Great Western Coffee Shop

From South West Trains website - getting organised!

Advanced warning of possible service disruption Monday 21/11/11 Due to a derailed freight train in a engineers work site.. between Exeter St David - Exeter Central SWT Services will be subject to alterations... 4 Buses have been arranged to operate a rail shuttle should they be required. Further updates will follow once more is known. Message Received :20/11/2011 21:31

I just logged in to tell you all about this, but you beat me to it :-)

Not an easy place to rerail a train on a rising curved gradient.

state of play..... Swt services will call additionally at st James park, services on the exmouth branch will be hourly departing from platform 1 ( the bay). The loco in question is going to be blocking the line until at least this evening as a crane is required to remove

For anyone who has not seen ...


(http://www.flickr.com/photos/relex109/6377588695/in/photostream)

(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6111/6377588695_2b3cef9776.jpg)


(http://www.flickr.com/photos/relex109/6377583301/in/photostream/)

(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6046/6377583301_bcaf8f8c1c.jpg)

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/relex109/6377581617/in/photostream/)

(http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6221/6377581617_cc28c489a6.jpg)

Whoops.  There are a set of catch points under the train.

Yes that's correct I found a good photo showing them however I don't own the copyrite so can't post it... But you can search for photos of the class 50 that derailed on the down years ago

The up and down lines are both fitted with protecting points to deal with runaways or runbacks, however the hardware is slightly different.  The up line only has the switch rails, with the inner being the longer of the two, so an up direction train running back should end up with its right hand wheels still in the four foot, as shown in the pictures. In the down direction the switch and crossings are complete with the common crossing, and lead away to a full sand drag.

I think it was explained to me once that the setup is designed around likely failure modes in normal direction running, hence the down line having a more complete set of hardware...

If you zoom in on Google maps satellite view the difference is clear...

Paul

66611 the Loco

Correct....Facing runaway points are referred to as TRAP POINTS designed to direct a train passing a signal at danger away from a conflict and trailing runaway points are referred to as CATCH POINTS designed to direct a train running away in the wrong direction (usually on rising gradients) and usually into the ballast ::)

Now then in BR days trains would have been running past on the Down Line by now (which after all is signalled in the UP direction here) as there doesn't appear to be anything foul of it in the photograph >:( >:(

66111 i know they all look the same :-p

Trains have been running past it all day-even in this post BR era!

Out of interest; on this route where does Up change to Down as I assume it must at some point as trains actually pull into Exeter St Davids in the Up direction on the GW line. 

Presumably a through train from Barnstaple to Exmouth runs as a Down service as far as St Davids and then an Up before possibly becoming a Down again once it branches off after St James Park station?

Probably just in front of that loco pictured earlier.  That's where the change of mileage is shown in the sectional appendix - 172.04 from Waterloo becomes 194 from Paddington, between the crossovers at the station and the crossover on the incline...

Paul

The line from St Davids to Central (the one the train derailed on) is known as the Up Waterloo. The other line is the Down Waterloo Reversible. The lines from Central to/from Pinhoe are called the Up Waterloo/Down Waterloo.

The Western lines through platforms 5 and 4 at St Davids are called the Up Main and Down Main.

i guess that could cause confusion couldn't it

A through train from barnstaple to exmouth runs as an up service as far as St Davids, then changes to a down service to exmouth, even though it will cover some of the journey on the up waterloo. Though it could start from St Davids on the down waterloo (platform 3) and change back to the up waterloo at the crossover between Exeter Central and SJP, though remain a down service. Simple isn't it?!

Search "Derailment at Exeter" on YouTube and you will find some close-up footage of the loco, put up by a user called "DevonRail".

I know him well  ;D