Important Message RE Dangerous working Methods on the Railway.
 

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/...in_01_2011.cfm

The above link is from RAIB and should be read as a matter of urgency.
The contents of this report is a daming expose of slack working on the railway.
In all my time as a guard, union rep and safety rep have I seen such slackness as shown in this report.
If you do not know what you are doing, you should not be playing at trains.
No rule book, no safety critical records the list is endless.

How times have changed I have a film taken I think in the 1960 s at a yard it may have been tinsley, the shunter is running along the side of moving wagons coupling them with a pole he then runs accross the path of wagons rolling down the hump to pin them down and apply the brakes
I viewed I and thought how were people allowed to take such risks

This report has already been widely circulated round Heritage Railways and I can assure you that it has been widely read and acted on. It is causing railways to review their training schemes and paper work. Foxfield have had to make major changes to training, assessment and documentation and review all aspects of opperations.

Everyone needs to understand that Heritage Railways can no longer "Play Trains." They are run under the same rules and regulations as Network Rail and if they do not reach the standards required they will feel the full force of the law!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I have seen that film, and when I started on the railway such things were still in go.
It takes many years to get rid of this culture of working praticies that were dangerous, all competencies have got to be on paper written down so folk can see what is required.
Such things as spectacles have to be checked and provided for train crews and a spare pair carried whilst on duty.
No more trainers when on duty, no drinking as was the norm.
I have been drugs tested at 0300hrs before I went onto the railway.
If you have a SPAD, you have to provided a sample to ensure you are clear of drugs of abuse or achol, the list goes on.

As has been said, this particular report has been arround the movement. Sadly there are several railways under improvement notices at the moment.
Richard

I posted a link to this two weeks ago http://www.railwayforum.net/showthread.php?t=9239

Regards, 62440

I'm sorry that I have duplicated the post, as i did not see your post.

HM181

Hi guys,and Colchesterken,putting wagon brakes down can be a work of art so to speak, i did this on a regular basis coming down Miles Platting bank,putting ones full weight on the brake stick is highly dangerous as one has to put your whole weight across the brake stick by being a sort of pendulum,i would put 6 down on the coal wagons,and the guard would do the same,at Manchester Vic the loco would have to drag the train clear of East Junctions stop and take them off again,then whistle the Bobby for right away. Torquay.+5

All the matters requiring attention in the report were already in hand at Foxfield prior to the accident, the improvement notice just meant that the process had to be accelerated. What this report does highlight is that one of the most important things to bare in mind when working on any railway, or in any industry come to that, is communication. The accident was not caused by people not having a piece of paper to say they were competent, it was caused by the people involved not communicating fully to each other their intentions prior to and during the move.

This is probably true in 100's of employment scenario's where something is being undertaken by more than one person not just Preserved Railways where it has the potential to become deadly.

People in general NEED TO TALK to one another more

Just to add to my earlier post regarding pieces of paper, the staff at Foxfield are very professional in their approach to operations, on a railway with the gradients it has you cannot be anything but. A piece of paper to say you are competent will not prevent an accident such as this happening in the future on any railway, preserved or national network!
And to respond to the OP's last few comments, the railway has a rule book which was in place at the time of the accident, that some staff had not signed for theirs was an administrative error. Also a competency review was underway at the time for all operating staff and I had done mine a few weeks prior to the incident. All the items highlighted in the report are being, or have been dealt with and the railway will be operating as usual with everyone involved fully assessed and all paperwork up to date.

Avonside1563, is it not true to say that the issues raised had been dealt with by late November and indeed the railway was able to operate it's December Santa season as normal?

Regards, 62440.

The reson this incident happened was people playing trains and the report spells that out to the nth degree.
Who gave to tip to the goods train,thats the guards job?
The guard in this instance is very lucky to have walked away from this job.
It all reflects an unsafe attitude from the shed cat to the bosses of this line.

Railway Accidents
 

Its not happened because people were playing at trains.Wheni joined BR in the 70s guards and shunters were regulary being injured running after wagons ect. Drivers got injured getting on and off moving engines. It does not happen the same now as there is very little shunting and no guards on freight trains. But loot at the R.A.I.B. web site to see all the accidents on the so called professional railway.

HM181, I suggest you take a long hard look at the national network and tell me that things are any better there? Before you start making sweeping statements as you have done perhaps you should visit the railway and see just how professional the people running it are. It has been operating since 1967 and this is the first such incident in all that time. Could it have been prevented? Yes. Will it happen again? Possibly, who knows? It was a moment's lapse by otherwise very conscientious people.

62440, yes the railway was able to operate its Santa trains having dealt with the issues sufficiently to satisfy the requirements in the report.

May I add, that the people who "play at railways" today are in all probability a lot safer than "real" railways in the steam age.

The safety culture of this modern world is reflected in every business/industry today and we all benefit from that.:)

Only 3 people matter when shunting a train, those are the Signalman(If there is one) , the driver of the train and the guard /person ic the movement.
Anyone else should not be there as the shunter/guard gives the driver such instructions as required to work the train.
A safety critical job brief should have taken place by the person i/c with the driver of the train so the driver was aware of the moves to be made.
Seems to me there were too many chiefs and not enough indians.

HM181, I quite agree with your last comment and this was where there was the communication breakdown that lead to the incident occuring. As you will see in paragraph 27 of the RIAB report they are highlighting this incident to all railways, and I suspect particularly in respect of record keeping reading between the lines. Foxfield have taken the points directly relating to them on board and will be fully compliant before the operating season starts.
In closing, I'm sure that Foxfield won't be the last railway that something like this occurs at, human nature being what it is. Let us hope that it is no more serious.

At least this incident was reported, unlike several hundred on network rail.....http://www.rail.co/2011/01/25/indepe...ished-by-rssb/

Regards, 62440.

Every day all over the railway system in the 70s and years before.

Seems that this incident occured due to a failure to identify who was rostered what role and failure to communicate. Even the most sensible of people will behave illogically when something happens that they don't expect. The thing now is to learn from it.
Richard

The whole process of railway safety has evolved over the last 200 years by investigating accidents and learning from the results. This process continues on both Network Rail and Heritage Railways.

Looking back over his previous posts I suspect that HM181 will never be convinced that those of us who work on Hertitage Railways are not, at best, certifiable idiots.

I do commend Nigel for efforts to try and prove otherwise and he knows that I am fully aware of the effects this accident has had on the staff working at Foxfield and the efforts made to learn from it.

I would again remind everyone who is willing to listern, that Hertitage Railways have to operate under the same rules and regulations that apply to the mainline system including all the attendant paper work.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Here is an un-safe practice, last week a light rail driver was photographed by a passenger doing a crossword puzzle while driving the train. Calgary Transit announced today, the driver is no longer with the company.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/colum.../17571781.html

Unbelievable. What a dumb thing to do at the best of times, let alone when the passengers can see into your cab.

I always throw any newspapers out of the cab when I take a train, because it's such a contentious issue nowadays.

(Changing tack slightly onto a nerdy vein - I've never heard of a camera with embedded GPS data before. Is this new, or am I slipping behind the times ?)

FP

I was told last night of an incident that was witnessed within the last few weeks on Network Rail.
A friend of mine was talking to a driver at Stafford station who had been stuck there for over 3 hours trying to make his way back to Crewe. A class 70 was on its way through northbound on a train of empty coal hoppers and the stranded driver had spoken to his colleague on the 70 to pick him up. The train slowed to somewhere around 15mph through the platform road and the driver on the platform made a running jump onto the loco!
Human nature being what it is this sort of thing will always take place no matter what rules and regulations are put in place.

With one little slip, that man could have slipped and been killed.
One of the first things I was told when I started on the railway, was This
No
Use
Rushing.
The more you rush the more mistakes you can make, some you get away with, and others you do not.
At Doncaster Belmont Yard, a member of staff decided to ride on a ballast vehicle which did not have the correct fittings for man riding. He got the sack.
Another EWS shunter in a private yard had a bad habit of driving a private 0-6-0 diesel shunter without training.
He was told and told again not to do this, but he still went on driving this engine. He came off the road. He was sacked. Years later he admitted that he was stupid.