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Author Topic: Train travels 57 miles without driver  (Read 4709 times)
TaplowGreen
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« Reply #15 on: November 06, 2018, 11:56:03 »

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

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-go-ahead-with-ballot-of-paddington-depot-members/
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JayMac
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« Reply #16 on: November 06, 2018, 14:39:08 »

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!"

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Red Squirrel
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« Reply #17 on: November 06, 2018, 14:43:03 »

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

Edit: Memory failed me temporarily...
« Last Edit: November 06, 2018, 16:19:23 by Red Squirrel » Logged

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TaplowGreen
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« Reply #18 on: November 06, 2018, 15:01:31 »

During my (far off) days in Local Government we had a Union called NALGO - aka Not A Lot Going On.
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didcotdean
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« Reply #19 on: November 06, 2018, 15:36:15 »

National Union of Domestic Employees or NUDE. Used as a joke in a sitcom here it actually exists in Trinidad.
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Richard Fairhurst
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« Reply #20 on: November 06, 2018, 16:52:52 »

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

I wonder if any of their members worked for that late unlamented franchise WAGN, aka We Are Going Nowhere.
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stuving
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« Reply #21 on: November 06, 2018, 17:27:53 »

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. l.

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.
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grahame
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« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2019, 00:34:26 »

Just as well it wasn't 57 miles without a guard, otherwise the RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) would be calling the Brothers out.

yes yes I know it was an Australian freight train

From The Guardian

Quote
The driver of a 2km-long train filled with iron ore that derailed in Western Australia in November has filed an unfair dismissal claim against BHP.

Lawyers for the man said his claim was lodged with the Fair Work Commission this week, three weeks after he was sacked.

“We say the decision is unfair for a raft of reasons, not least of which is blaming the worker for the accident when there were significant issues with the systems over which he had no control,” Timothy Kucera said.

“It’s a classic case of blaming the worker, not the system.”

Story continues
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stuving
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« Reply #23 on: March 13, 2019, 17:59:04 »

Following up a piece in today's Times, I find that the ATSB published their preliminary report 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 (Automatic Train Protection) 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.
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SandTEngineer
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« Reply #24 on: March 13, 2019, 18:44:53 »

Thanks for posting that STUVING.  Absolutely incredible incident.
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