Fire on train near Twyford - 18 May 2016

[whole diary]

[BBM]

All lines are currently blocked at Twyford due an 'emergency incident'. From what I can gather on Twitter, the train affected is 1P24 0808 Oxford to London Paddington (scheduled to be an HST^▸ (High Speed Train)) and passengers have been moved from one coach due to smoke. Some tweets are mentioning a 'fire on a train' but hopefully whatever's happened is reasonably minor.

EDIT - some suggestions that the 'fire' might be an electrical one on a power car. (and I know it's not really an infrastructure problem but just avoiding starting a new thread.)

[Jason]

From http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/live-fire-train-near-twyford-11348606
a ^small electrical fire which was out on arrival^.

[BBM]

It now looks like the train affected was a Class 180 and the fire was in the middle car (coach C).

[DidcotPunter]

Apparently the 180 on 1P24 Oxford to Paddington has self-combusted at Ruscombe this morning. Reported as small fire in centre coach - attended to by fire brigade. All lines have now been reopened, though there are considerable residual delays.

[a-driver]

The fire bridge attended as standard, the incident was dealt with by the onboard crew. I say incident as I don't know wether there was a fire or if it was just a lot of smoke.

[TaplowGreen]

Advice is now that cancellations/delays/disruption expected until 2 pm (was previously advertised as midday)

[chrisr_75]

RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) have taken the opportunity to politicise this incident, with the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) functioning as their propaganda machine. The fact there is a driver on the train and possibly some catering staff is completely ignored:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-36321344

[ChrisB]

Both BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Oxford & Berkshire report it was a London-Oxford service. I guess we know better?

[IndustryInsider]

RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) have taken the opportunity to politicise this incident, with the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) functioning as their propaganda machine. The fact there is a driver on the train and possibly some catering staff is completely ignored:

Time to fit smoke alarms inside the trains?  A driver wouldn't know anything about it until, a) They were alerted by a member of staff or a passenger, or b) It caused enough damage to affect the train's systems.

In the vast majority of cases, the former is quick enough to stop anything major happening.

[chrisr_75]

RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) have taken the opportunity to politicise this incident, with the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) functioning as their propaganda machine. The fact there is a driver on the train and possibly some catering staff is completely ignored:

Time to fit smoke alarms inside the trains?  A driver wouldn't know anything about it until, a) They were alerted by a member of staff or a passenger, or b) It caused enough damage to affect the train's systems.

In the vast majority of cases, the former is quick enough to stop anything major happening.

Sorry, not sure if I was clear, but I meant that the driver and any other staff on board would almost certainly have assisted directly with the evacuation or in protecting the train. To solely credit the train manager with the safe evacuation is a discredit to any other members of staff on board as they most certainly would have been involved in helping the SLF off the train, it's generally a team effort when things like this happen.

[IndustryInsider]

Ah, I see what you mean.  Though it has to be said that having a second fully trained member of staff, other than the driver, on board all trains makes these incidents a hell of a lot easier to deal with.  Not that the second fully trained member of staff has to be a 'guard' of course.

[JayMac]

Are there no engine fire/overheat sensors to give a warning to the driver in the Class 180 cab?

How many people have died as a result of train fires in recent years, particularly on DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)) services?

I wonder if the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) could supply that information.

[a-driver]

There's obviously the fire alarms and the automatic fire system covering the engine but immediately on the fire alarms sounding it'll be the drivers responsibility to get other trains stopped by hitting the red emergency button and contacting the signaller. Whilst this is happening the train manager will evacuate the affected carriage by moving passengers to other vehicles until it is safe for the train to be moved or evacuated.
The driver may then investigate the location of the fire externally by getting down on the line.

Having the train manager arrange a evacuation of that coach probably prevented passengers releasing the doors and getting out onto what could still have been an open and live line.  More passengers are likely to be killed by an uncontrolled evacuation than an actual fire itself.

I believe once the fire was extinguished the train moved under its own power to Twyford where the doors were released and passengers were free to leave the train and join another waiting on the adjacent platform.

[IndustryInsider]

Are there no engine fire/overheat sensors to give a warning to the driver in the Class 180 cab?

To add to a-driver's reply, there are sensors for an engine fire/overheat, but no sensors within the train.  So, it's possible that a fire could be raging inside a carriage on a train but the driver could be completely unaware of it.

It is a risk, however small, - it just surprises me a little that some kind of sensor is not fitted within modern trains.

[dviner]

Are there no engine fire/overheat sensors to give a warning to the driver in the Class 180 cab?

How many people have died as a result of train fires in recent years, particularly on DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)) services?

I wonder if the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) could supply that information.

It probably depends on how you define "recent". 1999 Ladbroke Grove?