Broken cast crossing at York

[Martin Wynne]

.
A photograph has been published showing the broken cast crossing causing today's rail disruption:

https://yorkmix.com/lner-issues-do-not-travel-warning-after-track-damaged-near-york/

The Pandrol fixings appear to have been torn out of the concrete.

Martin.

 

[Phil O]

Hi Martin,

I wonder which broke first, the concrete bearer or the casting?

 

[Cransford]

Hi Martin,

I wonder which broke first, the concrete bearer or the casting?

Phil/Martin,

It'll be the crossing that broke first. Colton Junction is "away" from York station and so line speeds would be high, therefore as the break was so close to the crossing nose the impact vibration has destroyed the bearer beneath over a period of time. Unless the modern train bourne technology spotted it, it would have taken some time to get to a point where a driver would have reported it as a rough ride. There would likely be a replacement crossing stored somewhere as they would be a standard size with longer rail legs for welding. Entertainment value will be replacing the bearer as it'll be anything from 3.500 - 6.000 metres long and would need to be produced to order, which would take a few days.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Martin Wynne]

Entertainment value will be replacing the bearer as it'll be anything from 3.500 - 6.000 metres long and would need to be produced to order, which would take a few days.

Hi Paul,

LNER are saying service is now back to normal. Would that be with a temporary timber bearer? And a speed restriction.

cheers,

Martin.

 

[Cransford]

Martin,

I would assume blindly that the crossing has been removed and plain line installed as a temporary fix (you would lose the crossover move), there are some special fittings , which were designed to support single rail through crossing and yes, I'd guess one or two timbers might have been interlaced to support rail across broken bearer. Although line open, I'd have expected a TSR to be in place until permanent fix.

Based on my knowledge of how things used to be done, it'd be about two weeks before final repairs could be made (production of new bearer, then with crossing to site). Also a fair bit of machinery to arrange outside of existing plan!

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Lancastrian]

I have an update from a friend who has looked at the report (51/42/274/5023).
P'way found a replacement with suitable geometry at Northallerton, and it was replaced overnight.

However, "Yesterday (11/06), a driver 'forgot' about an ESR, and went through it at 80mph instead of 20mph...", and "Two other drivers went through the same ESR at 60mph too. I've never seen the like TBH. Three drivers missing the same ESR?"

Ian

 

[Phil O]

Surely in the last couple of weeks, there has been time to put out some TSR boards, as a reminder to drivers.

 

[Cransford]

Back in the days of 'old', there was a seven day lead in for temporary speed restrictions to be published in the weekly notices issued to drivers, etc.. For emergencies (such as this) a form of printed advice was placed at booking on points that drivers would (be expected to) read when starting shift. On the ground, the temporary speed restriction would also be in place, reinforced sometime in the 1980's, with an advanced warning board associated with a temporary AWS magnet being placed at the braking distance required from line speed. Not wishing to disparage drivers, but to miss the speed restriction means they've failed to read, memorise, or make note of the wriiten notice, and also missed the warning horn of AWS in the cab (final speed of train through the restriction gives a clue when the penny finally dropped!).