September 2024 Club Night
Hello to members, well if you were not here you missed another good one!
Our chairman started the proceedings with a welcome and some business for the club. Main thing was getting enough boots on the ground for the up-coming exhibition. Also, our attendance at the Brambleton open day.
There were some general queries and then we moved on to the speakers for the evening Michael Watts and his apprentice Mark!
Michael introduced us to the job they did for Network Rail and later Eurostar when it was under Network Rail, and then afterwards when they separated. Michael had photographs of accidents he had attended and the kind of work they did. Mainly getting rolling stock back on the tracks and the way this was done. I was surprised how quickly some of these jobs were completed. The way a flanged wheel can deform into two flanges and then its passage across the points causing a derailment.
The memorable one was the flat wheel, the part of the wheel worn flat was a good 300mm across. It had seized, and the sensors failed that should detect this, which resulted in it being dragged for over 100 miles on a wet night but still staying on the rails.
For accidents he would be first on site to evaluate the situation and deal with the consequences and act accordingly. His travels to rail accidents took him to several European countries and he told us of some of idiosyncrasies of other work gangs from those countries.
Life seemed to be hectic and exciting with job after job often piling up together. I was surprised that they would take just twenty minutes to re-rail a goods wagon. The locomotives were a bigger problem but the Eurostar trains of fourteen coaches were difficult to separate. Re-railing a carriage with the distributed drive units throughout the train was time consuming.
To jack up a coach it was necessary to jack up the adjacent coach as well, and possibly disconnect the many control cables involved. Equipment could then be inserted to lift and then re-locate over the rails etc.
These coaches are referred to as articulated, with two coaches sharing one bogie set. The odd bit was that the coach with the bar (as in refreshments) in it has no wheels at all. It appears that the end of the coach plugs into the bogie and the next coach plugs in on top of the first coach and into the bogie (same locii). Sort of stacking up as you move along the train.
The coaches would also connect in this way from the other end of the train and when you get to the middle the bar coach has to share wheels at each end and so has none of its own!
Michael frequently passed over some of the information for Mark to further explain which he did. Mark was often involved in living in the coach attached to the breakdown crane though neither of them had any regard for the cranes. Michael managed to topple one over on one occasion! But he said you can do any job with the hydraulic jacks they had.
Among the photos you will see a universal coupling that fitted any loco, both pulling and pushing. There is a ‘stranded’ coach trying to go three different ways! Some locos were refurbished and some cut up on site as too difficult to remove.
There was an interesting set of events involving crashes and damage where one of their own was the culprit! There were some suspicious circumstances and odd incidents but unbeknown to the railway workers the Police were already investigating and filming the person involved. After the two loco crash incident he was arrested and taken away.
Michael only told us about general accidents and not the ones involving passenger fatalities.
After our tea break we were shown a manufacturers' promotional video on how to cope with all accident situations. With a few more anecdotes Michael gradually brought the evening to a close. Michael had more for us, but time was against it. We will take advantage of Michael and Mark sharing their experiences with us during next year.
There had been much inter action from the members, judging from the questions, and they both received a well-deserved round of applause.
As always there was a group of models at the end of the room, some unfinished for all to look at, and talk about. Members are always welcome to bring in a work-in-progress or something of interest. Soon it was time to clear up and depart.
Thank you to all who were putting tables and chairs out and collecting them back in. Thanks to Neil and Jack for the tea and biscuits.
Next excitement is our exhibition at the Townsend C of E school, (quote) "Further on up the road".
Well, I like Eric Clapton!
For music fans try this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o31FUjA-pk
Roy Verden 14th Sept 2024