Three dead after passenger train derails near Stonehaven

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Wow the footage shows quite a mess. Going to be interesting to read the report on what happened. No clear sign of what and were it started. One railcar down the hillside but two railcars on top of another. One going to be a 2nd power car, but what the heck happen to get those cars into those positions. Lots of speed and force needed of course, but still...
 
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Was this one of the shortened HST sets? If so, the cars would be refurbished Mk 3s, right?
That is my impression from the pictures.
My initial impression is that the rear power unit kept pushing for a few seconds after the derailment. Said to be using the opposite running line due to earlier landslide. Hope there were no catch points.
 
One report I read today mentioned a member of the train crew leaving the train to warn any oncoming traffic of the danger. This was one duty that was drilled into us when I worked at British Rail. Pleased to see that is still upheld. We placed 3 "detonators" on the running rail, which gave off a loud bang if an oncoming train ran over them, they could be heard in the driving cab and meant danger, emergency stop.
I guess the sheer momentum of a heavy engine unit at the rear could cause jack knifing too, even if not under power.
 
One report I read today mentioned a member of the train crew leaving the train to warn any oncoming traffic of the danger. This was one duty that was drilled into us when I worked at British Rail. Pleased to see that is still upheld. We placed 3 "detonators" on the running rail, which gave off a loud bang if an oncoming train ran over them, they could be heard in the driving cab and meant danger, emergency stop.
I guess the sheer momentum of a heavy engine unit at the rear could cause jack knifing too, even if not under power.
We called them " Torpedos" over here. Also put "Fuseees " next to the Rails to warn approaching Trains of danger ahead.
 
Sad news from Scotland...

Fatalities in Scotland...
So sad to see this accident. I have long been a fan of British trains... regardless of all the controversies over the years. When I was younger I took the night train to Aberdeen which means I had traveled over this route.

Much has been said about maintenance of British trains and the rails they ride upon. But my feeling is that the beauty of the British Isles, the historic bridges and scenery along the way, and the officially designated heritage railways... make entire system a world heritage site.

It's amazing that most sections of the entire rail system are still in use!

https://www.theguardian.com/public-...ailways-trains-britain-golden-age-steam-alive

britrail-map-1.jpg
 
Much has been said about maintenance of British trains and the rails they ride upon. But my feeling is that the beauty of the British Isles, the historic bridges and scenery along the way, and the officially designated heritage railways... make entire system a world heritage site.
This sounds crazy at first but once a mainline pulls up rail it's generally gone forever. I think a case could be made for protecting mainline routes indefinitely as a matter of national interest. Unfortunately the UK has lost something like 20% of their GDP and the future doesn't look that great.

 
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Certainly the UK rail system is more widespread than Amtrak's, sadly, as with most countries, we have lost a lot of the network since Dr. Beeching pruned it back.

View attachment 18431
Sad to see any kind of a cutback in such a beautiful and historic country... and the British trains are an important part of that history... I'm sure you know much more than I... but in the 60's got a Britrail Pass and was in 'Train Heaven!'
 
I suppose a few line have been rebuilt after the Beeching cuts settled down too, right?
Existing lines have been upgraded and modernised to some extent, but I am not aware of any "missing" lines being reinstated. I may be mistaken, I am afraid that I travelled much more on Amtrak or Indian trains in the last 20 years than the UK ones! :)
Talking of lost railways, my current apartment is built exactly on the site of a former train station, Sherwood, on the Nottingham Suburban Railway. The station closed long before Beeching in 1916, and the line closed altogether in 1954. This tower block that I live in was built in 1966. An interesting item is that the line was built originally to connect to a local brickworks, and I am told that most of the bricks to build St. Pancras station in London were made here. Despite the rail connection, I did not know anything about this before I moved in, honest! :)
1024px-Sherwood_railway_station.jpg

Wiki page for N.S.R.
 
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I am aware of at least one line from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, part of the old abandoned Waverley Line on which service has been restored. There may be others here and there. I did ride the restored service couple of years back when I was in Edinburgh.
 
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I am pleased to see that I was mistaken in respect of the re-opening of many train stations, etc.
I believe that many of the lines that have new stations were not "removed", but had remained in place as freight lines, so it was relatively easy to re-introduce the passenger side of things?
Much former railway land was sold off to developers, so limited scope to reinstate former lines in most areas.
 
From Caravanman's link in post #1:

"Network Rail has reviewed CCTV footage from the stations at which the service stopped and it's believed there were nine people, including crew, on the train. "​
Three dead out of nine is sobering.
 
Well, and of course the Southeast Suburban Service from London has been transformed with the addition of the Javelin service on HS-1.

The other big one is the transformation brought about by Thameslink, which continues to be further enhanced.
 
On an off hand thought -
Would it be possible if enough water was flooding the tracks for the train and its cars to hydroplane off the rails ?
Thus flipping some of the cars into the ditch next to the tracks.
Hydroplaning of automobiles on rain swollen roadways happens frequently - even heavy trucks are not immune -
so what about the possibility of this happening to train cars ?
 
The transport minister has requested a quick report from the rail operators to be available by the end of August.
It seems that the area may not have had good mobile phone coverage, an off duty rail worker travelling as a passenger apparently walked a mile to the signal box to rail the alarm...
 
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