Derailment in Kent between Ashford and Canterbury (26/07)

[gavin]

The driver of a train derailed by a herd of cows managed to avert a potential disaster by running down the track to halt an oncoming engine.

The collision on the Ashford to Canterbury service in Kent caused the front carriage to come off the track.

It also knocked out the radio and so the driver jumped out of his cab and ran down the line to stop an approaching train.

He then used the radio on that train to alert the signaller and turn off the power to the line.

Five cows were killed in the crash although no passengers were hurt.

Around 70 people on board were evacuated from the train and taken to a nearby village hall where alternative transport was arranged.

A Southeastern spokesman said: "On Sunday evening on 26 July, a train travelling between Ashford and Canterbury West was involved in an incident near Chilham station where it collided with livestock that had strayed onto the railway line meaning the train became derailed.

"We would like to thank our driver who acted quickly after his train collided with the cows.

"He realised at this point his radio had stopped working so he jumped out of the cab and ran down the track to halt an approaching train.

"He was then able to contact the signaller through the radio of this train to switch off the power to the line."

"We can confirm no one was injured in this incident and all passengers on board were taken from the train to a nearby village hall where they were given refreshments and buses and taxis were arranged to take them home.

"We would like to thank the local residents of the village of Godmersham who opened up the village hall for us so late at night and helped provide warm drinks for our passengers."

http://news.sky.com/story/1525777/train-driver-hailed-after-cows-derail-engine

 

[ainsworth74]

I do not feel that puns are an appropriate response to this serious incident and therefore I would appreciate it if people refrained from posting any further such comments. There are plenty of other threads where such comments would be fine but this is not one of them.

 

[RichJF]

What do other forum users think they will do to recover the train(s)?

Pictures show the 8 car train derailed on a low embankment.
I would've thought they'd uncouple the front car, rerail the 2nd & drag the rest of the train back towards Wye leaving the overhanging driving car. Or just uncouple the units & sent the good one back?

Then I'm unsure of what they might do. Is there good road access to the site or would they bring a breakdown crane alongside? I think a 66 is on the way with a crane but don't know if it's arrived.

 

[Ash Bridge]

The driver of that train showed the true professionalism you would like to expect of someone in such a position and deserves every penny of his salary, considering he had just gone through the trauma of his train first of all hitting the obstruction(s) and then the actual derailment he acted brilliantly, hero is not too strong a word, I just wish the press would give more credit to people like this instead of their constant obsession with celebrities.

 

[theageofthetra]

Local news in Kent are showing pictures of a damaged bridge parapet with masonry and guard rail lying below. This could have been ALOT worse. The drivers actions to stop the train coming in the other direction are heroic. Well done to them.

 

[Camden]

Bit concerning that it knocked out the radio, given that's a time when you really would need it.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Excellent work by the crew, and great to see the driver's actions recognised publicly by Southeastern. It could have been a lot worse, so it's relieving to hear not a single passenger injury reported.

It's probably a good day for Bombardier as well. The front looks in very good condition for what happened.

 

[hwl]

Bit concerning that it knocked out the radio, given that's a time when you really would need it.

It quite easy for cabling under the floor to get damaged during a derailment so it might be as simple as no power to the radio rather than the radio itself getting damaged.

 

[Camden]

Either way, there seems to be a need for a bit of redundancy there. Even just some kind of system where a mobile phone call message can be relayed effectively to same effect as radioing.

 

[GB]

There is a redundancy, its called good old fashioned training and emergency protection which driver stepped up and did pretty well.

 

[tony6499]

just glad everyone was ok as by the look of it things could have been a lot worse

 

[Jamesb1974]

Deleted

 

[meridian2]

I do not feel that puns are an appropriate response to this serious incident and therefore I would appreciate it if people refrained from posting any further such comments. There are plenty of other threads where such comments would be fine but this is not one of them.

You're right and I apologise; I was in two-minds anyway.

 

[SPADTrap]

Another angle

 

[SPADTrap]

I do not feel that puns are an appropriate response to this serious incident and therefore I would appreciate it if people refrained from posting any further such comments. There are plenty of other threads where such comments would be fine but this is not one of them.

Glad someone understands the situation.

 

[Cletus]

The local Meridian News has just shown footage of 66161 arriving with a crane.

Sure someone will find the pictures online.

 

[cf111]

Ooft, not nice. Good to see that the cab held up so well.

 

[Wivenswold]

I remember when this happened when I worked on the LTS and a Class 308 ploughed into some cattle. Not a wheel left the track.

Someone at control had a sense of humour as the incident was logged as "Bovine Intervention".

 

[Seung205]

At Brixton station at around 1130, I saw a crane being pulled by a class 66. Would this have been going to the accident site?

 

[Kentish Paul]

I notice from the twitter feeds that the main commenteter says that South Eastern staff performed in an impecable manner. Well done to them and thanks to the the Chilham people for the tea. Well done.

 

[Antman]

The line will remain closed until at least Wednesday

 

[SpacePhoenix]

It quite easy for cabling under the floor to get damaged during a derailment so it might be as simple as no power to the radio rather than the radio itself getting damaged.

Could a secondary alarm system be installed, partly based in tilt sensors and part based on if the radio fails?

 

[A-driver]

Could a secondary alarm system be installed, partly based in tilt sensors and part based on if the radio fails?

What for? Sounds very expensive with no real need. Page one of the train drivers training book (and every safety critical rail staff) is emergency protection. Training on how to stop trains in an emergency with or without radio communication. And that's exactly what the driver of this train did here.

Why spend all that money on a super complicated system open to fault and false alarm when the system already exists-in the form of the driver and any other trained staff on board?!

 

[jon0844]

And if the driver couldn't leave the cab for some reason?

He deserves all the credit he can get, but I'd still rather like a fail safe 'plan b' safety system.

 

[Cletus]

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/

Scroll down the page for the video.

 

[A-driver]

And if the driver couldn't leave the cab for some reason?



He deserves all the credit he can get, but I'd still rather like a fail safe 'plan b' safety system.

What if the radio fails, the driver can't leave the cab, the 'plan b' also fails because of the impact, 'plan c' is also damaged so dosnt work properly...how many back up plans are needed?!

The radio (GSMR) is designed not to fail. It's linked up to a unique power supply as back up which isn't dependant on the trains power or battery-it has its own power supply for these kind of situations. Obviously this situation was serious enough to also damage the back up supply and so the driver followed training to get in touch with the signaller by the next best means (ie emergency protection).

As I say, no back up is 100% going to work and situations as serious as this where a train derails and blocks another line are incredibly rare.

 

[Crossover]

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/

Scroll down the page for the video.

Direct link in case that feed updates in the meantime

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2015-07-27/recovery-efforts-begin-for-stricken-train/

 

[Cletus]

Thanks for that!

 

[northernman]

Glad to see it stayed upright! On a lighter note I was amused to see the Telegaph article which shows a stock image of a cow, just in case you didn't know what one looked like:roll:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11764577/Southeastern-train-derailed-by-cows-on-line-in-Kent.html

 

[JesseJames3000]

Glad to see it stayed upright! On a lighter note I was amused to see the Telegaph article which shows a stock image of a cow, just in case you didn't know what one looked like:roll:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11764577/Southeastern-train-derailed-by-cows-on-line-in-Kent.html

They also state that it was a high speed train which hit the cattle, when in fact it was one of their regular trains!