Cable thefts at Nuneaton

[bengolding]

A friend tells me that he has endured a horrific week on the Nuneaton - Birmingham New St line. For three consecutive days, vandals have stolen copper signalling cables at the same location just north of Nuneaton, resulting in no Cross Country trains being able to run, and buses being laid on between Birmingham and Leicester. Those that did run suffered delays of 45+ minutes.

I was delayed a few months back by vandals stealing cables at Water Orton. This stretch of line must be a blackspot for this kind of thing.

 

[O L Leigh]

Someone tried to get on my train with what looked like a bundle of illegally obtained cables, some of which looked to be about the right gauge to have been used on the railway. It's just a shame that he had to pick a train that had RPI's with BTP back-up.

O L Leigh

 

[AlexS]

I and a couple of colleagues were knocking about after hours one evening before heading away to find a pikey walking out from behind our shed with a wheelbarrow full of cable. He was encouraged to leave it alone and disappear.

He tried to tell us a manager had said he could have it for a sculpture

 

[Philip Elliott]

A friend tells me that he has endured a horrific week on the Nuneaton - Birmingham New St line. For three consecutive days, vandals have stolen copper signalling cables at the same location just north of Nuneaton, resulting in no Cross Country trains being able to run, and buses being laid on between Birmingham and Leicester. Those that did run suffered delays of 45+ minutes.

I was delayed a few months back by vandals stealing cables at Water Orton. This stretch of line must be a blackspot for this kind of thing.

Tell me about it I was caught up in it for the last two days. Was very lucky on Monday - my train was the last one through before disaster struck. Seems it is an NR staff member that is responsible...

 

[yorkie]

Tell me about it I was caught up in it for the last two days. Was very lucky on Monday - my train was the last one through before disaster struck. Seems it is an NR staff member that is responsible...

Sounds like the guy who was caught a few years ago, also from the same area, who was an ex-employee who did deliberate sabotage. I forgot the details of the case but it made the news.

 

[Dai.]

Copper is apparently very expensive. So I doubt they'd have too much of a plan for it. Steal it, sell it, move on.

 

[90019]

Copper is apparently very expensive. So I doubt they'd have too much of a plan for it. Steal it, sell it, move on.

Yes, the price of copper has shot up in recent years and it's become very expensive, although I think there may have been a slight fall in prices recently, not completely sure about that though.

 

[bengolding]

Tell me about it I was caught up in it for the last two days. Was very lucky on Monday - my train was the last one through before disaster struck. Seems it is an NR staff member that is responsible...

That's interesting, an inside job. My friend was on the on time 16:09 service from New St on Monday, which was 90 late into Nuneaton. All subsequent trains were cancelled or bustituted. The vandals seem to have a habit of doing their dirty work in the early afternoon on each occasion.

Let's hope the BTP will be on site tomorrow to see if they strike again.

 

[O L Leigh]

It's a tricky one to call. We often see blokes in orange vests tugging lengths of cable around in connection with power upgrades, GSM-R installation and other tasks. How would we know whether these were legitimate folk from S&T or the local pikeys helping themselves?

Unless there's a bright blue flash and all the signals going back to danger (in which case it's definately S&T ), there's no way to tell them apart.

O L Leigh

 

[Old Timer]

Old and dirty HV vests are a sure sign, as are vests without names or names blacked out. Lack of, or obviously dirty Safety helmets are another giveaway.

A lack of Lookouts or any obvious warning system ( or line blockage ) rates high on the list.

Remember that the all orange rule (ignored by NR staff in lots of cases) should help a little.

As a guide none of the principal Infrastucture Contractors use unmarked vehicles in the normal course of events, neither do they use old vehicles or vehicles which are obviously damaged and in poor condition.

As a sort of general rule, it is very rare for signalling cables to be taken out of the cable troughing except when there is a fault or when there is a resignalling scheme. If you see people "working" on a cable trough in other situations then it is well worth a telephone call, even if it does prove to be a false alarm.

 

[O L Leigh]

Thanks for the pointers, but old and dirty kit seems to be de rigeur in these parts, as is discarding the "all orange" rule, and it isn't helped when the weather heats up and they start discarding some of their layers. As for lookouts, well the quality and placement of those seems to vary enormously. I saw one this week standing right by the gang on the inside of a bend.

We seem to have quite a bit of re-cabling going on. As mentioned before, we've got GSM-R going in and have had a few power supply upgrades with new cabling and feeds to OLE section switches at certain locations. In addition, there appears to be quite a bit of work clearing, renewing and even replacing sections of the concrete troughing.

O L Leigh

 

[Old Timer]

Yes, I can understand yours being a lot more difficult, but at the end of the day I am sure you will get that certain Railwayman's "gut feeling" that all is not right.

 

[O L Leigh]

I hope so. It's always something that crosses my mind whenever I see a gang dragging cable out of the troughs and I always check them out to make sure they appear to be legit.

It's just that it occurred to me that if cabling was going missing during the middle of the day it might be the work of a bogus but outwardly respectable looking S&T gang.

O L Leigh