Derailment at Paddington

[lmsforever]

Watching the programme now and am impressed with the calm methodical way everyone coped and planned the rerailing and track replacement with the least disruption to services.The track looked extremely dodgy and the crumbling of the timbers raises a question as to inspections etc not helped by the discharge of you no what onto the tracks! All in all a very good programme and a good advert for the railway.

[Davexoc]

Watching the programme now and am impressed with the calm methodical way everyone coped and planned the rerailing and track replacement with the least disruption to services.The track looked extremely dodgy and the crumbling of the timbers raises a question as to inspections etc not helped by the discharge of you no what onto the tracks! All in all a very good programme and a good advert for the railway.

If the toilets on the station were free, perhaps people would be less likely to use those on the train. Might have saved the cost of clearing up and possibly some timbers.....

 

Dave

[Southernman46]

Not a great advert for the railway but the track in Paddington station is hardly typical of a main line and I thought that point could have been made, anyone watching that, that didn't know better, might be under the impression trains are out there doing 125 mph over stuff like that, rather than no more than 5 mph.

 

The obvious question why is the track in Paddington supported that way. I presumed because there's some kind of undertow beneath but one of the guys was claiming the timbers are supported by a concrete base in which case why not just replace the whole job with prefabricated concrete slab.

 

It's often the case as PW Area Engineer that the areas where your greatest risks exist are not always obvious - for me - the 100mph CAT1 track used by umpteen SWT services and 2000t freights at Worting Jn. presented considerably less risk (due to type and level of inspection regime present) than the 5mph sharply curved platforms at Waterloo where the lack of dynamic track recording at the time (sub 20mph not being possible) meant that static visual was the only alternative and relied considerably on the skill / application of the local staff and subsequently the quality of remedial measures.

 

The reason for the track being supported like that at Paddington (and I do stand to be corrected as I kind of guessed at this back in day) is presumably similar to the last couple of chains on many of the platform bufferstop ends at Waterloo and was basically to allow the stuff that drips / flows / falls out of steam locomotives to drain away without rotting / setting fire to the track whilst the loco is stood at the stops.

Edited October 25, 2017 by Southernman46

[Davexoc]

The reason for the track being supported like that at Paddington (and I do stand to be corrected as I kind of guessed at this back in day) is presumably similar to the last couple of chains on many of the platform bufferstop ends at Waterloo and was basically to allow the stuff that drips / flows / falls out of steam locomotives to drain away without rotting / setting fire to the track whilst the loco is stood at the stops.

There is also an underpass that runs across all the platforms that carries HV power and also houses a substation, but not sure exactly where it crosses these days as the The Lawn has changed over the years. It is down towards the stops as it houses the cables for the shore supplies for the HSTs, and IIRC could be accessed by a goods lift somewhere adjacent to either P8 or P10. I don't think it is that far below the surface either, and was probably a mail/goods connection between platforms many years ago.

 

Dave

[The Stationmaster]

There is also an underpass that runs across all the platforms that carries HV power and also houses a substation, but not sure exactly where it crosses these days as the The Lawn has changed over the years. It is down towards the stops as it houses the cables for the shore supplies for the HSTs, and IIRC could be accessed by a goods lift somewhere adjacent to either P8 or P10. I don't think it is that far below the surface either, and was probably a mail/goods connection between platforms many years ago.

 

Dave

 

Do you mean the subway that runs across from Platform 1 to around platforms 9/10 or is there a separate route as well nearer the stop blocks?

 

The reason for the track being like that is as 'Southerman said - the last few chains have brick surfaced 'wells' which drain down in the four foot.  They used to be regularly hosed down on a weekly programme which saw all platforms done at least once a week and those where sleeping cars were stabled done, I think, daily but I wouldn't be surprised if that activity is now carried out less frequently.  Keeping them clean is less important now than it used to be because with loco hauled trains about they were regularly used working areas when hanging engines off incoming trains and would have been dangerous f allowed to become slippery.   Overall I would think there is probably much less water going into the wells than used to be the case.