Great Western Coffee Shop

Due to the derailment of a freight train between Southampton Central and Winchester all lines are blocked. Train services running through these stations will be cancelled, delayed or diverted via Havant. All stations between Winchester and Southampton Central will not be served. Disruption is expected until the end of the day 02/02/2020.   

Line not expected to be open before the end of Sunday. From their website

Eastleigh derailment update

The railway through Eastleigh remains closed and we apologise to passengers for the ongoing disruption.

We now expect the majority of services to run from the morning of Monday 3 February, but continue to do everything possible to open the railway sooner.

We are dealing with a complex situation involving the derailment of six wagons that has taken much longer than was initially expected.

Following the derailment there is extensive damage to the track and our engineers are working around the clock to get the railway back open as quickly and as safely as possible.

To do this we are installing temporary track and will make alterations to the signalling and power supply as the full repair will take more time. Passengers should continue to check before travelling.

Whilst a very laudable piece it is a pity that he did not explain that SWR had nothing to do with the problem and were, in fact, sufferers themselves. I say this as I was at Waterloo today and listened to a lot of ill informed criticism of SWR management from many.

If I go in a pub and there is no beer on, I blame the manager, staff on at the time, the fact it was due to the delivery lorry crashing a few days ago, is the reason, but its how the manager/staff deal with me, did they go and source some more beer from another place, do they put it on the signs outside/social medie etc. Do they offer a discounted alternative to keep me happy..

Is Soton to Havant via Fareham electrified?

To be fair, the “beer from another place” is diversion via Havant and the Portsmouth Direct. Other things being equal, one might expect the Laverstock Curve to be shorter, but that wouldn’t work with electric stock. My knowledge of the area is sketchy. Is Soton to Havant via Fareham electrified?

The Laverstock route will take an hourly XC Bournemouth and significant numbers of freights though, which both need to reach Basingstoke, so effectively shares the load somewhat.  Even if via Romsey and Andover was electrified I expect SWR would still end up with trains going via Havant.

Yes, I had forgotten about XC, and at least they can go via Laverstock.

I remember them putting in that line. It’s always seemed odd that the “curve” is the straightest side of the triangle.

Interesting that buses are still replacing trains between Salisbury and Southampton despite XC trains being diverted on this route.

My guess because it was too late to cancel replacement buses and change staff rosters to run trains between Salisbury and Southampton.

Another example of diversions round the Eastleigh blockage, that is quite interesting.

Car carriers to Southampton eastern docks via Reading, Wokingham, Guildford, Havant and Fareham:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/85467/2020-02-01/detailed

As shown these are running onto the “Southern” via the Reading low level underpass. Is that used much by freight normally?

I believe these are possibly the only regular freight services that can run that way round, as much of the route via Havant is only W6 gauge, so any container traffic would be completely ruled out.

Paul

This link shows that the down fast has been reinstated as plain line. So no trains can access it from the down platform lines

https://twitter.com/paulcliftonbbc/status/1223650039333081089?s=21

Real time trains is now showing Monday’s timetable, Romsey to Salisbury via Southampton and Waterloo to Poole trains will not call, their up direction equivalents will of course operate normally.

Paul

Doubleback easement in place?

Latest Update (Last updated at 21:00) Next update at 07:00
Temporary repairs to the railway through Eastleigh continue, to enable a partial resumption of services through the station from Monday morning, but as a result, not all services will be able to call at the station. The following pattern of services applies from Monday morning until further notice:
1. Any train that heads towards Southampton from the Basingstoke direction will not be able to call at Eastleigh. Trains will be able to call at Eastleigh in the London bound direction from Southampton ONLY. Customers travelling to Eastleigh from the London / Basingstoke / Winchester direction will need to travel on a Portsmouth Harbour / Portsmouth and Southsea via Basingstoke service or alternatively to Southampton Airport Parkway and return back on a northbound service. This may entail an approx. 30 minute maximum wait at Southampton Airport Parkway but should be an average of 5-10 minutes.
a. Trains from Romsey to Salisbury via Chandlers Ford will be unable to call at Eastleigh
b. Services from Waterloo to Poole will be unable to call at Eastleigh
2. There will be some additional peak time services that will also be unable to call at Eastleigh or may have to be cancelled throughout.

But trains turning left via Hedge End will still call, of course. Which is covered by the SWR Journeycheck page (though the update has left this page a bit of a mess). I think they could make this a bit clearer, though, and perhaps will before Monday.

Presumably the Portsmouths turn off the main line north of Eastleigh station and use the eastern side of the island platform?

Network Rail Wessex accepts full responsibility for failure of a bolt on a set of points, causing gauge spread and a freight train falling off the track. Closed the
main line for 6 days last week.

The main railway line reopened through Eastleigh on Monday following the derailment of a freight train at the station and six days of emergency repair works.

Initial findings by Network Rail have found the cause of the incident to be an infrastructure fault, when a small number of fastenings gave way. This led to track spread - meaning that the two rails were no longer the correct distance apart.

This particular type of fastening is only used in a limited number of locations. Since the incident, Network Rail has conducted enhanced precautionary inspections of all similar fastenings across the Wessex route, with no additional areas of concern identified through this work.

During the incident teams worked around the clock to reopen the railway. Hydraulic jacks and cranes were used to lift the wagons back on to the track before they were removed from site.

The derailed train caused extensive damage to several sets of points, which allow trains to cross from one track to another. These had to be removed completely and a new set will be built off site to a bespoke design, this is expected to be delivered over coming weeks.

In the meantime, over 160 metres of temporary track has been laid to allow the reopening of the railway, however, without the critical points in place, not all trains can call at Eastleigh station. Passengers using Eastleigh station are advised to check www.southwesternrailway.com  before travelling.

Further down the linked article the following appears (my bolding):

“We now understand the cause of the derailment. A small number of
fastenings holding the track to the rail gave way causing
track spread and the two rails were pushed apart.”

I thought track and rail were synonymous?  ???  Can anyone expand on what he might mean?

Paul

This is a photo taken from one of NR Wessex’s Twitter feed. It shows some of the fixings at the site
(https://twitter.com/networkrailwssx/status/1224221638654406657?s=21)

Freight train derailment at Eastleigh, Hampshire, 28 January 2020

Published 10 February 2020
From: Rail Accident Investigation Branch

At around 11:31 hrs on 28 January 2020, a freight train derailed on a set of points just south of Eastleigh station. The train was travelling at about 12 mph (19 km/h) at the time, and was running from the down slow line, through a crossover which led to the down fast line. The locomotive became partly derailed and then re-railed itself, and some of the wheels on four of the following five wagons also became derailed, causing significant damage to the track in the process. The driver stopped the train before the remaining 25 wagons reached the damaged track. Nobody was injured, but the track and signalling equipment was severely damaged and there was extensive disruption to services on the south western main line for the following six days.

The RAIB’s preliminary examination found that a series of rail fastenings, intended to maintain the correct distance between the rails, had broken. Initial evidence suggests that some of these were already broken before the derailment. Consequently, as the freight train passed over the points, the rails moved apart and the train wheels dropped into the space between the rails.

Our investigation will identify the sequence of events which led to the incident. It will also consider:

the design and installation of the rail fastenings

the industry’s response to previous problems identified with the fastenings during their service life

any underlying factors

Some photographs of the track replacement work, on the Cornwall Railway Society website, down the page here: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc

25 The train had reached 12 mph (19 km/h) as it arrived at the crossover. The front bogie of the locomotive passed over the switch rails5 (figure 5) of 450A points without incident. As the locomotive passed over the closure rails,6 the lateral forces it exerted (see paragraph 78) caused the rails to spread apart, and the failure of additional fastenings (figure 5). This caused all of the locomotive’s wheels to drop into the now-widened gap between the rails and to derail. One of the fastenings flew out as it failed and almost struck one of the infrastructure maintenance staff.

Disruption between Fareham and Eastleigh

What's going on
Due to a low speed derailment in a depot between Fareham and Eastleigh the line towards Eastleigh is blocked. Train services running through these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.


What We're Doing About It
We have been informed of a low speed derailment of a freight train within a depot between Fareham and Eastleigh. This means that the line towards Eastleigh is blocked and trains are unable to call at Botley and Hedge End when travelling towards London. From approximately 09:30 trains will also not call at Botley and Hedge End when travelling towards Portsmouth.

Until further notice the following alterations will be necessary:
Trains from Fareham to Eastleigh will be diverted via Southampton Central and may not call at some other stations
From approximately 09:30 trains from Eastleigh to Fareham will be diverted via Southampton Central

To assist you with your journey your ticket will be accepted, at no extra cost to yourself, on the following services:
Xelabus routes X4 and X9 in the affected area

We have arranged replacement buses to run on the following routes:
Fareham - Eastleigh in both directions (ETA 08:30)

For further information or onward travel advice please speak to a member of staff or use a station help point.

We are very sorry for any delay that this may cause to your journey.

Is this another freight derailment at/near Eastleigh today?

Possibly closed because of damage to the signalling for that direction, later closed for recovery of loco.