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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/05/runaway-bhp-train-derailed-no-driver-port-hedland-western-australia (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/05/runaway-bhp-train-derailed-no-driver-port-hedland-western-australia)

Wow. How on earth was that possible?  :o

It could have coasted that far on a mainly downhill gradient if the driver had omitted to apply the brake before leaving the cab.
Alternatively it might have been under power. In the UK  such an accident would be prevented by the "dead mans handle" but perhaps this train was not so equipped.
Likewise in the UK, AWS would have stopped the train if it passed a signal at danger, including a signal put back to danger for the purpose of stopping the runaway. However the train might not have been fitted with AWS or equivalent, or there might have been no  signals at danger.
Even experienced railway staff can make mistakes, and are also often surprised by how readily a train can run away on a very slight gradient.

Have you never seen Unstoppable?

The press release from the Australian Transport Safety Board said:


92km in 25 minutes??? That's an average speed of 220 km/h. Or 137mph in old money. Really?

Four locomotives and 268 wagons loaded with iron ore. I don't think it's physically possible for such an unpowered mass to reach that velocity. I think someone's timings are way off.

The Guardian's report (original post) suggests 50 minutes not 25:


I did wonder if the runaway was across two time zones ... but taking at a map, I doubt that.   Nearly 70 m.p.h. average still looks / feels unlikely fast, mind you.   Ah - never believe all you read!

The Guardian's story originally included that quote from the ATSB, which came across the wires from Reuters. I guess someone else also thought the maths were a bit iffy and went back to the ATSB for clarification. The original quote is slowly disappearing from t'web. Its no longer on the ATSB website either.

The new timings are better but, as you say, it's still hard to believe such an average speed being attained. Being average, the train would have to have attained a significantly higher top speed than 70mph. Four locos and 268 loaded wagons don't, from a standing start, go like the proverbial excrement off a manual hole creating implement. Even if the falling gradient was at the top end of what such trains can manage.

The Guardian? Getting something wrong? Surely not? Why oh why oh why etc etc etc.......😉

You've made a smelling pistake there. It's The Grauniad. :P

Yawn.


So true. And have you seen the state of British Rail sandwiches? All curly at the edges, they are.

The reports now agree on those figures, more or less. Of course that just means they all used the same source, not that they necessarily checked further. But this is a local report, from The West Australian (https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/bhp-train-derailment-first-picture-of-wreckage-after-miner-forced-to-derail-runaway-iron-ore-train-south-of-port-hedland-ng-b881013125z):

Clearly it was going a lot faster than you'd like to see something that big do - and given that there's little gradient approaching Turner Siding it can't have been just gravity what done it. That report has a picture of the mangled train, which supports the description; I couldn't get it the video to download at all.

Try the video here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-06/investigators-visit-runaway-bhp-iron-ore-train-derailment-site/10469802

Blimey, what a mess.

Somewhat off topic, but there's an interesting video about RTZ running a driverless train, halfway down that West Australian report.

Just as well it wasn't 57 miles without a guard, otherwise the RMT would be calling the Brothers out.

yes yes I know it was an Australian freight train

That wouldn't necessarily stop them! Solidarity, sibling!

Yes, solidarity Reg.

(https://preview.ibb.co/jQ5AaA/rps20181106-114341.jpg)

......I knew I'd seen that somewhere before!

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-go-ahead-with-ballot-of-paddington-depot-members/

Brian: "Are you the National Union of Railwaymen?"

Sibling Reg: "%@#! off! (incredulous) National Union of Railwaymen?! We're the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union."

Brian: "Can I join you?"

Sibling Reg: "Nah, p155 off!"

Ah, those were the good old days - when unions had names like SODIT and NOTSOBA.

Edit: Memory failed me temporarily...

During my (far off) days in Local Government we had a Union called NALGO - aka Not A Lot Going On.

National Union of Domestic Employees or NUDE. Used as a joke in a sitcom here it actually exists in Trinidad.

I wonder if any of their members worked for that late unlamented franchise WAGN, aka We Are Going Nowhere.

I'll take that back - I think gravity might well have done it all alone.

It's not a familiar train or railway to us: very heavy (about 40,000 tons), almost straight after the first bit out of the hills, and a steady fall at about 1 in 300. It may be steeper at the start - though you do wonder why a stopping place wasn't level. At nearly 3 km long, it's a long run from near the back if you need to get to the front in a hurry - so it need not have accelerated from a stand very fast.

If it did average 110 km/hr, it must have gone a a lot faster in places, even if it did reach a balancing speed. So the first statement stands.

From The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/12/driver-of-runaway-train-files-unfair-dismissal-claim-against-bhp)

Following up a piece in today's Times, I find that the ATSB published their preliminary report (https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2018/rair/ro-2018-018/) yesterday. The new piece of explanation that's been grabbing the reporters' interest is that the repair crew, who were meant to be working forwards along the train applying handbrakes while the driver was working his way backwards - were working on the wrong train!

There's a lot in the report about the details of the braking systems on the train, which were somewhat more complicated than on your average British train. Exactly why what happened, I can't exactly fathom yet. The train-line cable parted between two cars not far from the front of the train, which caused an emergency brake application. There's a hint that this emergency brake application (120%) may have timed out, leaving the train brake set at 39%, or maybe the air bled off - that's said too. How much of the braking system operates without a continuous train-line is not clear either. There was ATP that it was hoped would stop the train at the first red signal, and in any case the ATP should detect that the train is moving when the controls aren't telling it to and brake it. So, loads of factors (as usual) to try and understand.

Thanks for posting that STUVING.  Absolutely incredible incident.