Freight train on fire in Wales

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:

I’m afraid we no longer have journalism as such. It is now downgraded to what I believe is called “soundbites” .And the BBC is first among equals in this respect. Their NewsApp is an example of this basic tabloid twaddle.

 

But so good that no one was hurt.Nonetheless a nasty mess to clean up.Block oil trains headed by class 60’s are an everyday sight through our local area and bewilderingly long things they are too.Like CK,I’ll be keenly interested in the results from the RAIB.

 

Given all the references to 'The Meeja', I wonder if we'll have local boy, Huw Edwards, coming to add some gravitas? 

 

[Steadfast]

Just read an internal email. No injuries to staff onboard.

 

Jo

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

3 hours ago, rob D2 said:

You’d think BBC/ journos, person in charge would think , “ right , we know absolutely jack #£& about trains, call the “ expert “on trains.

 

Thus avoiding calling wagons , carriages etc.

 

Perhaps Pete Waterman wasn't available?!!

 

Mike .

[Ian Hargrave]

Looking at the drone footage,the train appears to have derailed and split at the Morlais River bridge,thereafter its loaded tanks causing a large amount of fire damage to woodland adjacent to the track,plus spillage into water courses which are near tidal.Rear group of tanks appear intact.

 

No definitive evidence of train locomotive unless indistinct images further on down the track in the Felinfran direction are of any significance.

 

Thank God this did not occur in any built up area 

 

[Mike_Walker]

6 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Looking at the drone footage,the train appears to have derailed and split at the Morlais River bridge,thereafter its loaded tanks causing a large amount of fire damage to woodland adjacent to the track,plus spillage into water courses which are near tidal.Rear group of tanks appear intact.

 

No definitive evidence of train locomotive unless indistinct images further on down the track in the Felinfran direction are of any significance.

 

Thank God this did not occur in any built up area 

 

If you watch the Telegraph video above you'll see 60062 and the front part of the train some way ahead. It is reported the driver uncoupled and drew the front part of the train clear - brave man indeed! 66004 dragged the rear portion clear uncoupled by the fire service under instruction from railway staff it seems. 

 

There is a trailing crossover where most of the wagons seem to have come off which may or may not be relevant.

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

3 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

...Journalists ... how much do they actually get right ?

In all but the simplest cases, reporting an event as swiftly as possible after it occurred, there will be factual error. The best you can hope for is that the core content is correct: in this case report of train on fire, good approximation of location and time of incident. Generally that much is done well. The rest needs to be treated with extreme caution. (I have twice witnessed incidents which were reported in the media, and both contained material and verifiable errors of fact: the most striking being that a vehicle reported as briskly departing the scene (that much correct) was travelling East, when the only available route was on as near a perfect North-South alignment as you are ever likely to find.

[Joseph_Pestell]

47 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Perhaps Pete Waterman wasn't available?!!

 

Mike .

 

Nor, thank God, Christian Wolmar.

[Trofimow]

4 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

The same goes for some other subject areas, so it does beg the question, how much do they actually get right ?

 

Having spent all my working life in the meeja, I have worked with news journalists for many years.

 

There are certainly those who know very little about a very wide range of subjects. There are also a good many who are very well informed in their respective fields.

 

The thing is that good quality journalism is expensive to do and in the age of the interweb an increasing reluctance on the part of the consumer to pay what it realistically costs. To a large extent, you get what you pay for.

[Ian Hargrave]

19 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

If you watch the Telegraph video above you'll see 60062 and the front part of the train some way ahead. It is reported the driver uncoupled and drew the front part of the train clear - brave man indeed! 66004 dragged the rear portion clear uncoupled by the fire service under instruction from railway staff it seems. 

 

There is a trailing crossover where most of the wagons seem to have come off which may or may not be relevant.

 

 
Which is the junction with the Central Wales line,I would think.The bridge itself appears intact. Over the last 48 hours biblical amounts of rain have fallen in the area....which again may or may not have any bearing on the cause.

[Simon Bendall]

31 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

If you watch the Telegraph video above you'll see 60062 and the front part of the train some way ahead. It is reported the driver uncoupled and drew the front part of the train clear - brave man indeed! 66004 dragged the rear portion clear uncoupled by the fire service under instruction from railway staff it seems. 

 

There is a trailing crossover where most of the wagons seem to have come off which may or may not be relevant.

 

 

You're looking at the back of the train with 66004. At 0.56, there's two TEAs at the bottom of the screen, that was the front with 60062 removed.

[Nearholmer]

Get as righteously indignant as you like about journalists who don’t know the technical terms for the sub-parts of a train, but the far, far bigger issue here is the potential for environmental damage.

 

That having been said, thank the good lord that it didn’t happen near lots of people - I think similar things have in the past in the USA.

[davknigh]

12 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

That having been said, thank the good lord that it didn’t happen near lots of people - I think similar things have in the past in the USA.

Well, Canada, not the USA but certainly a scary time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Mississauga_train_derailment  I lived a few miles away from the site of the derailment at the time and heard and felt the explosion. The cause IIRC was a hot box that caused the initial derailment then the cars just piled up. On the plus side, nobody got hurt but a massive evacuation.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[Mike_Walker]

6 minutes ago, davknigh said:

Well, Canada, not the USA but certainly a scary time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Mississauga_train_derailment  I lived a few miles away from the site of the derailment at the time and heard and felt the explosion. The cause IIRC was a hot box that caused the initial derailment then the cars just piled up. On the plus side, nobody got hurt but a massive evacuation.

 

Cheers,

 

David

To say nothing of Lac Megantic, Quebec probably the worst of its type.

[rob D2]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Get as righteously indignant as you like about journalists who don’t know the technical terms for the sub-parts of a train, but the far, far bigger issue here is the potential for environmental damage.

 

That having been said, thank the good lord that it didn’t happen near lots of people - I think similar things have in the past in the USA.

Not indignant , just exasperated at the laziness .

 

simple google search Would have revealed the correct name - which isn’t really technical , more like general knowledge 

[7013]

Good that the crew managed to get wagons and their loco out of harms way. Could have been much worse.

[pete_mcfarlane]

6 hours ago, Southernfrance said:

In the 80's when I worked for London Underground our office of 10 people had a healthy interest in news from both TV and newspapers. We came to the conclusion that all news was rubbish as most articles that were about something that one or more of us knew about contained wrong information. The passing of time has not changed my view on this, and the rise of "fake news" depresses me!

My personal favourite news howlers from the last few years are a road being closed so that a new office block could have a prefabricated room full of plants installed on the roof (a 'plant room'), and a fake outrage tabloid article about the Navy wasting millions on buying a handful of tiny guns for their ships (a 5" gun is five inches long, right?).

 

I guess the average journalist these days has a very low level of general knowledge. 

[Ian Hargrave]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Get as righteously indignant as you like about journalists who don’t know the technical terms for the sub-parts of a train, but the far, far bigger issue here is the potential for environmental damage.

 

That having been said, thank the good lord that it didn’t happen near lots of people - I think similar things have in the past in the USA.

 
And the environmental issue at this location is of a very special significance,not only for the despoiling of the surrounding terrain but for the gatherers of seafood in the sands of the estuary into which this filth has poured. The cockle gathering is legendary..

 

Cockles sold by the pint around the streets of South Wales,always announced from the vendor’s handcart by the ringing of a hand bell and the shout of “ Cocks Kidwelly,good for the belly “

 

Please do not let the ruination of the cockle beds happen.

 

 

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

I don't know about those cockle beds but those at Penclawdd on the other side of the estuary, which were always sold in Swansea market, were closed because of pollution some months ago.

Jonathan 

[Nearholmer]

25 minutes ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

I guess the average journalist these days has a very low level of general knowledge. 

What makes anyone think that the proper names of rail vehicles are general knowledge?

 

On RMWeb, yes, but on the Clapham Omnibus?

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Get as righteously indignant as you like about journalists who don’t know the technical terms for the sub-parts of a train, but the far, far bigger issue here is the potential for environmental damage.

 

That having been said, thank the good lord that it didn’t happen near lots of people - I think similar things have in the past in the USA.

I used to know that part of the world very well and apart from the potential for contamination of the Loughor estuary (any repeat of the recent wild weather will help disperse any oil), this happened in almost the perfect location, if it had to happen anywhere.

The wasteland where the emergency services are parked is the old Morlais colliery with easy access from the main road (and just off the M4, so other fire services can get there easily) and the orange ponds are I think for settling run-off from the contaminated land.  The junction is away from significant housing - only a pretty small number within the cordon had to be evacuated - and it's blocking one of the quieter stretches of the rail network; the HoW line has I think five trains a day each way.

It might temporarily lead to increased oil train traffic to/from Robeston, as with the closure of the Swansea District line, the full length trains cannot travel via Cockett which is 1 in 50 either side and from an almost standing start at Landore.  Therefore the trains will probably be split at Margam for routing further West until Morlais junction is repaired.

[Ian Hargrave]

14 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

I don't know about those cockle beds but those at Penclawdd on the other side of the estuary, which were always sold in Swansea market, were closed because of pollution some months ago.

Jonathan 

 

BBC Wales reports concerns in the area of gathering. In addition,I should have posted about the very pressing need to protect bird and other forms of wildlife in both the immediate and wider environment 

[Nearholmer]

1 minute ago, Northmoor said:

the orange ponds are I think for settling run-off from the contaminated land. 

I wondered about them - they look pretty disgusting and I’d assumed it was spill from the train polluting them. Hopefully they will act as catch-pits.

[LMS2968]

22 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

What makes anyone think that the proper names of rail vehicles are general knowledge?

 

On RMWeb, yes, but on the Clapham Omnibus?

Well, if they think 'carriages' are for carrying goods, they must pe regular users of Pacers.

[DK123GWR]

31 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

What makes anyone think that the proper names of rail vehicles are general knowledge?

 

On RMWeb, yes, but on the Clapham Omnibus?

I'd always assumed that the general public would refer to wagons as 'trucks' due to the influence of Thomas The Tank Engine. It may not be the usual term, but it would be much better that 'carriages' as it at least makes a distinction between passenger and freight vehicles.