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Safest Place on a Train

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Annetts key

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I’m not convinced there is a safe place on a train if it’s a Pacer, even if it has not hit or been hit by anything. For example, this one caught fire. Report here
 
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PG

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I’m not convinced there is a safe place on a train if it’s a Pacer, even if it has not hit or been hit by anything. For example, this one caught fire. Report here
FWIW other types of trains have caught fire too, Pacers don't have a monopoly on self-combustion!

I'm more amazed that Alamy think that they'll get any buyers for the photo you've linked to, as a cursory search on Flickr brings up quite a few images of that self same unit e.g.
Burnt Out by Mark Gowing, on Flickr
 

Mat17

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101688 took early retirement in a similar manner.



Of course, the Cravens of class 112 made an earlier start at this kind of practice way back in the late 60s, and even a good layer of blue asbestos made very little difference!
 

Dr_Paul

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But they’re only facing backwards 50% of the time?
Indeed! I much prefer facing forwards on a train (and I really hate facing backwards on a bus), and once travelled on an HST from Sheffield to St Pancras. I boarded, found a forward-facing seat, forgetting that the train reversed at Nottingham, from where I sat facing the rear all the way to London, and had to remain there as the train was very crowded.

To return to a question thrown up by this thread, I've never really worried about where I am on a train, as the chances of its being involved in an accident are so extremely small that it doesn't come into my mind.
 

Merle Haggard

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Indeed! I much prefer facing forwards on a train (and I really hate facing backwards on a bus), and once travelled on an HST from Sheffield to St Pancras. I boarded, found a forward-facing seat, forgetting that the train reversed at Nottingham, from where I sat facing the rear all the way to London, and had to remain there as the train was very crowded.

To return to a question thrown up by this thread, I've never really worried about where I am on a train, as the chances of its being involved in an accident are so extremely small that it doesn't come into my mind.

Just to point out that if the train decelerates rapidly (e.g. collision) and you are in a forward-facing seat you are likely to bend at the waist and hit your head on the top of the table and your knees at its underside, and be thrown into the table at stomach level. If there's no table, you'll take a flying leap at the passenger opposite. If it's an airline seat, the seat back in front of you provides a similar risk.
Travelling with your back to direction of travel will result in you just being pressed firmly into the seat; an airline seat seems the safest option, as you won't have a close encounter with the person opposite.
But of course, as you say there's much greater risks in being almost anywhere else than on a train.
 

etr221

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I am reminded of Mr. Punch's riddle:
"What is better than Presence of Mind in a Railway Accident?"
"Absence of Body"...
 

Efini92

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I’m not convinced there is a safe place on a train if it’s a Pacer, even if it has not hit or been hit by anything. For example, this one caught fire. Report here
180’s combusted far more than pacers.
Obviously, the safest place to sit is by the Black Box.

Well, it never gets destroyed, does it?

;)
They couldn’t use the black box from the turbo star in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash as it had been destroyed.

Id say sitting down is the safest place to be as the last few crashes, most of the injuries were from people stood up waiting to get off.
 

satisnek

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Surely that's an argument for being in the black box? ;)
Actually, I'm paraphrasing Jasper Carrott from many years ago, who then went on to ask why don't they make planes out of the same stuff that they make black boxes from, conveniently overlooking the fact that the things would never get off the ground if they were...
 

route101

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Just to point out that if the train decelerates rapidly (e.g. collision) and you are in a forward-facing seat you are likely to bend at the waist and hit your head on the top of the table and your knees at its underside, and be thrown into the table at stomach level. If there's no table, you'll take a flying leap at the passenger opposite. If it's an airline seat, the seat back in front of you provides a similar risk.
Travelling with your back to direction of travel will result in you just being pressed firmly into the seat; an airline seat seems the safest option, as you won't have a close encounter with the person opposite.
But of course, as you say there's much greater risks in being almost anywhere else than on a train.
I've been on a bus that has stopped suddenly, very sore when you slam straight into the seat in front, just about winds you.
 

vinnym70

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I worked with someone who was unfortunate enough to have been on a train involved in the Clapham incident.
He was facing backwards but the lady facing him hit him as she flew forwards as the train hit the stationary train in front. Injuries significant enough to keep him off work for about a month as I remember.
He recounted, on his return, how a fair number of people afterwards were saying they had been injured by items ejected from the luggage racks (I guess hard/heavy briefcases were a lot more common then)
Unfortunately, the experience left him not wanting to commute by train and the return to work and subsequent discussion of events clearly were very difficult for him.
So physical injuries and mental trauma too.
 

ainsworth74

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He recounted, on his return, how a fair number of people afterwards were saying they had been injured by items ejected from the luggage racks (I guess hard/heavy briefcases were a lot more common then)

Not only that but weren't luggage racks across the carriage on the seat backs on those sorts of trains? Much more likely for something to go flying out and hit people than on modern trains where they're lengthwise along the wall of the train I'd have thought?
 

D6130

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One of our ex-pat neighbours in Italy is a retired solicitor who was involved in the Ladbroke Grove collision in 1997. He was standing in the buffet car of the HST and sustained serious injuries, including two broken collar bones and multiple internal injuries. As a result, he was in hospital for months, off work for more than a year and now has a morbid hatred of trains, rail travel and rail companies.
 
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With the above about HST power cars in crashes, in incidences such as Southall the driver retreated behind the Firewall/ Bulkhead at the rear of the cab. In other cases with different traction this principle applied, such as when DP2 ran into Cemflo wagons north of York, he and his assistant retreated behind the Bulkhead.
 

yorksrob

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Not only that but weren't luggage racks across the carriage on the seat backs on those sorts of trains? Much more likely for something to go flying out and hit people than on modern trains where they're lengthwise along the wall of the train I'd have thought?

For the VEP's, but not the REP-TC's.
 
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