Collision with tractor near Leominster (22/05/25)

Tomnick · 2 Jun 2026

PhilipRdNGauge said:
The telephones on all these UWC could be routed to a single handset & if the Up/down block instruments show Line Clear or Train in Section, as that phone rings a big sign lights up saying "Reminder, Block Occupied Say NO". A little ESP32 & a cheap LED sign from Temu would do the job for £30, although Westinghouse or Siemens will probably charge £30,000 for it.

It seems that the main job of the signaller in this box is to answer that phone. They aren't working a complex junction or regulating a busy commuter line, they are accepting a train from up the line, setting their instruments & signals & passing it on to the next box. Due to fatigue, distraction or being told by a superior to ignore the rules they forgot they had accepted a train & that it was in section when answering that one call.

If only it was that simple. It is perfectly legitimate to let someone cross with a train accepted or even already in section, if there's enough time for them to do so safely. It is only for large/slow vehicles requiring signal protection that the block indicator becomes rather more definitive.

Krokodil said:
How do they handle unusually large or slow vehicles?

Do they have their own protecting signals, are they slotted with the controlling box's signals, or is there no signal protection at all, barring phoning the controlling box and asking for a block?

The ones that I used to supervise, they still had the repeater instruments but were not allowed to rely on them – they just used them as a guide to know when to phone and when not to bother. We still provided signal protection directly in one direction and via the block in the other.

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Bikeman78 · 3 Jun 2026

AlterEgo said:
No police consequences.

I'm not making a determination on if "the signaller should face severe consequences". However I invite others to reflect on what might have happened had the tractor driver been working unexpectedly, tired, after a family emergency, under pressure from an older colleague, and in doing so wilfully drove their vehicle in such an obviously dangerous way (and indeed in a way which was ingrained, a regular occurrence, and reckless) and caused an accident on the road.

As it happens, I watched an episode of Crash scene investigators on channel 5 this morning. A partially loaded 20 tonne trailer came unhooked from the tractor, rolled back and toppled on top of a small car, killing one occupant. The towing hook and the eye on the drawbar were severely worn, so the towbar jumped off the hook when the trailer went over a speed bump. Farm vehicles seem to require nothing in the way of formal paperwork, such as an MOT, to drive on public roads. So the owner was off the hook (excuse the pun). The driver of the tractor got a 16 week suspended prison sentence. But I agree with the rest of what you have written.

Collision with tractor near Leominster (22/05/25)

Tomnick

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Bikeman78

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