why the caution over head wires sign on a class 158

[nlogax]

I remember as a kid (1960's/70's) seeing the overhead live wires on modernisation plan DMUs and wondering why.

Similar in the late 70s / early 80s. At one point as a kid I used to believe there were live cables attached to the outside of train roofs.

 

[3141]

I remember as a kid (1960's/70's) seeing the overhead live wires on modernisation plan DMUs and wondering why. Many many years later Yorkshire got some electrification.

From what I remember it was one of those H&S policies implemented before the HSE existed!
This was after some very unfortunate electrocutions of steam loco firemen working on tenders under the new WCML wires, in the early 60s.
I remember seeing the OHLE warning signs on WR Mk1 DMUs out of Paddington, operating their entire 30+ year lives without any OHLE present.

These posts tie in with my fading recollections. Living in Manchester in the late 1950s and early 1960s I remember seeing the OHLE warning signs on rolling stock and thinking that they must need it to help protect staff. Then similar signs began to appear elsewhere. It made sense to apply the signs more widely, (1) because other stock might on occasion be operated under the wires, and (2) it was an issue which all staff ought to be reminded about for their safety.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Similar in the late 70s / early 80s. At one point as a kid I used to believe there were live cables attached to the outside of train roofs.

Technically Pendolinos and other EMUs with distributed traction do have a 25kV bus line along the carriage roofs. I believe special certification was required to permit it, as it was a new concept in the UK at the time.

 

[matt_world2004]

granted i suppose its more for crew?

For when crowding gets so bad on British railways that people start riding on the outside like India.