Re: News about fire on train near Linden Blue Mountains

["Chris Downs" <cvdowns@ozemail.com.au>]

It was the 1832 Central to Mt Victoria service.

Either V25 or V29 (the second digit was difficult to read in the dark/torch
light).

The consist was DTM8034, DTD9031, DIT9171 & DIM8043.

DTM8034 was the car which caught fire.

I joined the train at Blacktown (lead car) and we had an uneventful trip to
Springwood, just a couple of minutes down on the 'table.

It had started raining around Springwood and the lead car (presumably the
rear car as well) were both suffering serious wheel slip.  The lead car was
jerking fairly violently as is often the case in such situations.  We made
it Faulconbridge probably dropping a minute.  We dropped another minute
between Faulconbridge and Linden again with continuous wheelslip.  A fun
start out of Linden with not much speed and plenty of wheel slip ensured.
The lead car lost power not long before the newer highway overpass near
Bull's Camp but the rear car continued to propel the train (and it was doing
a respectable job of it).  It appears that the fire started when the first
car lost power.

Soon after, we stopped powering and coasted to a stand on the 1 in 66
section (much better than 1 in 33) about 40m west of the old highway
overpass.  An announcement was made over the PA that passengers in either
the 2nd or 2nd last car (I didn't clearly hear which) should make their way
to the rear car because of the smoke from the fire.

The fire illuminated the ground on the northern side of the lead car to a
limited extent.

All passengers were then escorted to the two rear cars by the guard and the
security guards.  There was no panic or drama.  There were wisps of smoke in
the 1st and 2nd cars.

The real fun commenced when the police arrived.  The carriage doors were
locked and the police commenced smashing windows (door and saloon) to break
into the train and release the passengers.  As we weren't trapped (no one
was making a  serious attempt to force the doors in the front of the 3rd
car) people were surprised by the smashing windows.  The south side door in
the vestibule I was in was released first followed shortly by the north side
door.  The passengers were helped out of the car and to a point to the north
of the line and train.  I was eventually lead through to the guard's
compartment in the rear car and exited there (one of the last out).  The
only people I saw who were really concerned/starting to panic before we
evacuated the train were a bloke in his 30s who said he'd been involved in
Glenbrook last year and an older bloke who just wanted the train to go to
Woodford so he could get off.

We then assembled beneath the old Hwy bridge once the progress of all up and
down trains had been stopped.   This was some 10-15 minutes after the train
stopped.

The police took all passenger details.  The reason given for this was so the
police would be able to inform relatives that their loved ones were ok when
they heard the media reports.  The police asked if anyone was injured 3
times and no one replied in the affirmative.  Passengers from cars one and
two were spoken to by ambulance officers as they made their way to the
highway.  The ambulance officers made it very clear that anyone who inhaled
smoke should go to the hospital but as the vast majority declined we were
told what symptoms to watch for to call a doctor/ambulance immediately
should any symptoms manifest.

Once on a bus a further roll call was taken.  I arrived home at Hazelbrook
90 minutes late.

Channel 7's late news tonight was a shocker (surprise surprise), an
extremely lopsided and unfair story.

>From my observations:

The smoke issue was not significant but CityRail staff handled the matter
appropriately, quickly and effectively getting everyone into the rear two
cars (one intermediate car between passengers and the fire);
Passengers didn't panic and handled the events with exceptional good humour
(CityRail should come to the party and give them all a free periodical
ticket!);
The police approach to evacuation was full on and stirred the passengers
more than anything else but they wisely acted on an extreme worse case
scenario basis and evacuated the train (albeit very dramatically in light of
the nature of the threat);
The police also showed good humour when taking passenger names - they
certainly helped the mood at that point (after the evacuation);
Ambulance and fire services were prompt and efficient;
Alternative transport was available as soon as possible.

CityRail will cop another pasting for this but in light of the circumstances
the situation was generally well handled from what I saw.

Did I feel at risk at any time - no!  And in light of what the train crew
had to do they kept passengers as well informed as possible.

Ah, what a night - time for bed!

Chris