Severn Tunnel incident? 21/9/22.

[Ashley Hill]

The BBC Wales news page is reporting an incident yesterday where a train passing through the Severn Tunnel was involved in an incident.

Apparently a loud bang was heard and passengers reported flames being seen outside the train.

An accompanying picture shows 158 car 52762 with a shattered saloon window. The train involved was the 1723 Pompey-Cardiff. GWR have said it
was an engine fault.

Any ideas anyone?

chttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62995295

Passengers described seeing flames from the window of their train during an incident which closed the Severn Tunnel.
Some told BBC Wales they heard a "bang" before a carriage window shattered on the journey from Bristol to Cardiff on Wednesday.
The tunnel was closed while the track was inspected.
Great Western Railway did not comment on a fire, but said a fault was being investigated.

 

[Towers]

That'd be 158762 then (which was the front unit in the Salisbury collision). It sounds like the flames/flash were a destructive engine failure of some sort, and the window was likely damaged by an item of debris bouncing back off of the tunnel wall.

 

[LowLevel]

That'd be 158762 then (which was the front unit in the Salisbury collision). It sounds like the flames/flash were a destructive engine failure of some sort, and the window was likely damaged by an item of debris bouncing back off of the tunnel wall.

That's about right I think. The Cummins lumps under Sprinters do occasionally go bang, much like any other engine.

 

[ainsworth74]

The Cummins lumps under Sprinters do occasionally go bang, much like any other engine.

Well hopefully they go bang all the time just internally rather than externally!

 

[LowLevel]

Well hopefully they go bang all the time just internally rather than externally!

The contents of the block exiting through the crank case is not just the preserve of locomotives! One of our 158s let go near Thetford a couple of years ago, the resulting mess was quite impressive to see once it had been dragged back to Norwich and the oil had been hosed down by Crown Point.

The sequence of events is usually the same, guard reports hitting something to the driver with debris being ejected out the back. Further examination then tends to find it's the engine itself that has failed, or one of the drive train components.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Presumably the incident in the Severn Tunnel was on 21SEP2022 (Wednesday) not 22SEP2022 (Thursday).

Realtime Trains | 1723 Portsmouth Harbour to Severn Tunnel Junction | 21/09/2022

Real-time train running information for 1723 departure from Portsmouth Harbour to Severn Tunnel Junction on 21/09/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

This service is partially cancelled​

This service was cancelled between Severn Tunnel Junction and Cardiff Central due to a problem with the traction equipment (MD).

More here, including a pic of the damaged unit.

Severn Tunnel: Train passengers saw flames from window

A carriage window shattered as the train went through the Severn Tunnel, passengers say.

www.bbc.co.uk

Extract of BBC story...

Passengers described seeing flames from the window of their train during an incident which closed the Severn Tunnel.
Some told BBC Wales they heard a "bang" before a carriage window shattered on the journey from Bristol to Cardiff on Wednesday.
The tunnel was closed while the track was inspected.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

Hopefully nobody was injured.
Thank goodness the train driver did the right thing by stopping after the tunnel rather than it - carbon monoxide poisoning from a 158 is the last thing that people will want to have experienced!

 

[dan4291]

Hopefully nobody was injured.
Thank goodness the train driver did the right thing by stopping after the tunnel rather than it - carbon monoxide poisoning from a 158 is the last thing that people will want to have experienced!

It's in the rulebook that if there's a suspected fire on a train the driver should not stop in a tunnel, cutting or on a viaduct or anywhere that would be difficult for emergency services to reach, so the driver did exactly the right thing.

 

[jackot]

That'd be 158762 then (which was the front unit in the Salisbury collision)

Very unlucky train then. As others have said, hopefully nobody was injured.

 

[TPO]

Hopefully nobody was injured.
Thank goodness the train driver did the right thing by stopping after the tunnel rather than it - carbon monoxide poisoning from a 158 is the last thing that people will want to have experienced!

Not much chance of that in the Severn Tunnel.The ventilation system is really rather impressive....

TPO

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

Not much chance of that in the Severn Tunnel.The ventilation system is really rather impressive....

TPO

Wow that's good - I didn't realise that, sorry. Thanks for clarifying !