6233 Duchess of Sutherland OHLE arc incident?

[Sean Emmett]

I was on this trip, coach 3. Saw reflection of the flash, and heard the bang, as we enteted New St. Unaware of the incident on Western Suburban until later.

From the videos I have seen, no issues with the gauging of the loco or tender, other than height of coal.

Duchess has been out and about under the wires since, without incident - including the very tight clearance under the valley lines bridge at Cardiff.

I'm confident this is a lesson well learned.

 

[Spartacus]

I've seen a report stating that coming into New Street the coal was stacked that high it actually made contact with the OLE and a certain amount was knocked off onto platform 11.

Hopefully it was just an oversight, rather than people casually thinking "it'll be alright" again.

 

[edwin_m]

I'm expecting RAIB will investigate this, as it's the sort of incident that could have wider implications, and the heritage sector has been very much under the microscope on safety.

 

[Teaboy1]

Hope it does not happen .... again .... but we could soon see yellow diagonal stripe across cab number
to signify 'not allowed south of Crewe'
In olden days normal OHL clearance was 13ft- 6 in above rail but because of old bridges and tunnels, wires south of Crewe were 13ft - 1inch in places, so that tiny difference made all the 62xx fleet confined up north.

 

[2392]

As a layman onlooker, it had never occurred to me that the profile of a steam loco was such that they could actually risk fouling the OHLE if they overloaded the tender with too much coal. Was this the reason that some locos were banned from running under the wires under BR, with the yellow stripe on the cabside?

The "Midland" 4F 0-6-0s were barred due to the height issues with some of the early machines fouled the height issues so the whole class had the yellow stride painted on the cab. Ironically a couple of Gresley types acquire the stripes too. At least 1 A3 and pair of A4s, they were by this stage all based north of the border in Scotland and had be overhauled at I think St Rolox where they were given the not south of Crewe stripe...... These days many of the former locomotives that fell foul of the height restrictions have been modified and had a couple of inches/centimetres shaved off allowing to fit. Though the overfill of coal doesn't help and the then foul....

 

[Sean Emmett]

There will be no yellow stripes, other than for cosmetic reasons.

Whilst the spread of electrification has been slower than some of us would have liked, there are practically no viable main line steam routes that are now wires-free. Especially if you include the empty stock moves from base e.g. Jacobite. (OK Clan Line from Stewarts Lane - but that was built to fit round Kent, and happily meets current OHLE requirements as a result!).

So everything on the main line is now OHLE compliant. Max height reduced to 13' (from 13' 1"") to allow for loco sitting higher if boiler not full of water etc (6024 incident at Paddington).

The only remaining variable being the height of the coal in the tender.

Vids of 20 Nov clearly show (4)6233 had no issues in itself, it was the coal piled high on the tender that was the problem.

Note the cut down Castle 7029 ran via New St on its return, and had no issues.

As per my earlier post, Duchess has since negotiated the very tight clearance under the Valley lines bridge in Cardiff without incident, for which there are special instructions for steam in the Sectional Appendix.

So no doubt the appropriate reminder re trimming coal below loco height will be issued, if it hasn't already.

 

[colchesterken]

When they were doing the runs out of Marylebone. a steamer clipped a chunk out of one of the bridges because tamping raised the line
so no one knew about the reduced clearance. There must have been only inches of clearance, as tamping would not make that much difference,, or would it?

 

[BoroAndy]

Those arcs are sending lumps of coal flying with the explosion. That's not good at all - whose bright idea was it to load the tender higher than the roof?

6233 is notorious for getting through a lot of coal. I remember.. Urm.. Maybe 15 years ago, it did a turnround at Scarborough, and during the afternoon layover went to a siding at seamer where coal was directly loaded in from a road wagon. Maybe they simply have to overload the tender.

 

[Phil Atack]

Pausing the video 36 seconds in you can see the tender is loaded with coal quite a bit higher than the roof of the train.

I don’t know when this occurred, but I would hope measures are/have been taken to reduce the chances of this happening again.

This certainly isn’t the first time that an arcing incident has occurred under 25kV AC OHLE with a steam loco in this country.

Indeed not! We experienced this behind 60163 Tornado on Pathfinder Tours "The Royal Borderer" on 22nd October 2010. Train was held in Calton tunnel on approach to Edinburgh Waverley for several minutes and safety valve lifted, causing a blast of steam to hit the OHLE. The consequent arcing "bounced" the length of the train, startling those of us who were window hanging, but with no evident damage either to rolling stock, passengers or OHLE.

 

[Wolfie]

6233 is notorious for getting through a lot of coal. I remember.. Urm.. Maybe 15 years ago, it did a turnround at Scarborough, and during the afternoon layover went to a siding at seamer where coal was directly loaded in from a road wagon. Maybe they simply have to overload the tender.

Re your last sentence not at the expense of safety they don't. Follow the rules or get banned, simple.

 

[TrainTrackJack]

Of course, it was never intended for 6233 to do this, but the Earl lacked a boiler and this made it incompatible for the trip , but surely, for a round trip of, what, 70 miles, if that, why was this much coal needed? There would be adequate provision at Worcester for refuelling if needed. Strikes me as a rather bizarre incident that needed not to take place.

 

[trainmania100]

Off topic but I'm seeing the rounds in Facebook of 6233 sliding into a station at speed with the wheels completely stopped, assume it was meant to stop
Can't actually find a sharable video, they're all on Facebook. 6233 definitely seems to be a trending topic in the media lately