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Nearly a nasty accident (or not)

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MP33

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Reading about West Coast Railways and yesterday mornings incident and also previous incidents in recent years. How close was an big accident?

Two examples of bad accidents in the past that were very close to being much worse would be those at Norton Fitzwarren (1944) and Lewisham.

Has any of these incidents come anywhere near that close?
 
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A-driver

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Reading about West Coast Railways and yesterday mornings incident and also previous incidents in recent years. How close was an big accident?



Two examples of bad accidents in the past that were very close to being much worse would be those at Norton Fitzwarren (1944) and Lewisham.



Has any of these incidents come anywhere near that close?


Impossible for anyone to ever answer that I'm afraid. The WCRC incident had POTENTIAL to be bad but wasn't. You can add as many 'what ifs' to it as you like and the potential incident could be catastrophic but no actual incident actually resulted.

SPADs and other operating incidents are an almost daily occurance on the railway but fortunately enough guards are in place that very very few ever lead to anything remotely serious (although all are rightly treated seriously). But again by adding 'what ifs' any of them could be bigger than any railway incident in history.
 

6Gman

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The WCRC one is pretty straightforward.

If the HST had been running slightly later then the results would almost certainly have been catastrophic.
 

Spamcan81

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The WCRC one is pretty straightforward.

If the HST had been running slightly later then the results would almost certainly have been catastrophic.

And if the WCRC train had been running slightly later then nothing disastrous would have happened. You can put as many "ifs" in as you like but it wonlt change what actually happened.
 

edwin_m

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And if the WCRC train had been running slightly later then nothing disastrous would have happened. You can put as many "ifs" in as you like but it wonlt change what actually happened.

No, but it's good practice to investigate something where a catastrophic accident was narrowly averted, so as to learn lessons which might prevent it happening again under slightly different circumstances that would actually cause an accident. The aviation industry is very hot on reporting and investigating near-misses for the same reason.
 

Domh245

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I suspect that yesterday's incident was the, not-actually-all-that-dangerous conductor rail fault and resulting disruption around clapham. Can't really see how it was any more dangerous than any other power supply problem.
 

Zoidberg

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I suspect that yesterday's incident was the, not-actually-all-that-dangerous conductor rail fault and resulting disruption around clapham. Can't really see how it was any more dangerous than any other power supply problem.

That's the only "yesterday's incident" that I could think of, but didn't think it fitted in the context of the opening post.

Hopefully the OP will return and explain what's meant.
 

Islineclear3_1

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Reading about West Coast Railways and yesterday mornings incident and also previous incidents in recent years. How close was an big accident?

Two examples of bad accidents in the past that were very close to being much worse would be those at Norton Fitzwarren (1944) and Lewisham.?

Do you mean the Lewisham crash of 1957 involving an electric train, a steam train and a bridge being brought down leaving about 90 dead? How much worse could this have been? A survivor that I know still remembers it clear as day.

And what about Clapham (1988) and Purley (1989) and others?

Or have I interpreted your question incorrectly?
 

alxndr

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No, but it's good practice to investigate something where a catastrophic accident was narrowly averted, so as to learn lessons which might prevent it happening again under slightly different circumstances that would actually cause an accident. The aviation industry is very hot on reporting and investigating near-misses for the same reason.

It is being investigated.
There's just no point us speculating the ifs, buts, and maybe's without having access to the full information. Yes, the HST could have been a tad later, there could have not been a speed restriction and the steamer could have been faster, or the points might not have been swung so soon after the HST and we could have been dealing with a run through.
 

matchmaker

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Do you mean the Lewisham crash of 1957 involving an electric train, a steam train and a bridge being brought down leaving about 90 dead? How much worse could this have been? A survivor that I know still remembers it clear as day.

A train was approaching over the collapsed bridge. The driver stopped it in time.
 

GB

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Reading about West Coast Railways and yesterday mornings incident and also previous incidents in recent years. How close was an big accident?

Two examples of bad accidents in the past that were very close to being much worse would be those at Norton Fitzwarren (1944) and Lewisham.

Has any of these incidents come anywhere near that close?

As everyone else has said, no point adding ifs and buts because you can do that to any incident and declare as potential "big accident". SPADs are an unfortunate part of the railway but the most troubling aspect of this spad was the actions of the train crew.

However if its closeness your looking for look up the RAIB report to the Didcot spad of 2007. 13 seconds between a train clearing the junction and another train reaching the fouling point following a spad.
 

MP33

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I have been asked to clarify a couple of points.

The incident was the one at Clapham Junction. There was a school of thought that claimed it could had been very serious. Although I can see that these claims have been debunked.

The Lewisham accident was the 1957 one and the train on the flyover just stopping in time before it crashed onto the wreckage.
 

carriageline

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I fail to see how the Clapham Junction incident could of been very serious, unless you start letting imaginations take over and going crazy with ifs and buts!
 
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