It's hard to be a train driver

[whole diary]

[welshman]

Here's an interesting little RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) report.  No casualties but it tells you it's fun to drive a train on the Cambrian Line.  The timetable requires eight miles in eight minutes from a standing start in a 158 if you please.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for that post, welshman!

Even as a mere passenger, I'm rather interested in what happens up in the cab, and how it could affect my journey - so I read that report.

It does seem rather unsatisfactory that the notification to the driver of an Emergency Speed Restriction effectively relied on him jotting it down on a piece of paper, and remembering it when he approached that particular length of track?

As you say: thankfully, there were no casualties - but the result of that incident could have been so different.

(Like the report, I don't attach any particular blame to the driver, by the way: I just think the 'system' let him down).

[Tim]

Just thinking aloud but...

If the track defect had been spotted earlier and the rail replaced or a proper Speed restriction installed before it got so bad that the ESR^▸ (Emergency Speed Restriction ) needed to be imposed in a hurry, then the incident would not have happened.

Is this a contributory factor missed by the RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch)?  or is it of the nature of track defects that they can appear sudenly such that they can't always be spotted earlier however good the maintainance and inspection regime is?

[smokey]

Just thinking aloud but...

If the track defect had been spotted earlier and the rail replaced or a proper Speed restriction installed before it got so bad that the ESR^▸ (Emergency Speed Restriction ) needed to be imposed in a hurry, then the incident would not have happened.

Is this a contributory factor missed by the RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch)?  or is it of the nature of track defects that they can appear sudenly such that they can't always be spotted earlier however good the maintainance and inspection regime is?

Ultrasonic Testing of Rails can show up Rail defects NOT visable to the Naked Eye, Cracks can form in Rails from beneath and can form up towards to the Rail Head, and such weakened rails can or will suddenly break off.
I've seem a section of Flat bottom Rail that had been removed from the running line because it failed Ultrasonic testing and whilst it had NO visable defects after removal, the Rail had been neatly cut by a Rail Saw to open up a Hole that was about four inches long and almost the whole profile of the rail.

Not likely to happen now because rail is tested before being installled.