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Major disruption on the BML (01/11/16)

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RichardKing

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Owing to a fire on the northbound track at Wivelsfield, the evening peak has been absolutely ruined. I believe the line had reopened a short while ago, but has since closed again as another problem was discovered.

The southbound line is open as usual (I'm not sure if there's a TSR on it), but the usual residual delays are occurring!

Tonight is going to be a fun one!
 
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Deepgreen

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Owing to a fire on the northbound track at Wivelsfield, the evening peak has been absolutely ruined. I believe the line had reopened a short while ago, but has since closed again as another problem was discovered.

The southbound line is open as usual (I'm not sure if there's a TSR on it), but the usual residual delays are occurring!

Tonight is going to be a fun one!

Does this refer to 1 November rather than October?
 

RichardKing

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SpacePhoenix

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Just done a quick forum search for "arcing", I'm sure there was a recent thread about arcing somewhere else - I find it's hit and miss with the search functionality in any forum

How far into it's life is the 3rd rail in that area?

It must have been some quite serious arcing to heat the rail upto 1370 degrees C (got the temp from Google)
 

hwl

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Just done a quick forum search for "arcing", I'm sure there was a recent thread about arcing somewhere else - I find it's hit and miss with the search functionality in any forum

How far into it's life is the 3rd rail in that area?

It must have been some quite serious arcing to heat the rail upto 1370 degrees C (got the temp from Google)

Yes at Gatwick due to a drinks can last time
 

tony6499

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It was said that it was a trackside sign that hit the juice rail, wherever accidentally or deliberate who knows ?
 

Bald Rick

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Blackfriars but not involving 3rd rail!

Not directly, but if it had been AC electrification there, it couldn't have happened.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just done a quick forum search for "arcing", I'm sure there was a recent thread about arcing somewhere else - I find it's hit and miss with the search functionality in any forum

How far into it's life is the 3rd rail in that area?

It must have been some quite serious arcing to heat the rail upto 1370 degrees C (got the temp from Google)

3rd rail life is not usually relevant in such cases. What is relevant is having 750vDC / several thousand amps approx 30cm from the running rail. Anything conductive that goes across it is going to cause a flash.
 

Signal Head

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I think there was also an insulated fish plate that suffered from arcing recently

There was an incident last year (I think) near Purley - high resistance connection on an impedance bond connection caused a high enough potential difference across a block joint that the rails were welded together as a wheel passed over, damaging the insulating post and causing a TC failure during the morning peak.

Service went for a ball of chalk for most of the day. About 15k delay minutes.
 

RichardKing

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Lines now blocked again at Wivelsfield for more permanent repairs to take place overnight.

Fingers crossed, all will be back up and running by tomorrow morning!
I'm assuming that there will be a lot of train displacement tomorrow, even more so seeing as they can't use the BML for late-night stock movements.
 

tsr

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Fingers crossed, all will be back up and running by tomorrow morning!
I'm assuming that there will be a lot of train displacement tomorrow, even more so seeing as they can't use the BML for late-night stock movements.

Some stuff has been moved via Arundel/Littlehampton. Unsure how much of that can continue for the rest of the evening within current driver availability + available route knowledge, though.

EDIT: Looks like there's machinery for a possession moving into place at Amberley as I type... oh dear. Didn't realise that - this is what happens when you're not on duty and don't read your WON...
 
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RichardKing

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Some stuff has been moved via Arundel/Littlehampton. Unsure how much of that can continue for the rest of the evening within current driver availability + available route knowledge, though.

EDIT: Looks like there's machinery for a possession moving into place at Amberley as I type... oh dear. Didn't realise that - this is what happens when you're not on duty and don't read your WON...

Ah, well hopefully they got everything into place along the West Coastway in time for the morning peak before the possession started! As for Brighton and Eastbourne, the job is probably going to be a bit harder...

Very British Problems :D
 

a1a.a1a

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Fingers crossed, all will be back up and running by tomorrow morning!
I'm assuming that there will be a lot of train displacement tomorrow, even more so seeing as they can't use the BML for late-night stock movements.
I wouldn't aim for 1F82 tomorrow (Today) Richard, the stock for that and a number of others never returned from London... gonna be a full and standing AM peak I reckon. COZY!
 

Sunset route

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All fixed and back to line speed, now only if we could find all of our displaced EMUs before the start of service would be a welcome bonus.
 

Deepgreen

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I wouldn't be surprised if the next incident is on the down slow (platform 3) at Redhill, where the track over a wet bed is bouncing alarmingly as trains pass - one pot in particular is jiggling around to the extent that it could either shatter or bounce off the support. No point in reporting it to NR as previous attempts in other situations have met with disinterest/no response, so we'll just await the failure.
 

tsr

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I wouldn't be surprised if the next incident is on the down slow (platform 3) at Redhill, where the track over a wet bed is bouncing alarmingly as trains pass - one pot in particular is jiggling around to the extent that it could either shatter or bounce off the support. No point in reporting it to NR as previous attempts in other situations have met with disinterest/no response, so we'll just await the failure.

They already know...
 

RichardKing

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I wouldn't aim for 1F82 tomorrow (Today) Richard, the stock for that and a number of others never returned from London... gonna be a full and standing AM peak I reckon. COZY!

Luckily, those 442s ran ECS from Brighton to Eastbourne Sidings yesterday evening, ready for this morning (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/O40717/2016/11/01/advanced)...not so lucky for the people at London Bridge; 1F81 and 1F83 were both cancelled! Mind you, everyone wanting to get down to the coast was in the same boat :)

I was actually quite surprised that everything was relatively alright this morning!
 

EveningStar

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Interesting reading. Was on what must be one of the last trains through the affected section, joining the 1524 from Plumpton (had originally planned to get the 1624 and, as events turned out, am profoundly glad of finishing my business early!). We were held before Keymer Junction due to a, 'track circuit problem' ... impressive queue of traffic at the level crossing once we got going. It was only when making my connection at Haywards Heath that it became clear that something serious was happening. Reasons given included, 'power failure', 'emergency engineering work' and, eventually, 'a fire' ... interesting how all the reasons given, including track circuit problems (have no doubt that several hundred volts applied to the wrong place in a track circuit will cause problems!), were honest attempts to simply describe the problem.

Credit to staff on the ground for responding to the cancellations, with a rail replacement coach appearing very quickly. Fellow passengers assure me that the route to Three Bridges was slightly idiosyncratic, yet we got there and staff at Three Bridges were equally helpful in directing people in the right direction for onwards services.
 

RichardKing

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Interesting reading. Was on what must be one of the last trains through the affected section, joining the 1524 from Plumpton (had originally planned to get the 1624 and, as events turned out, am profoundly glad of finishing my business early!).

You are VERY lucky you managed to get the earlier train, as the 16:24 didn't even get past Lewes! I believe it was sent back to Eastbourne as a 'Z' working.

After the 15:24, there was no northbound service until approximately 22:50, and that service only went as far as Haywards Heath!
 

infobleep

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I wouldn't be surprised if the next incident is on the down slow (platform 3) at Redhill, where the track over a wet bed is bouncing alarmingly as trains pass - one pot in particular is jiggling around to the extent that it could either shatter or bounce off the support. No point in reporting it to NR as previous attempts in other situations have met with disinterest/no response, so we'll just await the failure.
So what can they / do they do about things like this?

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
 

SpacePhoenix

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Should a circuit breaker somewhere have tripped before the damage got as bad as it did?
 

hwl

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Should a circuit breaker somewhere have tripped before the damage got as bad as it did?

Fault currents are very similar to the traction current draw of several 12 car units at max acceleration ;)
(not such a problem such problem with AC!)
 
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