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Virgin Voyager fire

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Table 52

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Hasn't made it onto national rail enquiries. I'm guessing they put it out very quickly then.
 
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Yes quite quick i didn't actually see it myself but i was chatting to a driver at Mannors who was waiting to get into Central. But Virgin have now limped it back to Tyne Yard.
 

Richmond

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Why did the spotters call the petrol station rather than the fire station, you know petrol only fuels the fire:D
 

Guinness

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Anyone actually stop to think about whether anyone got hurt rather than "Glad it was a Voyager" responses?

Once the media hears about it no doubt it will be more bad press for the Railways.....
 

AlexS

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I imagine not - with a fire on a train if totally necessary you can drop the handle and get every one off the train within about 5 minutes maximum. The fact it was in the station says it's fairly minor.
 

Julian G

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Chaz said:
Anyone actually stop to think about whether anyone got hurt rather than "Glad it was a Voyager" responses?

Once the media hears about it no doubt it will be more bad press for the Railways.....
Yeah,Once again I agree with you ;)
Think about the people
How would you like it if you were in the Voyager with the flames?
 

devon_metro

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Julian G said:
Yeah,Once again I agree with you ;)
Think about the people
How would you like it if you were in the Voyager with the flames?

Worried. They are cramped, have no openable windows so you cant jump out. have doors that might not open if something went wrong and also have very thick glass!!
 

Julian G

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dvn1357 said:
Worried. They are cramped, have no openable windows so you cant jump out. have doors that might not open if something went wrong and also have very thick glass!!
no wonder the HSTs, 47s,86s were better!
 

Lewisham2221

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dvn1357 said:
Worried. They are cramped, have no openable windows so you cant jump out. have doors that might not open if something went wrong and also have very thick glass!!

And they also have the same safety devices to break windows and unlock doors that other trains have...:rolleyes:
 

andel

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well, having been on an evacuation procedure for Virgin, I can say they're good for an emergancy.

Quit bashing them... the fire happened... QED.
 

66526

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Let's also remember that the diesel on DMUs are kept undrfloor. OIn HSTs it was only in 2 places and they were kept seperate from teh passengers. Just a thought...
 

TicketMan

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The train was at Platform 3, and it and the station was evacuated with no reported injuries. The train was later moved at the Fire Service's request.
 

RJ

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James 66526 said:
Let's also remember that the diesel on DMUs are kept undrfloor. OIn HSTs it was only in 2 places and they were kept seperate from teh passengers. Just a thought...

I think that if a fire on the train got down to the diesel tanks, the diesel would have the same effect as water - doesn't there have to be a special method of ignition?
 

TheSlash

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You have to atomise diesel for it to burn and even then you need to get it nice and hot.
Diesel engines don't have spark ignition like petrol engines, instead they work by first pre heating the engine by passing a high electrical current through wire coils in the cylinder {to generate heat, like electric heaters}, then adding diesel in a vapour form, then they compress it to a much higher ratio than petrol engines, forcing it to self combust.
 

O L Leigh

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James 66526 said:
Let's also remember that the diesel on DMUs are kept undrfloor. OIn HSTs it was only in 2 places and they were kept seperate from teh passengers. Just a thought...

The lessons of the highly combustible 1st generation DMU's have been learnt long ago, and every MU with an underfloor engine built since the 1980's is far more fire resistant than it's predecessors. Unlike the 1st gen, subsequent classes have a continuous steel floor without any inspection or maintenance hatches. This means that it is impossible for an engine fire (for example) to break into the passenger space.

It also prevents any flailing driveshafts puncturing the floor (not that they have failed at the same rate as they did on the 1st gen DMU's).

**EDIT**

You can light diesel with a match, but it takes a bit of doing. It certainly isn't as combustible as petrol when subjected to a naked flame, but once alight it's just as hard to put out. Don't forget that the Southall (?) accident resulted in a diesel fire from fuel spilt from the leading power car.

one TN
 

Guinness

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I think the fire could of started due to the engine overheating and thus getting to a point of setting alight. The cooling systems aren't up sadly.

Bombardier and Cummins have apparently come up with a fix and the problem sourced to a filter of some kind. My theory is that Voyager hasn't had the 'fix' yet.
 
H

HR2

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AlexS said:
The fact it was in the station says it's fairly minor.

Not necessarily Alex. I once had a train catch fire as a guard at Monument station in London. As soon as the punters heard the word 'fire' they were off that packed train and out in the street quicker than a rat up a pipe.
 

voyagerdude220

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Chaz said:
I think the fire could of started due to the engine overheating and thus getting to a point of setting alight. The cooling systems aren't up sadly.

Bombardier and Cummins have apparently come up with a fix and the problem sourced to a filter of some kind. My theory is that Voyager hasn't had the 'fix' yet.

Exactly what my first thoughts were about the cause of the fire.

As I've posted on a Yahoo Group (Virgin Trains I think) , does anyone actually know how many 220/221s have had the fix?

If 221 135's meant to be fixed, I'm a bit worried, although I will never stop likeing 220/221s, nor stop travelling by train.

Has anyone not heard of a coach fire? I don't want to sound nasty for treating car accidents etc as nothing, but when was the last time the media (The Times etc) did a big newstory about a major car accident etc?

I do however think that idiots who wanted the fire to burn, should picture being on ANY burning vehicle, train etc They wouldn't be very happy then would they? (Although I know this has previously been said)
 

Craig

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TicketMan said:
The train was at Platform 3, and it and the station was evacuated with no reported injuries. The train was later moved at the Fire Service's request.
It was just platforms 3 and 4 that were evacuated, and by all accounts it was a pretty minor fire (nothing much visible).

That was the second time in one day that those platforms were evacuated. The alarm was set off earlier in the day by engineers cutting up a rack with an angle grinder inside the exchange :roll:
 
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