Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere - ongoing, since Oct 2014

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

I was thinking that when it was first reported.

[Red Squirrel]

Simon Calder has just been interviewed at Paddington...

Nice of him to take time off from America's Got The Pop Factor...

Would that be Simon Cowell? and Pop Idol / American Idol / [insert another awful karaoke singing TV show here]

Red Squirrel: Sewing confusion since 2013... 

[Electric train]

Message posted on RailUKForums a couple of hours ago by member JN114:

1) The pantograph was raised, in a location not authorised for high speed changeover. It is unclear whether the raising of the pantograph was human error or mechanical failure.

2) When the pantograph did raise, it didn’t do so normally. The head of the pantograph remained stowed and the elbow impacted the contact wire. There is strong suggestion that the Pantograph had been tied down for its transit to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) to Pistoria, and had not been untied for the journey to Stoke Gifford.

I have been briefed (in confidence) on the footage of the roof mounted Pan CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision).

Defiantly not and infrastructure problem

There was a problem with the Pan, exactly what I am not at liberty to say; the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) report should make interesting reading

[broadgage]

Interesting update, thanks for that.
Hopefully you can give more detail at some future date, perhaps when it is published elsewhere.

[IndustryInsider]

I’ve seen the same CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) and concur.  Just two possible reasons remaining...

[JayMac]

I have been briefed (in confidence) on the footage of the roof mounted Pan CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision).

Defiantly not and infrastructure problem

There was a problem with the Pan, exactly what I am not at liberty to say; the Office of Rail and Road (ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about)) report should make interesting reading

Some speculation across rail related forums and social media that the pantograph was tied down at the head end and it was the elbow that raised. Either commanded or uncommanded. Speculated to have been left tied down after transit from the factory in Italy.

However, there is YouTube footage of 802016 running with pan up at Reading on 3rd October. 802016 has been in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) since 28th August. Hard to believe the pantograph would still be in delivery tied down status.

https://youtu.be/UDbRwfp3qio

So, had it been tied down again, and mistakenly put on test in that state and then raised accidentally, either commanded or uncommanded? Or could it be that the pan was fully operational and raised in error, again either commanded or uncommanded?

There's also some contention over the speed the train was running at. Could an 802 have reached 105mph on diesel by the time it was at the incident location?

Can those in the know confirm or deny that the pantograph head was tied down?

I too await with interest official reports. With the huge disruption caused I do hope such reports are going to be made public, and in a timely fashion. Had there been injury or a risk of injury then the RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) would be involved and a report could take up to a year to be published. Hopefully Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and Hitachi/GB^▸ (Great Britain) Railfreight
(GBRf) will be honest and open as soon as reasonably practicable.

Oh, and Network Rail need to get a shift on and replace the headspan OverHead -Line Equipment (OHLE) sections with portals. Headspan has been okay on the Great Western Main Line (GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line)) up until recently as it was only used by Heathrow Express/Connect services. But the use is now far more intensive with Class 80x and 387 now also using this 1990s cheap headspan OverHead -Line Equipment (OHLE).

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronyms

[BBM]

Meanwhile...

From what I can gather from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Twitter feed, for the past 30 minutes the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) on 1C27 1900 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) has been blocking the DM at TWY^▸ (Twyford station) (having made an extra stop there due to other cancellations) because of an apparent loss of power. RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website) both appear to confirm that it's currently going nowhere.

[JayMac]

Meanwhile...

From what I can gather from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Twitter feed, for the past 30 minutes the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) on 1C27 1900 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) has been blocking the DM at TWY^▸ (Twyford station) (having made an extra stop there due to other cancellations) because of an apparent loss of power. RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website) both appear to confirm that it's currently going nowhere.

Brakes stuck on and losing air.

Sounds familiar...

[JayMac]

On the move again at 2012 after a Train Management System reset*.



*Driver must have called the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) Crowd:

[paul7575]

I wonder if the references to the speed of “105 mph” are just based on the typical speed reached at that particular location if accelerating away from the buffers at Paddington?

Paul

[martyjon]

Meanwhile...

From what I can gather from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Twitter feed, for the past 30 minutes the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) on 1C27 1900 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) has been blocking the DM at TWY^▸ (Twyford station) (having made an extra stop there due to other cancellations) because of an apparent loss of power. RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and OTT^▸ (Open Train Times website) both appear to confirm that it's currently going nowhere.

Computer says you should not have stopped 'ere.

[JayMac]

Something very wrong with the software if a Special Stop Order causes the train to dump its air.

[stuving]

Some speculation across rail related forums and social media that the pantograph was tied down at the head end and it was the elbow that raised. Either commanded or uncommanded. Speculated to have been left tied down after transit from the factory in Italy.

However, there is YouTube footage of 802016 running with pan up at Reading on 3rd October. 802016 has been in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) since 28th August. Hard to believe the pantograph would still be in delivery tied down status.

More to the point, that video shows 802016 on its own. Most of the 802s I've seen on test have been paired, and it was just possible a pantograph on an inner end might have been left retained. But the likelihood of it doing only one move A-B on the 3rd and otherwise always being paired when using 25kV is so low it can be deleted from the list.

There's an "after" picture of the pantograph on RailUKForums, showing the head end badly mangled, but I can't see the arm in that. That would have been the front end at the time of the incident, so unless it left Paddington on diesel (why?) it would have been raised already (at least normally, I'm sure the rear one can be raised if you want to). None of which really fits the explanations currently offered.

[Incider]

[quote author=bignosemac link=topic=14689.msg249138#msg249138 date=1539888667

There's also some contention over the speed the train was running at. Could an 802 have reached 105mph on diesel by the time it was at the incident location? [/quote]

Whether it could or not, it hadn’t reached 105mph.

Edit - there appears to have been some quoting slip of the fingers - hope I have corrected who said what now - Grahame

[IndustryInsider]

But it was going at way more than 20mph which would be the maximum speed to pan up at that location.