Lineside fires

[WatcherZero]

http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news...crews_have_had_enough_of_SVR_s__extra_chuff_/

Is 41 fire service callouts in 4 months a normal amount for a steam railway?

 

[sprinterguy]

I can understand the fire services' frustrations with these sorts of incidents on the SVR, there's quite a few sections of the route that aren't easily accessible, or accessible at all, by road, by the very nature of the lines' rural location.

I was on an SVR train heading towards Bridgnorth one day earlier this year when a preceding service had set fire to a fair stretch of hillside forest about halfway between Bewdley and Arley. The fire engine passed through Bewdley at the same time as our train was departing from there, but because of the exceptionally narrow lanes that the fire engine had to traverse to get anywhere near the location of the fire, it soon fell behind compared to the progress of the train despite the trains' average speed of only about 15mph.

On the NYMR I've seen the crew of a steam loco use a small hose pipe routed from the cab to deal with small grass/bush fires by the lineside caused by a preceding train.

 

[John Webb]

Sparks from steam engines have been a problem for many years, which is why British Railways and their predecessors kept the lineside cleared of trees and bushes and cut the grass from time to time.

On preserved railways a similar approach is taken where possible; on the main line the lineside growth can be quite a problem.

A few preserved railways have their own fire crews, but this is an area where few volunteers are available and where experience and training is vital for safety reasons.

The weather this year has been a problem in that lineside vegetation has been drier that usual and therefore more likely to catch fire.

The pipe seen in use by sprinterguy is the 'pep pipe' used by the engine crew to dampen down the tender and wash the footplate to keep the coal dust under control.

 

[Spamcan81]

<snip> The pipe seen in use by sprinterguy is the 'pep pipe' used by the engine crew to dampen down the tender and wash the footplate to keep the coal dust under control.

Also known as the slacker pipe is some quarters.

 

[Mvann]

I suppose it depends on the type of terrain you run through and the gradients of the line. Also in B.R days and earlier they used to have controlled burning to keep lineside fires down. The G.C used to have water tanks and firefighting equipment on the train in case of lineside fires.