Derailment, Witham / East Somerset Junction

nickt · Post by **nickt** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:41 am

A freight train ( stone ) double headed by two class 59s was leaving East Somerset branch near Witham Friary ( near Frome ) when it derailed on trap points following a signal failure.
From the photos i've seen it appears only the two 59s were off and plowing a large furrow. This happened either Sunday night or Monday morning and caused delays most of Monday between Castle Cary and Westbury. I gather damage was not terminal and locos are undergoing repairs at merehead.

Post by **James** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 1:19 pm

Photos here:

http://midis.fotopic.net/c1610828.html

horace · Post by **horace** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:13 pm

The trap points done what they were supposed to.

jules · Post by **jules** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 12:17 am

Apparently there was a possession in place and the hand signaller gave a proceed signal without the points being clipped.

Nothing the driver could do with the weight of the train, despite noticing the points were unclipped - and lucky he wasn't doing more than 10mph.

I guess the hand signaller is now looking for a new job ....

stopblock · Post by **stopblock** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:20 am

Opppssssss its times like that I wish I had the quack quack opsss sound DLT used to have on his show on radio 1.

Post by **James** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:09 pm

There's a vacancy for a hand-signaller on the Jobcentre website...sadly the humour value is reduced as it is in the Exeter area!

stumpytrain · Post by **stumpytrain** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:38 pm

jules wrote:Apparently there was a possession in place and the hand signaller gave a proceed signal without the points being clipped.

All I can say is this is not what happend.

Alex

Post by **James** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:34 am

Good old "apparently" again...

jules · Post by **jules** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:10 am

All I can is this is not what happend

Well, just repeating what I heard from a pretty good source .... interesting.

Seems we shall have to wait for the Accident Report to get to the bottom of it then ...

stumpytrain · Post by **stumpytrain** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:32 am

jules wrote:
All I can say is this is not what happend
Well, just repeating what I heard from a pretty good source .... interesting.

Seems we shall have to wait for the Accident Report to get to the bottom of it then ...

Yeah, I understand you were just repeating what you were told. It's a good story, slightly random having a stone train in a possession though!

Alex

stopblock · Post by **stopblock** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:15 pm

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story !

jules · Post by **jules** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:31 am

slightly random having a stone train in a possession though!

I did think about that aspect of it ... obviously not for long enough

But The Railway Herald today did mention a "total signalling failure" on the branch, so I guess the bit about the hand signaller and the point clipping may have an element of truth?