Derailed train at Westbury [06/12/2011]

[whole diary]

[Brucey]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website this morning, affecting all services passing through Westbury

Line problem: at Westbury.

    Owing to a derailed train at Westbury all lines are affected.Impact:Train services running through this station may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 mins or revised at short notice. Disruption is expected until 16:00 06/12.

    Train services are now able to operate through the Westbury area, however, most services will not be able to stop at Westbury until further notice. First Great Western is accepting South West Trains tickets between Salisbury and Bristol Temple Meads via Reading in both directions. South West Trains is accepting First Great Western tickets between Exeter St Davids and Salisbury in both directions. CrossCountry is accepting First Great Western tickets between Southampton Central and Reading in both directions and also between Bristol Temple Meads and Exeter St David's in both directions. Train services between London Paddington and Exeter St David's, Plymouth and Penzance will not call at Westbury (in both directions) but will call additionally at Frome for replacement road transport to/ from Westbury. Train services between Cardiff Central and Portsmouth Harbour and also Bristol Temple Meads and Weymouth will not call at Westbury but will call additionally at Trowbridge for replacement road transport to/from Westbury. Passengers at Westbury for stations to London Paddington and stations to Exeter St David's, Plymouth and Penzance: Replacement road transport is in operation between Westbury and Frome. Passengers at Westbury for stations to Weymouth: Replacement road transport is in operation between Westbury and Frome. Passengers at Westbury for stations to Portsmouth Harbour: Replacement road transport is in operation between Westbury and Trowbridge. Passengers at Westbury for stations to Bath Spa: Replacement road transport is in operation between Westbury and Trowbridge.

    Last Updated: 06/12/2011 08:15

If a moderator feels this would be better in another forum, please move.

[tramway]

I was about to post in the Portsmouth Cardiff area but hadn't realised that the majority of Westbury station was OOA.

The replacement bus arrived at Trowbridge at approx 07.30

Quite a reduced service through Trowbridge with the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) Temple Meads service cancelled. Cheltenham service took a few to Chippenham which helped a bit, but the 2 car 150 that formed the delayed 7.24 left people on the platform. Trains were certainly running from Westbury in the Bristol direction, so I'm unsure where the train fell off the tracks, or which one at this point in time.

The 08.01 Cardiff was the next through on time, sent before the delayed 07.44 Malvern, lightly loaded so managed to get a seat. This seemed capable of sweeping up the remaing PAX on the way, full and standing but not rammed.

[ChrisB]

Somewhere I've read that it was an overnight ecs that came off. But not which stock / TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company).

[JayMac]

This is a post from another rail forum giving details of the incident:

02.48 Westbury Panel advise ferry driver shunting a unit from platform 2 to platform 3 reversing on the down main behind no707 GPL^▸ (Ground Position Light). Driver has made an emergency call to report his train has derailed. Swindon MOM^▸ (Mobile Operations Manager) advised. MOM has just arrived at Frome station to investigate possible vandalism. MOM instructed to do a quick check of the track to make sure nothing has been placed on the rails then go to Westbury station. Operations level 1 and level 2 on call advised. Signalling moves were platform 2 W402 signal to W104 signal on the down main to stand in rear of W707 GPL. W707 GPL to W111 platform 3. 02.54 signaller advises driver reports all 4 bogies of train are derailed. Driver is walking to station and will contact his control. Signaller confirms signalling has been left in the position it was when derailment was reported. 04.20 Westbury TME^▸ (Track Maintenance Engineer) on site reports that it appears the train has split 854B points. The rear portion of the train has continued towards platform 3, whilst the front bogie has gone towards platform 2 and rests on top of 854B points causing significant damage. The lines through platforms 1 and 2 will be closed until further notice. It may be possible to open platform 3 to give a route from Fairwood Junction into the station. TME now going to assess the possibility of running passenger trains using the down reception and the TME will advise whether this can be lifted.

Not easy to decipher all that, but I believe this was a Class 150 that came off the road at low speed whilst on an Empty Coaching Stock move.

And from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Train derails at Westbury causing rail delays

An out-of-service passenger train has derailed in Wiltshire, causing delays to rail services.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said the train's wheels came off the tracks at about 02:00 GMT at Westbury while it was travelling at about 5mph.

Services between Salisbury and Bristol, and Bristol and London have been affected.

A spokesman from First Great Western said the disruption was expected to last until 16:00 GMT.

Nobody was on the train except for the driver, who was uninjured.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Looking at my old version of Simsig for Westbury (a very interesting signalling game, by the way), and noting that Bristol - Southamptons and vv are not calling at Westbury, I deduce they must be passing through on the Down Reception, which is behind Platform 1 and signalled for both directions.

[JayMac]

I, too, had a look at SimSig Westbury and concur! 

[dorsetbeachcomber]

Photo of today's derailment, which occurred around 2am and involved empty stock:

[JayMac]

Info from elsewhere on the interweb. Ex- London Midland 150202.

With one wag commenting, "Maybe it didn't like the change of scene."

 

[rogerw]

I was travelling up to London from Trowbridge this morning, intending to catch 0710 to Swindon.  Departure board at 0700 resembled a disaster area, even 0653 to Southampton was 28 minutes late.  Staff advising all passengers for Chippenham and beyond to travel via Bath.  Delayed 0701 Cardiff full but not crammed, even from Freshford although it was 5 coaches.  Frequent apologies on train from Bath about overcrowding due to problems at Westbury.  Just managed to catch 1706 back so missed the delights of a bus from Frome.  Trains from Bristol now running late, 1828 Weymouth not arrived by 1905, presumably reaction from earlier delays

[phile]

57 Coach 150202 sent to Wolverton for repair, hopefully.   52 Coach. presumably at PM being assessed