"Investigators are likely to examine the presence of a lorry carrying highly flammable carbolic acid, or phenol, which it is claimed overturned before the blast."

How can a lorry overturn in a freight wagon (caged) when the train is going more or less in a straight line??

Tony.

I agree Tony.
Some of the HGV's on the Swiss Piggyback trains bounce around quite a bit when going over pointwork but they don't overturn.

Perhaps the rail vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure and the whole lot toppled over?

Wouldn't that have likely derailed the train, or uncoupled the car from the rest of the train at the very least?

Who's to say that it didn't?.......... that could be why the train was brought to a halt.
The media seem to have very little factual information and most reports are pure speculation or based on "eye-witness" reports from lorry drivers whose view of the incident would have been very restricted in any case. Once the investigators get to work we will probably start to discover some of the facts.

Channel Tunnel Reopens
 

Channel Tunnel Reopens.

http://fyad.org/w5zd

Am I the only one who finds this fire massively suspicious? The same apparent cause as last time in more or less the same circumstances. Correct me if I'm wrong but this lorry with apparently red hot brakes was loaded onto a lorry shuttle up to an hour before departure after waiting around for departure for even longer, but after all that cooling time it manages to reignite only when safely in the tunnel. I don't believe even a red hot wheel will stay at flammable temperature for that long! And there was no smell or smoke at all before departure - doesn't that all sound beyond the realms of "normal" probability? Jacques Gounon has rejected this apparent explanation and I agree with him. The tunnel is now an economic success. Who stands to gain from its economic sabotage?

Because a derailment at speed that resulted in the toppling of one car would probably result in the toppling of others, probably the majority of the train, and if anyone did survive *that* to tell the story they'd certainly have noticed. If the train derailed to such a degree as for any part of it to turn onto it's side then no doubt that would have been reported by now.

I remember the 1996 fire, when a lorry loaded with (I think) expanded polystyrene chips caught fire. The policy at the time was "if you catch fire, keep going in the same direction PDQ" but the train driver ignored this and stopped. I later heard that £200,000,000 worth of damage was done, but I find this hard to believe. I reckon the principle damage will be to OHLE and signalling wires.
Swiss Trains - if you do manage to get on the Eurostar, I can tell you it's quick (St. Pancras to Cheriton in about 30 mins!) and it's smooth. I didn't think much of the seats - my bum went numb on 2 occasions, but there's a lot of it!!!!!!!!!!! The tunnel itself is nothing to write home about.

43006

If you say so.
I was simply trying to create a scenario in which someone might have got the impression that the lorry had overturned.

Anything of this nature should NEVER in a month of Sunday's be allowed through such a confined space. WHERE were the so-called H&S 'Experts' to allow this to pass through? WHOEVER GAVE THE OKAY FOR THIS TO GO THROUGH THE TUNNEL SHOULD BE BL**DY WELL SACKED AND IMMEDIATELY, NO MATTER WHAT SIDE OF THE CHANNEL.