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Author Topic: 30th Anniversary of Clapham Rail Crash  (Read 4017 times)
SandTEngineer
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« on: December 12, 2018, 09:44:45 »

A very sad day to remember.  One day I will post on here about my very close involvement in it, but not today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46509473

From the BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):
Quote
Clapham Junction rail crash 1988: Events remember the dead

Wreaths will be laid and a minute's silence held to remember the 35 people killed in a train crash in south London 30 years ago.

At 08:13 on 12 December 1988 faulty wiring and signalling caused three trains to collide in Clapham.

Survivors and families will pay their respects to the dead and almost 500 injured people at a church service.

Bosses from the emergency services and rail industry representatives will also attend memorial events.

A 250-page report on the findings of the accident inquiry, chaired by Anthony Hidden QC, found faulty wiring had caused an incorrect signal to be displayed to a train driver, who was driving into a blind bend and had no chance of stopping.

His train, which had come from Poole, ploughed head-on into the back of a stationary train, from Basingstoke.

The Poole train then veered and hit an empty oncoming train.

It took hours for firefighters and medics to free trapped people and recover bodies.

About 70 people suffered horrific injuries as the front section of the moving train was ripped open and completely destroyed.

It took hours for the hundreds of emergency service workers to cut people out of the wreckage.

John Bowis, who was the MP (Member of Parliament) for Battersea at the time, said he drove to the "awful scene of carnage" as soon as he heard the news.

"It was something you never forget," he said.

Mr Bowis said the boys from nearby Emanuel School were "impressive" in the way they came to help the injured, but added: "I'm very conscious that some very young eyes and minds were confronted with awful things."

London Fire Brigade's commissioner, Dany Cotton, had only recently finished training as a firefighter when she was called to attend the crash.

"There were Christmas cards strewn everywhere as people must have been writing their cards on the train," she said.

"I still remember it like it was yesterday."

At 11:00 on Wednesday, Ms Cotton will join survivors and families as well as the London mayor Sadiq Khan, the Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, and rail industry representatives to lay wreaths and hold a minute's silence at a memorial to victims in Spencer Park, Battersea, before a service at St Mark's church.

The train drivers' union Aslef will hold a separate wreath-laying event and two-minute silence at the Spencer Park memorial at 08:13, to mark the exact moment the crash happened.

Although many of the Hidden report's 93 recommendations were acted on, a rail accident report last month found lessons learned in the disaster were being "forgotten".
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Witham Bobby
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« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2018, 09:54:50 »

A truly shocking incident.  Peace be with all those affected.
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Phantom
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« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2018, 09:56:27 »

Blimey, can't believe it is 30 years since the tragic day

RIP
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bobm
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« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2018, 12:07:30 »

As an active journalist at the time, I still vividly remember seeing the wreckage from a nearby vantage point.  The sheer scale of the destruction has never left me.   

Our team won an award for our work that day but it didn’t feel comfortable celebrating the win.
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SandTEngineer
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« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2018, 14:24:58 »

...yes, and note the last sentence of that BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News report...
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CyclingSid
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« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2018, 19:11:44 »

Difficult to forget. I believe I still have a copy of the report somewhere. Without digging it out, I seem to remember that one of the findings was that the number of casualties was increased by the level of overcrowding. If so we haven't, progressed far in the succeeding years. Like Piper Alpha and the Kings Cross Tube Disaster a lot of study and work goes into the reports afterwards but too often they gather dust on shelves somewhere in the "Ministry". At the time I taught emergency planning for potential members of the uniformed services.
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JayMac
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« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2018, 20:09:18 »

The report into the disaster is freely available online.

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=36
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Reginald25
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« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2019, 07:55:14 »

We moan about the delays at Westbury to correct a signalling fault. Let's put in perspective. I'd prefer that delay to get things right, than another Clapham.
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Clan Line
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« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2019, 22:23:25 »

We moan about the delays at Westbury to correct a signalling fault. Let's put in perspective. I'd prefer that delay to get things right, than another Clapham.

Indeed..........but what about the comment in the thread below ? (my underlining)



Edit to rescale image - Grahame






« Last Edit: January 05, 2019, 22:41:50 by grahame » Logged
Dispatch Box
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« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2019, 22:56:04 »

We moan about the delays at Westbury to correct a signalling fault. Let's put in perspective. I'd prefer that delay to get things right, than another Clapham.

Indeed..........but what about the comment in the thread below ? (my underlining)



Edit to rescale image - Grahame


Shouldn't they have a plastic type of bullet crimp put on the end of them and then labelled as to where they came from.








« Last Edit: January 06, 2019, 14:34:31 by Dispatch Box » Logged
Hellzapoppin
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« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2019, 10:44:28 »

Unterminated wires can be taped up but only for the short term, can't remember the exact timescales but think it's 24hrs. After that time the wires must be bomb tailed or removed. The idea being that if you didn't have any crimps but did have a toll of tape then you could make the wires safe. I can't quite see in the pic if the wires are disconnected or not but green tape means redundant anyway so I'm wondering if they're just marked up for removal once the mods are completed.
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SandTEngineer
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« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2019, 11:33:57 »

Unterminated wires can be taped up but only for the short term, can't remember the exact timescales but think it's 24hrs. After that time the wires must be bomb tailed or removed. The idea being that if you didn't have any crimps but did have a toll of tape then you could make the wires safe. I can't quite see in the pic if the wires are disconnected or not but green tape means redundant anyway so I'm wondering if they're just marked up for removal once the mods are completed.
Point one:  Never do a commissioning without the proper tools/equipment.
Point two:  The tape may well be marking up ready to remove redundant wires, but it doesn't look like it to me.
Point three:  I think I've seen that photograph before, and if I have then its not even of Westbury....
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