Re: Richmond derailment, 31/3

["Doug Knowles" <dougk@alphalink.com.au>]

Aus loco discussion mailing list

Now there is a loco involved I can post information without being accused of
being off topic!!!!
The train involved was the 15:45 down Sandringham.
The lead axle of 173M (the 4th car on the train - a 6 car Hitachi) had the
right hand wheel cracked.
Consequently the wheel moved inwards about 2 - 3 inchs. The wheel therefore
dropped down slightly, and ended up smashing a large amount of insulated
rail joints, parts of points, etc. I saw damage to track between Flinders
Street and Richmond, I have been told it also damaged track between Spencer
Street and Flinders Street.
At about 01:10 Y168 arrived. About 20 minutes later it coupled onto the rear
of the train. Separating the rear two cars from the problem car proved to be
very difficult. After much banging and thumping under the car, and much
rocking backwards and forwards the cars finally seperated.
As Chris said the right hand rail had rolled over, although the wheels of
the rear two cars were actually riding on the bottom of the rail. So once
seperated it was a simple matter to slowly pull the two rear cars away.
Using large blocks of wood, the cars rerailed themselves once they reached a
point where the rails returned to being upright.. I believe that a P class
(number unknown) was called to pull out 173M as it was suspected the Y
wouldn't have enough power to pull the car out of the dirt. However it was
decided to use cranes instead. I think the P got as far as Flinders Street
before it was turned back, but I am not sure. At about 03:00 the plan was to
use the cranes to lift 173M on to the up Caulfield through, run Y168 with
the other two cars up to Flinders Street and then wrong line on the Up
Caulfield through to pick up 173M. The new bogie arrived by truck at about
03:00. My 12 hours were up at this stage so my shift had come to an end, so
I can't say what happened after this time. When I left at 03:00 they
expected to get trains running by about 10:00 - 12:00 this morning.


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to Ausloco-unsubscribe@listbot.com
______________________________________________________________________
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com