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GWR 16X hitting tree near Dorking (02/04)
- Thread starter Pete_uk
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Agreed. Although Paul Clifton may be a reporter, should there have been a way for the driver to be informed, for the train to be stopped. No good calling 'Ghostbusters', so who? It could have been a lot worse.There are a few threads here about landslides but I don't know if this is one of them or something different.
Seems we have a problem with trees and the railway.
x.com
twitter.com
Video shows a GWR turbo unit hitting a fallen tree branches and coming to a stop.
All bridges should have a sign on with a contact to call the Network Rail control room, who can then contact signaller and ultimately the driver.
However as we all discovered when the HST recently hit the tree in Scotland a few weeks ago, that all takes time.
The signal spacing on the North Downs Line is very long though.
I guess that there could be a number to send photographic evidence to but even that could be used maliciously. A driver heading the other way could make a report, so how long had the tree actually been down?
Short of having CCTV all along the line, it is unfortunate that this sort of thing is difficult to catch.
I guess that there could be a number to send photographic evidence to but even that could be used maliciously. A driver heading the other way could make a report, so how long had the tree actually been down?
Short of having CCTV all along the line, it is unfortunate that this sort of thing is difficult to catch.
wilsontown
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If there's a tree down on an active railway that clearly constitutes an emergency so I'd be ringing 999 if there were no other options.
swt_passenger
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If you’re actually on or at a road/rail bridge ringing the NR number on the bridge information plate will almost certainly be quicker.
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
You use GSMR to contact drivers these days and the signaller have an All Stop Emergency message available as well
Bottom line is this is another example of tree that shouldn't be there especially as it looks like its inside the boundary
bramling
Veteran Member
Until we get rid of the ridiculous attitude in this country that trees are somehow "special", then this problem is never going to go away.
Round here, my local council served notices that two trees were to be cut down due to them being diseased to the point of dangerous, there were still significant numbers of objections. Meanwhile, I know someone who got a job as a tree officer in the highways department of the county council specifically to try and be obstructive to trees being removed or even pruned, as he "loves trees very much and can't bear to see them interfered with".
It's not like this country is short of trees, I've never understood why this generates so much fuss.
It sounds like someone in the clip was on the phone reporting it at the time.
swt_passenger
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Paul Clifton has re-tweeted it? He’s received it from the person at the scene, who it now seems was phoning it in at the time.
RailWonderer
Established Member
Why is the driver not slowing down, or does breaking on a Turbo take that long? He would have saved GWR (more like the DfT) a few cents if he breaked earlier.
bramling
Veteran Member
Looks like he’s slowing down to me. If the train had been doing a line speed of something like 70 mph then it’s going to take a very good few hundred metres to stop.
Must be watching a different video, as it certainly looks like the train is slowing down.
Surreytraveller
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Are you watching the video backwards or something? It is slowing down, and the video also shows the train stopping
100% its slowing, else it would have stopped half a mile along (or off...) the line! Trains don't stop on a sixpence
Braking earlier is all well and good, if you know there is a reason to brake. It may not have been clear to the driver that there was a tree on the line until it was too late to completely avoid it
I wondered, too, whether the people recording/reporting it were also waving their arms to "signal" to the driver that there was an issue
thelongestroad
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I suspect the driver would have seen the tree before the people waving.
Western Gaffer
Member
Where's Jenny Agutter when you need her?
[image of classic 1970 film The Railway Children, featuring a famous scene of kids waving to warn a train of a hazard, albeit from within the four-foot, thereby causing a hazard themselves]
[image of classic 1970 film The Railway Children, featuring a famous scene of kids waving to warn a train of a hazard, albeit from within the four-foot, thereby causing a hazard themselves]
QueensCurve
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Trees are important, but there are places where they shouldn't be.
contrex
Established Member
A frequent thought of mine in 1970 aged 17.
More likely just standing there filming, hoping for some decent social media material.
Are those special covers to hide the fact that the sleepers are historically incorrect concrete? Just asking for a friend.Where's Jenny Agutter when you need her?
[image of classic 1970 film The Railway Children, featuring a famous scene of kids waving to warn a train of a hazard, albeit from within the four-foot, thereby causing a hazard themselves]
Western Gaffer
Member
I suspect that if they were aiming for historical accuracy, that GWR pannier tank wouldn't have been painted in that peculiar livery, or will someone correct me that they did carry this in service at some point?
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
It was representing a fictional "Great Northern and Southern Railway"... but I think we're getting a bit off the topic now?
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