UK: rescuing a failed train

[John Ashworth]

The following, taken from uk.railway, is a description by a railway professional of the rescue first of the passengers and then the train itself when a commuter train failed. The detail is fascinating, and it shows what a complicated operation it actually is. I think even those who are not familiar with the stations named can appreciate the description.

First of all the unit was on the up line, the train involved being 06.39
Ore - Cannon St.

It depends what you mean by "the rescue" train. When the Ore service came to
a stand (formed 12 coach 375) very quickly the following 07.40 Tunbridge
Wells - Charing Cross (formed 10 coach Networker) was at a stand behind it
at Hildenborough. This had to be moved back first before any rescue train
could go to the passengers. There was a nearby access point (from a public
road bridge) however the gate was chained out of use owing to the access
steps being in poor condition. This meant that detraining was out of the
question. To my mind trying to arrange road transport to meet somewhere in
the region of 750 - 800 people would have been a logistical nightmare.

So the decision was made to get a train up behind to try and push/rescue the
passengers. The Tunbridge Wells train was moved back wrong line to Tonbridge
(a series of procedures to follow, as not a signalled move), and an
additional delay while trains were emptied at Tonbridge to (1) provide a
platform for the Tunbridge Wells train to come back into and (2) supply an
assisting train. The assisting train needed to be emptied, otherwise its
easy to get two train loads of people stuck in the middle of nowhere.

While this was going on the driver was in touch with various technical
people receiving assistance, but the fault appears to have caused the whole
12 coach train to have become disabled. There was also a possibility of an
attaching train having the fault transferring. About 09.40 the front and
rear units got power and there was hope of limping the train forward to
Sevenoaks, but this was scuppered when the brakes would not then release.

During this time an empty 12 coach train was brought up to Hildenborough and
at 10.00 went onto the back of the failed train to remove the passengers. By
shortly after 10.00, the evacuation of the failed train was underway,
however it required 750 - 800 people to walk though one gangway connection
into the other train which had arrived behind. As can be imagined this took
time, but by 11.00 the passengers were transfered and the rescue train was
ready to move back to Tonbridge, once authorization for the wrong line move
was obtained.

During this time a crew from GBRf were found to go to Hoo Jn and pick up an
engine there, and this then started making its way over towards Sevenoaks.
The fitters were on site as well, but despite numerous efforts unable to get
the train to come back to life.

There were several false dawns when the staff on site believed they had
fixed the faults, only for something else to then occur.

During this time only a limited amount of trains could go via Redhill
(Network Rail Sussex zone stated not more than one per hour to be diverted)
and this was also hindered by Networkers not being cleared to run via
Redhill, and also the limited crew knowledge (only Tonbridge and Hastings
crews sign the route via Redhill). All other trains were having to use the
down line in both directions, and owing to the nature of the signalling, a
maximum of one train every 15 minutes could go up the down line (assuming of
course that nothing is actually coming the other way).

The rescue engine from Hoo Jn got to the failure at around 13.00, and was
attached to haul the errant train away. Owing to the different couplings on
loco and units, this meant the movement back to Tonbridge could only go at a
maximum of 5mph. The wrong line move commenced at 13.13, and was back in
clear at Tonbridge by 13.54, at which time the up line could be used for the
first time since 07.45 this morning.

During this time disruption spread out over a vast area due to train crews
in the wrong place, not helped by the complexity of the crew workings. The
intricate nature of the crew working is something that South Eastern are
aware of, but have so far chosen not to address, for whatever reason.

In addition the supervision of train crew has been drastically reduced,
instead of each depot having its own Train Crew Supervisor, they are now
based at Orpington and Ashford for the whole county (so one person deals
with seven depots instead of one). I understand train crew find it difficult
to contact these staff, as needless to say the phone is constantly busy due
to the vastly increased workload. This is another issue that I believe South
Eastern are aware of.