems to be only minor bumps and shock reported.

I think they're still an old style fixed buffer stop at Enfield Town, which do tend to encourage stock to ride up onto them, even at low speed, it being more of a momentum thing. Still stop the stock mind.....

 

[OvergroundMatt]

More photos from the London Fire Brigade's Twitter feed:

 

[158747]

I wonder if this is adhesion related. There have been similar incidents in the past when trains have arrived normally and then being unable to stop due to poor rail adhesion conditions.

 

[Horizon22]

I wonder if this is adhesion related. There have been similar incidents in the past when trains have arrived normally and then being unable to stop due to poor rail adhesion conditions.

Would indeed be the right time of the year. Don't know if the route is known for it.

 

[traingeek97]

An update from the London Fire Brigade

Firefighters were called to a derailed train at Enfield Town Railway Station this morning.

An eight carriage passenger train derailed after hitting buffers at the station.

Around 50 people were evacuated from the train before the Brigade arrived by TfL and station staff. Two people were treated for minor injuries by London Ambulance Service crews.

Station Commander Jim O’Neill, who was at the scene, said: “The train had hit the buffers at the station, which is at the end of the line, and gone up over the top of them.

“Firefighters carried out a systematic search of the train to ensure there were no further people on board.

“Crews assisted station staff to make the scene safe and a recovery operation will now b e carried out.”

The Brigade was called at 0827 and the incident was over for firefighters by 0930. Three fire engines and two fire rescue units were in attendance.

 

[Spartacus]

Would indeed be the right time of the year. Don't know if the route is known for it.

The line has an RHTT, which treated as planned the previous night, though that runs into platform 3 rather than 2. I've not heard of any adhesion problems from any previous drivers. Certainly nothing that one could call a smoking gun as yet.

 

[Snow1964]

London Fire Brigade have tweeted some pictures, looks like the buffers tilted back, but the sleepers fell or dropped off.

https://twitter.com/LondonFire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1447851951266439168%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftangytango.proboards.com%2Fposts%2Frecent

says about 50 had been evacuated from train before they arrived

https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2021/october/derailed-train-enfield/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Orlo&utm_content=Rescue

Firefighters were called to a derailed train at Enfield Town Railway Station this morning.
An eight carriage passenger train derailed after hitting buffers at the station.
Around 50 people were evacuated from the train before the Brigade arrived by TfL and station staff. Two people were treated for minor injuries by London Ambulance Service crews.
Station Commander Jim O’Neill, who was at the scene, said: “The train had hit the buffers at the station, which is at the end of the line, and gone up over the top of them.
“Firefighters carried out a systematic search of the train to ensure there were no further people on board.
“Crews assisted station staff to make the scene safe and a recovery operation will now b e carried out.”
The Brigade was called at 0827 and the incident was over for firefighters by 0930. Three fire engines and two fire rescue units were in attendance.

 

[Milo T.K]

Driver is fine from what i heard from a collegue at control just a few scrapes

 

[dctraindriver]

Driver is fine from what i heard from a collegue at control just a few scrapes

That good to know. They’re going to be feeling pretty glum I expect while this is investigated. RAiB attending.

 

[ainsworth74]

Well it looks nice and dramatic doesn't it! Glad to hear everyone is okay if a bit shaken up.

 

[hwl]

London Fire Brigade have tweeted some pictures, looks like the buffers tilted back, but the sleepers fell or dropped off.

Old style buffers bolted directly to the web of the rail, hence ripping the rail up with the buffers as they tilted.

RAIB report (or bulletin as potentially no new learnings) will probably have some thing to say about progress (or lack of) on retrofitting modern friction buffers and lack of over run distance (has featured in plenty of previous reports)

 

[Snow1964]

On TfL website it describes it as an Operating Incident, does that rule out customer incident, track defect, equipment failure etc.

Just wondered how they are publish the type of incident ahead of a RAIB investigation as it would appear to suggest certain possibilities have already been ruled out.

Tube, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR & Tram status updates

Realtime Tube, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR & Tram travel updates.

tfl.gov.uk

 

[Dibbo4025]

On TfL website it describes it as an Operating Incident, does that rule out customer incident, track defect, equipment failure etc.

Just wondered how they are publish the type of incident ahead of a RAIB investigation as it would appear to suggest certain possibilities have already been ruled out.

Tube, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR & Tram status updates

Realtime Tube, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR & Tram travel updates.

tfl.gov.uk

Well both track defect and equipment failure would be classed as an operating incident for service status anyway, it's pretty much a catch-all for "railway broke/did something wrong"

But there's a pretty good idea of what happened

 

[Mag_seven]

On TfL website it describes it as an Operating Incident, does that rule out customer incident, track defect, equipment failure etc.

Just wondered how they are publish the type of incident ahead of a RAIB investigation as it would appear to suggest certain possibilities have already been ruled out.

I really wouldn't read too much into the wording used by TfL on their status update page to be honest.

 

[Horizon22]

As has been mentioned "operating incident" normally translates as "railway error or railway messed up" or when the real reason might be a little too alarming for the public (such as SPADs) or technical to explain. Its a customer service term as opposed to actually diagnosing the fault,

 

[theageofthetra]

Any TPWS overspeed at that location?

 

[dk1]

Any TPWS overspeed at that location?

Doesn’t there have to be at all passenger stations with buffer stops? I can’t think of any that I know without them.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Old style buffers bolted directly to the web of the rail, hence ripping the rail up with the buffers as they tilted.

RAIB report (or bulletin as potentially no new learnings) will probably have some thing to say about progress (or lack of) on retrofitting modern friction buffers and lack of over run distance (has featured in plenty of previous reports)

Indeed and with a passenger concourse in front of the buffers be interesting to see the risk assessment for that one that says it was fine to leave them. If there isn't anything untoward with the train braking system RAIB may well just say we've identified this risk from previous investigations and recommendations have been made to the infrastructure operator and just issue a safety digest. That would put the ball in ORR's court about what level of compliance checks they've done and what NR has previously told them about levels of compliance.

 

[theageofthetra]

Doesn’t there have to be at all passenger stations with buffer stops? I can’t think of any that I know without them.

I would hope so, my gut feeling is railhead contamination of some kind but we will see.

 

[Mag_seven]

Doesn’t there have to be at all passenger stations with buffer stops? I can’t think of any that I know without them.

Yes I believe that's correct unless a risk assessment has been carried out stating that one is not required. (Its been a while since I briefly worked on the project!)

 

[Watershed]

Any TPWS overspeed at that location?

TPWS still doesn't prevent all such accidents. It only catches speeds above 12mph (roughly) on approach to buffers. A collision at that speed can still be pretty serious.

It also doesn't stop trains that are going too fast to stop, or that speed up after passing the grids.

 

[ainsworth74]

Let's not get carried away. Some speculation is fine but let's not stray into making definitive, or seemingly definitive, pronouncements as to possible causes

 

[Spartacus]

Absolutely not.

That train is several coaches long. The rails and the wheels would have to be entirely made of black ice for that train to be unable to stop.

Trains were pulling in and out of that platform all morning with no problems.

I'm kinda of the same mind, not that it couldn't make the incident occur as it doesn't take that much for an overshoot to happen, but there's been no previous reports of issues in platform two, and the lines up to the platform were treated the night before. If it was going to be so bad I'd have expected there to have been reports of exceptional railhead conditions, or at least poor ones. It's not something I'd rule out, but unlike some people I don't think it's as much an open and shut case as some people seem to think.

 

[pdeaves]

TPWS still doesn't prevent all such accidents. It only catches speeds above 12mph (roughly) on approach to buffers. A collision at that speed can still be pretty serious.

It also doesn't stop trains that are going too fast to stop, or that speed up after passing the grids.

Nor can TPWS stop a train that is still moving but the wheels aren't rotating. (Not saying that's what happened here, just a limitation of relying on TPWS).