Deprivatisation of railways

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

On a lighter note:
The government has responded to the report with caution, because none of the people writing it are members of the Labour party. A spokesman for the Transport Department said, "Our railways have always had an excellent safety record and accidents are extremely rare. The pillaging of railway sleepers for use in second-rate garden makeover shows has got to stop!"

I've noticed that they have stopped using Concrete are putting Steel sleepers in on the East Coast Line now!

[cjmillsnun]

Originally Posted by BBKing

If it's that easy to break by hand presumably it would be broken in the event of a derailment? In the Severn Tunnel instance you'd want it to break if the other line was fouled, as the axle counters, even if they were working, wouldn't detect a fouling, and of course it's dark (of course you've got the poor guard slogging up the line with some detonators, which can't be fun in a wet four mile tunnel).

Can't remember off the top of my head whether the wire in 1990 was broken by hand or by contact with the trains - since it was a fairly low speed shunt I suspect by hand though, but IIRC the opposite line wasn't fouled.

Edit - teach me not to check, the crash was on December 7th, 1991.

Definitely by should be broken by hand, as they (there are two - one each side) are on the tunnel walls.

With the reliability of the axle counters, they may as well have stuck with track circuits. I supose the only advantage is that the engineers don't have to walk through a cold, dark, wet tunnel to fix it.

[cjmillsnun]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. But there was an interesting programme on UKTV Documentary last night about Southall.

I gave details about the crash not shown on TV before, eg how some people died, and how one of the MK3 coaches managed to be bent into a U shape.

Overall though, to think only 9 people died as a result of a 90MPH accident. Would this happen in a 60MPH RTA involving a 1970's coach??? No way. Just shows that BR knew about crash absorbtion when they deigned the Mk3 Coach.

[Xaccers]

Did BR make their own rolling stock then?

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Did BR make their own rolling stock then?

Yes - I think you can still see rolling stock with BREL (British Rail Engineering Lts IIRC) on it. It was BR's own engineers that designed the APT, which by all accounts, was just about ironed out and ready to roll when the Government pulled the plug on it.

[cjmillsnun]

Towny is correct,

BR designed (and built) just about all its own rolling stock from its creation in 1948 to its demise in the early 1990s. One of its last designs was the Mk4 Coach, as used by GNER.

The Mk3 was designed originally for the IC125 of which the prototype went into testing in the early '70s. This is widely regarded to be THE standard for strength in passenger railway vehicles, and was the type of coach that was involved in the GWT trains in the Southall and Ladbrooke Grove accidents.

[Stuart]

Interesting thing I discovered this morning.

When Connex South Eastern ran our local franchise, they announced they had done a survey and found that people wanted them to redesign the Networker 465 carriages with fewer seats so more people could stand (Of course, I can imagine people saying "Yes, put fewer seats in. If I am standing, I take up less space").

South Eastern trains (who are running the franchise temporarily after Connex were sacked) have announced they are replacing the seats taken out (and actually adding more foldable seats) because, you guessed it, the public wants them..

Originally Posted by scastle

When Connex South Eastern ran our local franchise, they announced they had done a survey and found that people wanted them to redesign the Networker 465 carriages with fewer seats so more people could stand

I have to wonder exactly how that survey was phrased to get that result!

I wonder if they used Dogbert's consultancy agency...?

"Would you like us to put electrodes on your genitals or would you prefer to say that carriages should have fewer seats...?"

Of course the idea that they might put on *more coaches* probably never crossed their minds...!!!