How to close the BML in one easy go.

[Carlisle]

5 minute job; tops. Line block, litter picking stick.

An old shunting or hook switch pole might had been man enough for the trolley if one was available nearby

 

[tsr]

"Trolley falling on the track" is actually quite a big part of the risk assessments for certain stations, particularly larger ones, and is the reason why staff are so keen to keep them safely on the concourse at places like Gatwick Airport. Due to linespeeds and electrified lines, the consequences of a train hitting a mesh of metalwork sitting in its way on the BML (particularly if debris flies towards waiting passengers) is a bit of a nightmare. From my viewpoint it seems this particular incident was managed effectively.

5 minute job; tops. Line block, litter picking stick.

I can't quite believe you would suggest that. You've got a 750V DC juice rail and what appears to be a part of the metal trolley (partly concealed by other debris) very close to it. You'd have a very slim margin of error before you lost a significant part of your body to electrical burns, or your life.

You would think.

Line block,
Current off
Wait for MOM
Canx trains
Brighton in chaos.

Did not help that the blue trolley was nice and metally.

Correct process in this case.

Except none of the metally trolley was in contact with the juice rail and could have been retrieved from the platform and the rest looks like cardboard and general trash that could also have been recovered from the platform.

Waiting for a mom.....The railway really has gone mad.

Not mad at all. The trolley was very close to the third rail and the litter could have contained any manner of stuff which could have conducted electricity. One false move and you've had it.

Most of that stuff, especially the crucial metal trolley could have been recovered FROM the platform.

No, it couldn't. There was also a high chance that the larger bits of debris could have become dislodged in such a manner that it would have then fouled shoe gear on trains anyway. Shoe gear being ripped off at 90mph on the Brighton Mainline is not a happy situation.

It is crap though, station staff should have some form of training that allows them to access the line in specific situations. That could have been dealt with in less than five minutes. Staff phone signaller for a line block, signaller grants blockage, staff remove things, give up line block, job done. Granted it may be slightly trickier with the third rail as you may have get the ECRO involved, however, when I was having my PTS training in 1993, we were shown how to operate hook switches. Senior platform staff used to be able to flag signals and wind/clip points.

The latter part of your post is sadly no longer accurate. Most GTR staff are not trained to do anything of that nature with hook switches, signals or points.

You aren't going to recover a probably very weighty metal trolley from the platform, except with the aid of some sort of small industrial crane. Very unlikely. The practical solution is for it to be manhandled back up onto the platform.

Quite, or at least wait for the time to come when sufficient care can be taken to try different ways of retrieving everything (debris included).

May be a silly question, but: Don't both the up and the down lines split at Haywards Heath into two tracks in each direction? Wouldn't it have been possible to keep trains running, but route all the ones scheduled to go over the affected track into the other platform for that direction instead, until people were ready to safely pick up the trolley? Could the timetable have (roughly) coped with that without too much disruption?

This is indeed what happened, but it's not helped by two up attachments and two down detachments every hour that have train overtaking while they take place. Also as it not a planned or temporary current switch off of the electrical sections but an emergency switch off including the abutting sections which would of closed most of the railway from Hassocks to Balocombe Jcn. So a way was found just to switch off from Copyhold Jcn to Haywards Heath for the Up + Dn main lines instead as it wasn't a true life or death type of emergency switch off.

Yep, it was basically negotiated down to a switch off for Platforms 2 and 3 and the short adjacent stretch. Initially it appears to have been treated as a "worst case scenario" of a large metal industrial bin on the track, rather than the small waste trolley it turned out to be.

An old shunting or hook switch pole might had been man enough for the trolley if one was available nearby

One probably could have been found, but there might not have been much point trying if it could just make things worse and the correct resources were already dispatched.

 

[Sunset route]

Yep, it was basically negotiated down to a switch off for Platforms 2 and 3 and the short adjacent stretch. Initially it appears to have been treated as a "worst case scenario" of a large metal industrial bin on the track, rather than the small waste trolley it turned out to be.

I believe you and I probably sit on opposite sides of the BML, so we might of seen events unfold from out respective desks.

 

[tsr]

I believe you and I probably sit on opposite sides of the BML, so we might of seen events unfold from out respective desks.

"Desk", on the day in question, would have been pushing it...