What is a 'Mishap'?

[Teapot42]

Checking trains home tonight, I noticed a train cancelled due to a mishap. That seems a very vague term - is there anything specific it means in railway terminology?

As an aside, do Trainsplit and Real Time Trains get their data feed from different places? I'd notionally selected the 17:21 from Normanton to Chesterfield as my return trip. I got a notification well before 4pm that it was cancelled, but it didn't show up on RTT as cancelled until about half 4 when the inbound train reached Sheffield. On top of that, is there really nowhere between Sheffield and Leeds it could have been turned short? The unit sat at Sheffield for over 90 minutes and left a gap in peak time services around Wakefield as a result. (And still left Sheffield late on the return!)

 

[bcarmicle]

Wouldn't be surprised if mishap is used to avoid the word accident which could easily lead to a misunderstanding as to what had happened.

 

[oic]

Wouldn't be surprised if mishap is used to avoid the word accident which could easily lead to a misunderstanding as to what had happened.

I guess someone could have tripped over their shoelaces, or spilled coffee on the drivers seat?

 

[Teapot42]

Wouldn't be surprised if mishap is used to avoid the word accident which could easily lead to a misunderstanding as to what had happened.

Well, yes, as I commented to my colleagues, a mishap could be anything from the driver knocking their cup of coffee in the lap to a collision with a freight train. That's why I'm wondering if there is any specific meaning of the word in railway terms.

 

[Bletchleyite]

RY is "Mishap - station operating causes".

 

[Teapot42]

RY is "Mishap - station operating causes".

Thanks, but I've got to say I'm not the wiser!

There did seem to be delays around Greenfield which would have delayed the inbound working.

 

[dodecahedron67]

This was cancelled due to a unit fault so not quite sure why code RY has been used

 

[Adam Williams]

do Trainsplit and Real Time Trains get their data feed from different places?

Yeah. TrainSplit doesn't use RTT's feed for powering notifications, it's all Darwin-based (which has its own downsides).

 

[Teapot42]

Yeah. TrainSplit doesn't use RTT's feed for powering notifications, it's all Darwin-based (which has its own downsides).

Is a public feed from Darwin available? If it knew best part of an hour earlier the service was cancelled then it seems a much more useful data source to use!

 

[Merle Haggard]

The term 'Mishap' was commonly used on the railway.
'Mishap Forms' were completed for everything from a tail lamp out or hot box to a collision. On an Accident Section at a Division we received perhaps a hundred a day.
Many of the events recorded could not be described as 'accidents'; trains failed to stop at stations, doors not fully closed before departure, previously mentioned hot box.
Events such as these sometimes resulted in what might be termed 'accidents', but not always. Passing a signal at danger, but if no collision results, it's not an accident,

 

[Adam Williams]

Is a public feed from Darwin available?

There is yes, but you'll trade "knowing about cancellations earlier due to how TOCs enter them" for "not knowing about platforms half the time" (or only at the last minute) in my experience.

You can sign up get access here: https://opendata.nationalrail.co.uk/registration

Other, more contentious ways also exist to get a Darwin feed.

 

[brad465]

Earlier this month 465906 was mistakenly allocated to a Medway Valley line service, where the return journey from Paddock Wood was "cancelled due to a mishap", running ECS instead. The mishap being that 465s are not cleared to call all stations on that line.

 

[styles]

Driver forgot to put the pickle in their cheese sandwich and had to go home.

 

[Kilopylae]

The term 'Mishap' was commonly used on the railway.
'Mishap Forms' were completed for everything from a tail lamp out or hot box to a collision. On an Accident Section at a Division we received perhaps a hundred a day.
Many of the events recorded could not be described as 'accidents'; trains failed to stop at stations, doors not fully closed before departure, previously mentioned hot box.
Events such as these sometimes resulted in what might be termed 'accidents', but not always. Passing a signal at danger, but if no collision results, it's not an accident,

That's delightful. I hope that I hear of a train being cancelled due to a mishap!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is a public feed from Darwin available? If it knew best part of an hour earlier the service was cancelled then it seems a much more useful data source to use!

Darwin Browser — platform stats & service history

Explore live and historical UK National Rail data from the Darwin feed: per-station platform statistics, a real-time departure board, and the full replayable operating history of every train service.

darwinbrowser.com

Or just use any real time departure board tool except Realtime Trains.

 

[Bald Rick]

In the old days, a ‘MISHAP’ was a female Class 414 unit

(collects coat)

 

[QueensCurve]

Checking trains home tonight, I noticed a train cancelled due to a mishap. That seems a very vague term - is there anything specific it means in railway terminology?

As an aside, do Trainsplit and Real Time Trains get their data feed from different places? I'd notionally selected the 17:21 from Normanton to Chesterfield as my return trip. I got a notification well before 4pm that it was cancelled, but it didn't show up on RTT as cancelled until about half 4 when the inbound train reached Sheffield. On top of that, is there really nowhere between Sheffield and Leeds it could have been turned short? The unit sat at Sheffield for over 90 minutes and left a gap in peak time services around Wakefield as a result. (And still left Sheffield late on the return!)

Surprised it wasn't an 'operating problem' or a 'problem under investigation'.

Perhaps the mishap was reported by Derek Railment.

 

[dk1]

Sometimes if control are having a particularly busy or bad day they’ll just shove anything in that’ll semi cover as a reason.

 

[zuriblue]

Vintage British Transport Films film from 1958 showing how a mishap is dealt with by Signalers and Control.

in this case the mishap is a derailment.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Having already posted about BR's use of 'mishap' it seems to me that LT were not so consistent.

Once, travelling to work late I passed the scene of a collision just South of Willesden depot. It was between a BR 'DC' train and an LT Bakerloo one, and had resulted in the Bakerloo train's driving car standing vertically on its non-driving end. On crossing London by Underground, it was described as a 'mishap'.
On the other hand, delays on LT and considered outside its control were described in much more detail; a passenger fatality, for instance, was described in great detail (which I won't repeat here) and even overcrowding was described as 'delays due to passenger action' - with lots of capitalisation ...

 

[CarineNoctua]

The word mishap seems to be commonly used in the railway. In my rule book, I was advised that modules M1, M2, and M3 which deal with ‘dealing with a train accident or train evacuation’, ‘train stopped train failure’, and ‘managing incidents, floods and snow’ respectively, that that ‘M’ stood for ‘mishaps’.

 

[GordonT]

Vintage British Transport Films film from 1958 showing how a mishap is dealt with by Signalers and Control.

in this case the mishap is a derailment.

Perhaps the former more widespread use of the milder term mishap rather than accident for derailments etc. was a reflection of the onetime greater prevalence of such occurrences.

 

[YorksLad12]

If there's a code for "mishap" there should be one for "shenanigans".

"The 1721 to Manchester Airport is delayed by 15 minutes. This is due to shenanigans on an earlier service." Much better than the bland "earlier incident" statements, which tell you nothing!

 

[D6130]

In the old days, a ‘MISHAP’ was a female Class 414 unit

(collects coat)

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