Rovos Rail train derails in South Africa

[DavidB-AU]

Quite a mess.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8635303.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8635727.stm

 

Cheers

David

[Fat Controller]

Quite a mess.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8635303.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8635727.stm

 

Cheers

David

From reading various bits of coverage, it appears that the train might have run away whilst the locomotives were being changed. Perhaps ironically, the derailment happened outside their competitor's (Blue Train) depot.

[Poor Old Bruce]

From reading various bits of coverage, it appears that the train might have run away whilst the locomotives were being changed. Perhaps ironically, the derailment happened outside their competitor's (Blue Train) depot.

That's some run away! It must have been going at some considerable speed for that sort of jack-knifing.

 

Richard

[Derekl]

Having looked at some of the SA press reports on the accident (which, as usual, tend to be bigger on the drama than the specifics), it looks as if the runaway was just south of Pretoria station. The line there is fairly steeply graded as it runs down from the ridge south of Pretoria into the city. Although I have no idea of the actual gradient there, SA railways, even on main lines, can have fairly steep grades - 1 in 50 or 1 in 40 (and steeper) are not uncommon.

 

It would be quite easy for an unbraked train to pick up speed quite quickly. The SAR standard train brake is vacuum, but it is not impossible that the Rovos rail trains have air brakes (although unlikely).

 

It seems that the electric loco was uncoupled and moved away (presumably to a siding), and the steam loco intended to replace it was waiting to be signalled (presumably from another siding) onto the train. The train must have remained stationary for a period to enable the electric loco to move away, and then seems to have run away. It looks as if the train crew may have relied on the destruction of the vacuum in the train pipe to hold the train, but for some reason that leaked away very quickly. The hand brakes were not applied, as attempts were made to apply the hand brakes (hand wheel operated from outside) to the first three coaches, but they were ineffective.

 

I guess it would be difficult to make an effective hand brake application once the train was moving, because you would have to be running alongside the train trying to turn the wheel.

 

I do not know whether Rovos Rail or Spoornet crews are responsible for the operation, but it may be a combination of both, which could lead to errors of communication of specific responsibilities.

 

All a bit speculative, and we will have to see what the investigation report says, but it is pretty sad.

[PhilH]

I guess it would be difficult to make an effective hand brake application once the train was moving, because you would have to be running alongside the train trying to turn the wheel.

 

I don't think it would have made much difference - handbrakes are effective to keep stationary trains/locos/coaches/wagons from moving away, but nigh on useless once things are moving.

[Derekl]

Small heads-up from SA: the electric loco was decoupled in Centurion station, and the runaway ran north towards Pretoria. The operation was supervised by Spoornet, not Rovos rail.