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Old 3rd April 2008, 18:48
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swisstrains swisstrains is offline  
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: England
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Contrary to my last post the "Railway Update" magazine reports that the points were not replaced after the first derailment because they were not damaged.
Investigations have shown that both derailments occurred while trains were changing tracks after restarting from signal stops and on both occasions the track was inadequately lubricated. Apparently the wheels of trains travelling at low speed whilst under acceleration are more prone to climbing up the outside rail on curves than trains travelling at high speed. This climbing effect is made worse when the sides of the rails are dry and inadequately lubricated.
It is thought that the inadequate lubrication could be caused by the increasing number of German locos being used over this route. German locos used in Switzerland do have flange lubricators but their software is not programmed to deposit as much lubricant onto the rails as a Swiss loco. The Swiss are now looking into making a higher level of flange lubrication one of the preconditions for a foreign loco's use in Switzerland
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