RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21, 2012 Ok, in the spirit of the posts above, here's another little insight into "things you learn but don't realise until it matters". One of my earliest jobs was as a very junior clerk in the Signalling & Rules Section at Divisional Office. [Divisions were the key day-to-day Traffic organisations from the early '60s to the early '80s. On Southern there were 3, which almost exactly replicated the 3 Pre-Grouping railways in territory.] One of my tasks was to receive reports of signalling etc equipment failures, and ensure we had received a BR29619 failure form from the signalman, suitably endorsed with a cause etc from the Signalling & Telecommunications lineman who had attended and fixed things. One of the regular causes of track-circuit failures was "Scale over block joint", where the track circuit or circuits showed occupied because a piece of metal had dropped onto the insulation between the pieces of rail, causing a short circuit in the Track Circuit. At the time, the nature of this explanation was less than transparent to me, but it was obviously kosher. A decade later, now a junior manager, I was in the carriage sidings at Grove Park. The phone rang from London Bridge box to say that after the last lot of empties left the sidings, the track circuit covering the points onto the local line had remained occupied, locking the points (hey, back on topic!) and stopping the show - could I go and have a look, please? So I did - and, you guessed it - there was rusty scale, dropped by the empty coaching stock, bridging the Tufnol (?) insulation. I kicked it off, and within seconds heard the points go over - job done! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartp Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 "Lots of paperwork!" Lots of overtime ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkie_pudd Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 "Lots of paperwork!" nah Debs i think you`ll find they were just practising their parallel parking Ok, in the spirit of the posts above, here's another little insight into "things you learn but don't realise until it matters". One of my earliest jobs was as a very junior clerk in the Signalling & Rules Section at Divisional Office. [Divisions were the key day-to-day Traffic organisations from the early '60s to the early '80s. On Southern there were 3, which almost exactly replicated the 3 Pre-Grouping railways in territory.] One of my tasks was to receive reports of signalling etc equipment failures, and ensure we had received a BR29619 failure form from the signalman, suitably endorsed with a cause etc from the Signalling & Telecommunications lineman who had attended and fixed things. One of the regular causes of track-circuit failures was "Scale over block joint", where the track circuit or circuits showed occupied because a piece of metal had dropped onto the insulation between the pieces of rail, causing a short circuit in the Track Circuit. At the time, the nature of this explanation was less than transparent to me, but it was obviously kosher. A decade later, now a junior manager, I was in the carriage sidings at Grove Park. The phone rang from London Bridge box to say that after the last lot of empties left the sidings, the track circuit covering the points onto the local line had remained occupied, locking the points (hey, back on topic!) and stopping the show - could I go and have a look, please? So I did - and, you guessed it - there was rusty scale, dropped by the empty coaching stock, bridging the Tufnol (?) insulation. I kicked it off, and within seconds heard the points go over - job done! Just proves the ole adage its the smallest simple things that cause bigger problems, but only seconds to rectify. Although my mind at the end kind of read on with an image a boot now stuck in the points lol Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21, 2012 "Lots of paperwork!" Actually back then there was surprisingly little. You got to the site and hopefully agreed the cause with all depts present (in that case operating, perway, S&T, and possibly M&EE because you wanted to make sure the wheel flanges weren't implicated) filled in the report form - two sides of foolscap, got in the staff statements (which was the hardest part of the lot) and the other depts completed their technical reports - the longest of which in that case would be regarding the damage to the loco. I once had to complete the (railway) paperwork for an incident which killed 12 passengers and injured, to various degrees, as many again. The most difficult part was getting the names of the deceased together and other details such as their ages (estimated) and addressess. The cause of the fire was subject to HMRI and Fire Service investigation so wasn't particularly my concern and my bit was fairly straightforward and a lot easier than most yard derailments I'd dealt with over the years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 another misguided class 47, Birkenhead mollington street... http://www.derbysulzers.com/47069birkenhead84.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debs. Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 another misguided class 47, Birkenhead mollington street... http://www.derbysulz...irkenhead84.jpg "Not guilty, your Worship!"....... I departed Mollington St. (and B.R) for pastures-new in `81.......but, looking at Micheal`s picture-link: it would seem that the TMD`s trackwork had deteriorated significantly in those final few years from then, until just before closure. I was a good girl........didn`t break anything much during my years on the footplate; apart from nearly "liquidising" the poor-guard on a loose-coupled freight trip! .......`though I did see quite a few sights/incidents! Those years were a VERY special time/experience....the job, the characters, the routes and the traction........ memories that stay-with me always. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted March 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21, 2012 another misguided class 47, Birkenhead mollington street... http://www.derbysulz...irkenhead84.jpg Your examples are amusing Mike but not really relevant as they are all over hand points, and in Birkenheads case, that was normal parking for a "job and pop" turn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernman46 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Ok, in the spirit of the posts above, here's another little insight into "things you learn but don't realise until it matters". One of the regular causes of track-circuit failures was "Scale over block joint", where the track circuit or circuits showed occupied because a piece of metal had dropped onto the insulation between the pieces of rail, causing a short circuit in the Track Circuit. and in my experience, in recent years there is very little new under the sun - except perhaps the S&T and PW arguing about whose job it is to keep these trimmed off ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 and in my experience, in recent years there is very little new under the sun - except perhaps the S&T and PW arguing about whose job it is to keep these trimmed off ! It can get even more complicated- the scale build up can be due to problems with traction return currents (arcing from wheels as they pass over the IBJ, if the return path isn't as good on one side of the joint as at the other), according to an article in a recent edition of the IRSE Journal; this means that whoever is responsible for power supply gets involved as well.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted March 21, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21, 2012 Edge Hill CS By P Jump by Jobs A Joke, on Flickr Who tried to take that 47 round 1st radius curves? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkie_pudd Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Who tried to take that 47 round 1st radius curves? werent me but there again could have been a mid-life criss not knowing which way to turn. probably just me but the yellow nose just screams out more and all i get in my head is the banana splits tune, 1Banana 2 banana 3 banana more 4 banana 5 banana 6 banana more traalla laaal laa traalla laaal laa, BUT can you name them all Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 werent me but there again could have been a mid-life criss not knowing which way to turn. probably just me but the yellow nose just screams out more and all i get in my head is the banana splits tune, Now all we need is a pic of an HST (or a GW railcar in olden times) doing the same thing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkie_pudd Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Now all we need is a pic of an HST (or a GW railcar in olden times) doing the same thing. Had a quick trawl and not found a HST but did find a coach, maybe it was trying to catch up with the 47 ?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hughes Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 Of course, all this locking relies on the signalman actually being in his cabin and working the levers, and not leaning out of the carriage window of the last train home and holding down the signal wire with a long broom. Oh yes, it did happen, and more than once too. No names, no pack drill.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Edge Hill CS by Jobs A Joke, on Flickr Edge Hill CS by Jobs A Joke, on Flickr Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted May 15, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 15, 2012 Like Debs I quite like the above two pics at edge Hill - however my version of 'like' takes me back many years to the days of paid overtime and Sundays and is truly mercenary, especially if the derailments happened on a Sunday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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