Failures...

[MarkC]

4 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

It may well have been Mark, but the smoke coming from the engine room into the cab was eye wateringly bad so I didn't get a proper look. The internal walkway floor was covered in oil too so I didn't venture any further into the darkness!

Very sensible!

 

Mark

[royaloak]

On 25/01/2020 at 22:01, Edwin_m said:

I believe failure of the electric ring for the kettle was a common reason to fail the loco.  I was reading on another forum that most of Manchester Piccadilly was blocked because one of the new units failed having allegedly had some beverage spilled into the electrics under the desktop.  So the British railway still runs on tea!  

A few years ago there was a ScotRail 170 which hit the blocks (Edinburgh?) and the cause was put down to the contacts in CPBC were found to be gummed up with tea and coffee.

[royaloak]

23 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

 Favourite failure report seemed to be 'loss of amps' which is a bit half-baked as a description, but indicates a problem!

Still occurs to this day, had it on a HST leaving Taunton RA to Reading, all the way with the leading PC revving but no amps, arranged for a TRI to meet the train at Reading, picked him up and on as soon as I set off the amps returned, bloody typical. He did find the problem which was the contactors on the reverser sticking because they were out of alignment.

[royaloak]

1 hour ago, 25901 said:

I remember when we got our class 20 , we had a look at a few parked up with it and they had all been withdrawn/failed on daft things. Second man seat not turning(pointless on a pair of 20s), light dimmer switch not working, vac exhauster not working and the all time classic, cooker not getting hot enough.

If that is in the repair book it doesnt mean it was failed, just that it needed looking at when convenient, if it wasnt put in the book then how would the fitters know to look at it?

 

Of course that has been cured now by not putting repair books in cabs so any defect report has to go through the on line systems but as we are not allowed our tablets/ phones on it the cab we cant make a quick report at a station stop.

[Gwiwer]

And then there are "failures" which are not failures.  

 

Case in point this morning.  A Waterloo - Chessington train formed of 455/456 stock was cancelled because of "A fault on this train"  which is one of the standard pre-recorded announcements triggered by the entering of the requisite data.  

 

The "fault" was that one unlucky Monday morning commuter had failed to retain their breakfast and one carriage, which potentially could have been locked out, was soiled.  The train was taken empty cars to Wimbledon for cleaning.  

 

Those pre-recorded announcements and the related information pushed via the various apps include "Due to a reason currently under investigation" which I am assured is triggered by a delay or cancellation where no reason code has been entered.  Staff will be aware that this message also shows up on the internal information systems; in this day and age everything is linked so that the public can get access to (most) information at the same time it is available to staff.  

[Welly]

I wonder if any train driver has reported a failed loco/multiple unit with just the word "Broken" or "Not working" to a fitter?

 

I repair medical equipment and we frequently get just the above words written on a piece of paper towel sellotaped to the medical equipment in question! Fortunately it was not always too difficult to work out what was "broken" or "not working".

[Rivercider]

Coolant leaks seemed to be quite common on class 47s in later years when I spent time in the office at Barton Hill.

One of our supervisors, a former Southern man, mentioned that class 73s on diesel were also prone to leaks and overheating,

 

cheers

[royaloak]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

in this day and age everything is linked so that the public can get access to (most) information at the same time it is available to staff.  

At times Passengers can get the information quicker than the staff.

[royaloak]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

And then there are "failures" which are not failures.  

 

Case in point this morning.  A Waterloo - Chessington train formed of 455/456 stock was cancelled because of "A fault on this train"  which is one of the standard pre-recorded announcements triggered by the entering of the requisite data.  

 

The "fault" was that one unlucky Monday morning commuter had failed to retain their breakfast and one carriage, which potentially could have been locked out, was soiled.  The train was taken empty cars to Wimbledon for cleaning.  

So would you have the train running around all day with the carriage locked out?

 

Cancelling it and having it cleaned was probably the least worst option. Probably not able to split the train and send the burffed part for cleaning and the clean part to Chessie due to no driver, no paths etc available for the ECS.

[big jim]

36 minutes ago, Welly said:

I wonder if any train driver has reported a failed loco/multiple unit with just the word "Broken" or "Not working" to a fitter?

Not sure about that but most fitters replies are NFF (no fault found) or ‘cannot recreate fault on depot’ which is normally when you have reported something like rainwater leaking into the cab when at speed

 

my last failure was a complete lack of serviceable brake blocks on a loco, luckily we spotted it en route as something didn’t seem/sound right otherwise they were that bad that I recon Had I uncoupled to run round at my destination I’d have not stopped at the blocks!

 

 

 

 

[royaloak]

7 minutes ago, big jim said:

Had I uncoupled to run round at my destination I’d have not stopped at the blocks!

A bit like the IET at PAD this morning.

[big jim]

Just now, royaloak said:

A bit like the IET at PAD this morning.

yes, just seen some pics of that, I wish I had shares in the azuma nose cone production company! 

[royaloak]

1 minute ago, big jim said:

yes, just seen some pics of that, I wish I had shares in the azuma nose cone production company! 

Be interesting to see what happened there, IF the driver is as shown on Genius then he is VERY conscientious and I find it hard to believe he could make such a fundamental error, I do appreciate we can all make mistakes but.

[The Stationmaster]

22 minutes ago, big jim said:

Not sure about that but most fitters replies are NFF (no fault found) or ‘cannot recreate fault on depot’ which is normally when you have reported something like rainwater leaking into the cab when at speed

 

my last failure was a complete lack of serviceable brake blocks on a loco, luckily we spotted it en route as something didn’t seem/sound right otherwise they were that bad that I recon Had I uncoupled to run round at my destination I’d have not stopped at the blocks!

 

 

 

 

Jim you forgot FHD (For Home Depot - to deal with)

[Swindon 123]

On 26/01/2020 at 11:43, Rugd1022 said:

I had a rather spectacular failure on 66 567 last weekend when working 6Y77 from Toton to Bedford, I was on full power on the Up Fast going past Kilby Bridge Junction, there was a very loud bang and lots of metallic scraping noises followed by smoke in the cab, the 'crankcase pressure' message appeared in the EMDEC screen and I came to silent halt alongside the old station at Great Glen. Complete failure declared and I sat there for over two hours awaiting assistance. Luckily the fast lines are both bi-directional so the Bobby was able to have train round me on the down. It's the second time this has happened to me in two months...!

Had one of those myself, many moons ago whilst working to Dee Marsh on the climb from Salop past Coton Hill. Bloke in control asked me if I would look in the engine room. I said positively not, on account of the amount of smoke leaking out of the engine room via the gaps in the sides of the loco. Afterwards when things had calmed down I did go inside, and the only thing I found out of place was the sump dipstick, which had been blown out of the crankcase. 

 

Paul J.

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, royaloak said:

So would you have the train running around all day with the carriage locked out?

 

Cancelling it and having it cleaned was probably the least worst option. Probably not able to split the train and send the burffed part for cleaning and the clean part to Chessie due to no driver, no paths etc available for the ECS.

A case of 9 out of 10 coaches being better than none at all?  Waterloo usually manages to sand the offending area immediately then clean it next visit in an hour or two and with a little more time after the peak has passed.  No way to split the train in the platform; that would have put the platform out of use for the duration when every inch available is required to run the timetable.

[big jim]

1 hour ago, Swindon 123 said:

Had one of those myself, many moons ago whilst working to Dee Marsh on the climb from Salop past Coton Hill. Bloke in control asked me if I would look in the engine room. I said positively not, on account of the amount of smoke leaking out of the engine room via the gaps in the sides of the loco. Afterwards when things had calmed down I did go inside, and the only thing I found out of place was the sump dipstick, which had been blown out of the crankcase. 

 

Paul J.

it used to be you weren’t allowed into the engine room of a 66 for 45 minutes after the engine had shut down and the ‘crankcase pressure sensor’ message came up on the emdec, that rule I believe has been dropped now

[Reorte]

8 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

3 times?

 

Well it was a Deltic engine being talked about!

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

2 hours ago, Welly said:

I wonder if any train driver has reported a failed loco/multiple unit with just the word "Broken" or "Not working" to a fitter?

 

I repair medical equipment and we frequently get just the above words written on a piece of paper towel sellotaped to the medical equipment in question! Fortunately it was not always too difficult to work out what was "broken" or "not working".

If it matters enough in terms of increased time for the technician to identify the fault and the consequent loss of equipment availability to the operation, make a formal fault report a requirement.  Bonus the effect of better, accurate fault submissions enabling more rapid return to service by a factor of % availability of the kit / time out of service under repair: applicable to both operations and the repair shop. (Benchmark learning from motor racing driver and pit crew interaction to maintain the machine in optimal condition with the least possible downtime.)

[Swindon 123]

2 hours ago, big jim said:

it used to be you weren’t allowed into the engine room of a 66 for 45 minutes after the engine had shut down and the ‘crankcase pressure sensor’ message came up on the emdec, that rule I believe has been dropped now

After applying the handbrakes on all the wagons, the train was sat on a 1 in 100 gradient, walking back to Crewe Junction SB, arranging assistance, and then having to go and conduct the driver on the assisting loco from Gobowen to Shrewsbury, because he didn't sign the road, and then shunting the whole lot into Coton Hill yard, it was something like 4 hours before I finally got got back on the failed loco, so it had cleared by then. Needless to say, once shunted into Coton Hill, I'd had enough and went back pass to Hereford.

 

Paul J.

[25901]

One that I was told to me by a Branch fitter was that of a 25 failed due to low water pressure. When asked the driver said he tried to fix the problem but couldn’t get any more match’s in the PGS unit, a very old drivers trick and one or two old hands on here will know lol

[Swindon 123]

1 minute ago, 25901 said:

One that I was told to me by a Branch fitter was that of a 25 failed due to low water pressure. When asked the driver said he tried to fix the problem but couldn’t get any more match’s in the PGS unit, a very old drivers trick and one or two old hands on here will know lol

And on 47's as well, and i believe 33's also.

 

Paul J.

[Phil Bullock]

1 minute ago, 25901 said:

One that I was told to me by a Branch fitter was that of a 25 failed due to low water pressure. When asked the driver said he tried to fix the problem but couldn’t get any more match’s in the PGS unit, a very old drivers trick and one or two old hands on here will know lol

 

PGS ? you've got me there Robin!

[Swindon 123]

5 hours ago, Welly said:

I wonder if any train driver has reported a failed loco/multiple unit with just the word "Broken" or "Not working" to a fitter?

 

I repair medical equipment and we frequently get just the above words written on a piece of paper towel sellotaped to the medical equipment in question! Fortunately it was not always too difficult to work out what was "broken" or "not working".

I did see written in the repair book on 60065, Kinder Low won't Kinder GO. It seemed to have the desired effect on the fitters.

 

Paul J.

[25901]

11 minutes ago, Phil Bullock said:

 

PGS ? you've got me there Robin!

Pressure  governor switch, shuts your Sulzer down when you have a lack of water. ie no water. Also on the oil circuit. You would not get away with it today