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Derailment, Witham / East Somerset Junction
Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:41 am
by nickt
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.
Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 1:19 pm
by James
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:13 pm
by horace
The trap points done what they were supposed to.
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 12:17 am
by jules
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 ....
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:20 am
by stopblock
Opppssssss its times like that I wish I had the quack quack opsss sound DLT used to have on his show on radio 1.
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:09 pm
by James
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!
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:38 pm
by stumpytrain
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
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:34 am
by James
Good old "apparently" again...
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:10 am
by jules
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 ...
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:32 am
by stumpytrain
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
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:15 pm
by stopblock
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story !
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:31 am
by jules
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?