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The human side of the railway...


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11 hours ago, uax6 said:

You mean the AWS don't you Gibbo? The TPWS will just bring her to a stand if she passes at danger...

 

Andy G

Hi Andy,

 

When I used to work steam locomotives fitted with TPWS there was a noise in the cab, a button was pressed and that was that, no one really thought about which system caused the activation they just pressed the button and carried on or the train stopped if they were not quick enough to cancel the activation.

 

On the subject of being quick enough to press the button, with AWS fitted locomotives control of the brake was achieved once the button was pressed however long it took the driver to acknowledge the activation and whether it was a yellow or red aspect. With TPWS fitted locomotives you had 1.6 seconds to cancel a yellow or the system would stop the train regardless. Back in the day before even AWS was fitted to steam locomotives certain drivers put a lot more concentration upon looking where they were going than locomotives that were so fitted !

 

The regaining of control of the brake could be achieved on TPWS fitted steam locomotives by way of turning off the system waiting for a second and then turning it back all on again. this caused a reboot of the system and it magically forgot that the brakes had ever been applied, the horn sounded for a second time, the button pressed and the train would not stop. This was a very a useful feature when propelling a support coach tender first when running to depot or turning on triangles, it was also useful when a driver missed an AWS activation if the cab was noisy. Spurious activations could also be dealt with without cause for delay, one such cause turned out to be the ring magnets from the cathode ray tube of a television which had been thrown over a bridge onto the track. A blue flashing light was added to assist the driver should the cab be too noisy for this very reason. Blue was chosen because red, orange and yellow were no good when the fire hole doors were open, green being inappropriate for a danger activation. I should add that it didn't matter whether it was an AWS or TPWS activation the above described dodgy procedure would allow control of the brake to be regained and that all of the above was logged by the data recorder .

 

As an aside, the above described action combined with poor route knowledge was the very reason Tangmere ran past signals set at danger on the western main line some years back. The investigators knew exactly what had been done on the cab of the locomotive before even down loading the data recorder.

 

In short my comment which used the term TPWS was because I was referring to the system fitted to the locomotive rather than which system than activates the equipment fitted to the locomotive.

 

Gibbo.

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The Fireman aboard 31806 stands ready to receive the token from the Signalman at Swanage 'box on 15th July 2020.

1127733238_31806Swanage150720201-RMweb.jpg.f5733534398d9d0d859b354b25c58b20.jpg

 

1943427956_31806Swanage150720202-RMweb.jpg.ab566995c699d011bb4fef1a7a87b48b.jpg

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The Driver of 31806 affixes the route disc in the correct position ready for departure from Swanage on 15th July 2020.

1247494496_31806Swanage150720203-RMweb.jpg.3fa652ce556caf2b78bcb3d8285c8895.jpg

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2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Gricing in 2020.

 

IHD_0177.jpg.3c81e7f5f0e0042da2b87b880fc12398.jpg

 

The shunter couples hoses between 93953 and X4039 Picasso railcars at Beillé this morning

 

 

 

Ringo Starr looks good for his age doesn't he.... ;)

 

 

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8 hours ago, Gibbo675 said:

 

The regaining of control of the brake could be achieved on TPWS fitted steam locomotives by way of turning off the system waiting for a second and then turning it back all on again. this caused a reboot of the system and it magically forgot that the brakes had ever been applied, the horn sounded for a second time, the button pressed and the train would not stop. This was a very a useful feature when propelling a support coach tender first when running to depot or turning on triangles, it was also useful when a driver missed an AWS activation if the cab was noisy. Spurious activations could also be dealt with without cause for delay, one such cause turned out to be the ring magnets from the cathode ray tube of a television which had been thrown over a bridge onto the track. A blue flashing light was added to assist the driver should the cab be too noisy for this very reason. Blue was chosen because red, orange and yellow were no good when the fire hole doors were open, green being inappropriate for a danger activation. I should add that it didn't matter whether it was an AWS or TPWS activation the above described dodgy procedure would allow control of the brake to be regained and that all of the above was logged by the data recorder .

 

 

 

That was effectively what a West Coast railways crew did that led to a SPAD at Wotton Basset junction with a charter train almost getting sideswiped by a 125mph HST had the latter been 1 minute later passing over the junction.

 

If you recall the incident almost put WCR out of business and prompted  STRINGENT examination of steam loco operating practices.

 

Put it this way, anyone doing that stunt again - REGRDLESS of the circumstances is looking at prosecution and potentially* jail for deliberately breaking safety rules.

 

If a steam loco crew miss a cautionary AWS indication and the brakes kick in then they MUST wait till the loco has come to a stand, report the incident and seek permission from the signaller / control to resume. No' ifs', no 'buts' - The combined AWS + TPWS controls are there for a reason.

 

* a Thamesslink driver some years ago got a jail term for simply resetting and carrying on after being tripped by their TPWS - the rules are very clear, after such an activation the train MUST remain at a stand until authorisation is given by the signaller that the train may proceed.

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3 hours ago, w124bob said:

https://youtu.be/DOWrJMQVA2E Well worth sticking with the last five minutes are priceless, proper traincrew office and messroom. There's also interior shots of East box and Deal st box, the gentleman fliming was ex Guide Bridge and based at Vic at he time.

 

 

Absolutely brilliant footage, for several reasons.  The 105+100 pair, the ex Tyseley 116, the indigenous 104s etc etc, but the last few minutes in the BOP are priceless, just as I remember BOPs in the 1980s.

 

Thanks very much for sharing it    

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11 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

<snip 1>

That was effectively what a West Coast railways crew did that led to a SPAD at Wotton Basset junction with a charter train almost getting sideswiped by a 125mph HST had the latter been 1 minute later passing over the junction.

 

 

<snip 2>

* a Thamesslink driver some years ago got a jail term for simply resetting and carrying on after being tripped by their TPWS - the rules are very clear, after such an activation the train MUST remain at a stand until authorisation is given by the signaller that the train may proceed.

 

<Pedant Mode>

The HST was coming off the Badminton line at Wootton Bassett so at the time was a 70mph HST rather than a 125mph HST.

 

It was a GN driver driving a southbound train from Cambridge.

</Pedant Mode>

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It's a great shame that there's no film of Victoria in the evening, stand still on plat 11 to long and you would have been flattened by a Daily Mirror lorry , a 15 van train came down from Red Bank around 22.00, this was spilt into three trains(I think) and all hell broke loose for the next three hours. 

The gentleman on the phone at the end having a heated conversation and mentioning Peter Rayner was Stewart Mackie, It's funny mentioning about Vic drivers not going south of Crewe as we did have a bit of a reputation ! Were we the only depot that could genuinely boast that we did coast to coast with booked work to both Hull, Barrow, Llandudno, Bangor and Blackpool.

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19 hours ago, w124bob said:

https://youtu.be/DOWrJMQVA2E Well worth sticking with the last five minutes are priceless, proper traincrew office and messroom. There's also interior shots of East box and Deal st box, the gentleman fliming was ex Guide Bridge and based at Vic at he time.

 

 

Fantastic.  Particularly enjoyed the two 47 powered van trains going up towards Red Bank.  Counted 19 GUVs on the nearer one and the far one storming up towards a red in the days before defensive driving.

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Just watched the video, brought back some memories of how the railway used to run. Saw quite a few familiar faces. One thing strikes me, if it ain`t broke don`t fix it. That was a proper railway run by proper railwaymen. 

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18 hours ago, DY444 said:

 

<Pedant Mode>

The HST was coming off the Badminton line at Wootton Bassett so at the time was a 70mph HST rather than a 125mph HST.

 

It was a GN driver driving a southbound train from Cambridge.

</Pedant Mode>

 

I'm sure the last was actually a northbound train, as the driver took the Arlesey Curve (the flyover at Hitchin), which wouldn't have been available to him from the Cambridge direction.... unless that was yet another driver...

 

Andy G

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4 hours ago, uax6 said:

 

I'm sure the last was actually a northbound train, as the driver took the Arlesey Curve (the flyover at Hitchin), which wouldn't have been available to him from the Cambridge direction.... unless that was yet another driver...

 

Andy G

 

I'm only aware of one such GN case and it was southbound.

 

https://orr.gov.uk/news-and-blogs/press-releases/2014/train-driver-receives-prison-sentence-for-ignoring-safety-systems

Edited by DY444
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