St. Simon Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Hi, Just seen this on the news: http://www.bbc.co.uk...ngland-17081186 First Capital Connect & Southern Services have major disruption around Bright and Lewes 'Due to electrical fault' No speculation on cause please! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium John M Upton Posted February 18, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 18, 2012 No speculation required - fifteen feet of conductor rail displaced and as a result the shoes knocked off at least two if not three southbound fast services. Very grateful I was on earlies today, it all kicked literally as I was stepping off my last train going home! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 How does something as solid as conductor rail get "displaced"? Not speculating on this one, just wondering.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernman46 Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 How does something as solid as conductor rail get "displaced"? Not speculating on this one, just wondering.... it falls off the insulators due to a variety of causes Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium John M Upton Posted February 18, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 18, 2012 The original style ceramic based insulators (a.k.a. pots) would over time break down and either explode (a 'hot pot') or collapse and with the passing of a train pressing down on it, once a conductor rail starts to go off kilter, the whole section can fall off. Seems to be much less of a problem since Network Rail started replacing many of them with the new plastic type though, in particular exploding 'pots' are on the decrease although there are still plenty of the old ceramic ones out there at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium cornelius Posted February 18, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 18, 2012 Glad I didn't have to go to London yesterday then! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
i-gadget Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Services appeared back to normal this morning but on the way to the Tonbridge show caught a glimpse of a FCC 319 sitting in the sidings at Gatwick with a broken shoe beam supported/held up by some duct tape. Believe problem occured on the Quarry line section, so guess the 319 was one of the victims.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Exploding pots! Wow........ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium John M Upton Posted February 19, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 19, 2012 Some fizzle and smoulder, others go with a big spectacular bang that sounds like a bomb going off. I have had two go off in front of my train a year or so at Littlehampton, annoying that we were stopped only 100yds from home but quite amusing watching the Network Rail guy receiving buckets of water over the lineside garden fence with which to put them out!! As for the FCC 319, the core is shut all weekend so it will have to wait until Monday morning before it can be towed back to Bedford Depot to be repaired. Gone are the days when the nearest BR Depot would have fixed it up in no time, moreso when you consider Selhurst is within easy reach and used to handle the type! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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