Jump to content
 

Gary H

RMweb Premium
  • Posts

    1,570
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Gary H

  1. I have to be honest, there's not very much that'll drag me away from watching American freights on YT these days but that was a very good video, Andy! Enjoyed it!
  2. That sorts the men from the boys! I can remember reading an accident report a while back that I think took place on Cajon Pass. A similar train to the above went over the top with less than required operable DB's. Air was alone was not enough to hold the train back, the friction brakes burnt away and the train became out of control and derailed. Sobering stuff.
  3. Even more worrying was the confusion about 'in rear' and 'ahead of'. They changed it to 'in advance' and 'on the approach to' so as to accommodate the numpties As a PICOP I never had any problem with the old terms personally LOL. Im way off topic now though!
  4. You would be very surprised at the number of folk employed in the industry who only know them as catch points where actually they are referring to trap points!!
  5. OK, Il start by saying that I work for the biggest infrastructure maintainer / owner here but that said I don't know a quarter of the answers for the above but Il hazard a guess or two. Here, we have a very effective train stop system known as TPWS which will intervene and stop the train if it blows a red signal or maybe in an overspeed situation on the approach to a red signal or other restrictive aspect. There is no dark territory to speak of or when there is, there is only one train allowed onto that line and its effectively 'locked in' by itself until it leaves. (Im thinking branch line working here) Secondly, we don't have anywhere near the gradients that America has. A train here will runaway if its continuous brake is relied upon to hold it on a grade without a running engine, the same as it will in NA but the risk of that happening is mitigated. (trains are not left unattended on running lines or 'the main' in US parlance. (For the benefit of our over seas posters-) Its ironic that the Ladbroke Grove disaster was caused by a signal being passed at danger and that the sand drag (similar to a catch) that would have prevented the accident was removed about 10 years before! Trouble was, we didn't have TPWS at that time either.
  6. That's very true, Mike and its becoming more commonplace to 'break Hidden' in this day and age! No names, no pact drill. I don't doubt for a minute the logistics of crewing and accommodating these mile plus long trains in NA must make it difficult at times but I still say that leaving one unattended, on a grade, is railway / railroad suicide! As you rightly said earlier here, even within an engineering possession its fairly rare. Do you think an engineering train or any other train for that matter would be left unattended on the Lickey for instance? I would put a months wages on NO!
  7. This video really brings it home. The 'FRED' still flashing on the rear of the train and the noise alone are haunting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPVRRgAtL4A
  8. Those early tampers just go to show how far we've come! Would like to see one sat beside an 09.
  9. There are some threads on RM Web which always make me yearn for a time machine, this is certainly one of them! A great set of pics Apollo, ive been in awe of them for the last 30 minutes!
  10. Wow, would you look at that! Nice one, Michael. Any chance of a shot from this same view point or even the same sort of direction to give it some perspective / before and after? Im guessing the cooling towers are also long gone.
  11. Well Il be dammed, I would never have thought it! I feel slightly at ease by the practise now then! We're not the only ones after all. Perhaps NR got the idea from over sea's.
  12. I was wondering the same. I know there used to be a big-ish T&RS depot there once back in the day known as Wigan Springs Branch. The last time I saw it, it still had some Class 40's on its books. I think I may be right in saying that its all gone now though?? Mick is right about the white paint. Its used where the track is not stressed and could have issues like tight joints which is more thank likely the case with the plain line in the pic. Its also used at S&C where detection problems can arise in the switches when things start to move in the heat. We have a little machine down this end of the country that you fill with paint and push along, spraying the rails. I hate the whole idea as personally I think its abit of a bodge. As far as I know, no other country does it! Apparently it lowers the rail temp by about 5 to 7 degrees C.
  13. Crikey, not just any UP diesel, the mother of all diesel's no less, a DD40X!
  14. Yes, valid point. It was perhaps contributory but by no means the cause!
  15. Allegedly, the locomotive that caught fire was a C30-7. There's a surprise- not. The only locomotive that could keep the brake pipe charged for the whole train and it was shut down because of fire. As someone pointed out from Highpeak's link above- """ When will the industry take decisive action to address the tendency for General Electric locomotives to catch fire? That was the primary cause of this accident when the fire department shut down the lead C30-7 that was supplying air to the train."""
  16. Yeah I agree, Nidge. I suppose I liked that ole school BR kinda thing from days past where we were all the same 'firm'. Old habits etc As you say, that's business.
  17. Its used by Colas now Martyn, they maintain their tampers in there. Its normally fairly busy, you often see tampers inside having inspection's and maintenance going on. That's only the second time ive seen a loco in there over the last 10 years though, the first being a Colas 47 just after the launch of their house colours. I would hazard a guess that the building is hired from DBS, as you say, they own the rest of the land.
  18. A rare visit by 162 to the "Elephant house" in Tavi Junction yard having some investigative work undertaken. One TOC charged the 'loco's owner' about 2 grand for the use of their pit for the day. So nice to see cross company cooperation in this day and age of the modern railway don't you think?!
  19. I agree with that to a certain exstent but then you run the risk of trapping vehicles and /or people inside the crossing. Full barriers are only safe AFAIC where localy controlled and monitored.
  20. Why?? The lights are flashing red= stop! Its not rocket science! What is there to learn? My boy has yet to pass his driving test but im fairly sure if i asked him what he should do at a red light his answer would not be to ignore it and drive through it, take a chance etc. The red stop lights should be treated the same way as any other red light. Wether theres a railway beyond or a busy road intersection, a peddestrian crossing, i cant see the differance. I drive an HGV LGV (call it what you want) for NR all day and I see people on a daily basis that are so full of their self importance, in a rush, selfish and dam right ignorant of alot of highway laws it is simply staggering! How dare you impede their important journey for any more than 10 seconds or well betide you!! It not a question of edjucating people on the use of crossings, they know dam well that red means stop! The problem is the fact that our society is becoming even more selfish and darn right ignorant and even less people have any time for anything or anyone else and that includes waiting for a train and having their journey impeded by 30 seconds.
  21. A couple of my favorites of late........ http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=336970&nseq=144&favsearch=1 How many railroaders does it take to change a light bulb? How dam big are those SD70ace's!! http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=328397&nseq=172&favsearch=1
  22. The two pictures i saw at work today certainly showed 2 of those lines still usable, not anymore though The ground positon light that's still working made me chuckle! Thats a monumental task to repair that for certain, the mother of all land slips!
  23. What date was it the 37's ran?? Its really ironic that some of the brand new bullhead rails we installed off the end of the wash plant road towards Friary yard still have their bar code stickers on the heads of the rails!! The only thing to run over them in the 5 years since they were fitted were the roadrailers that lowered them into the chairs!!
×
×
  • Create New...