QUOTE (Mickey B @ 25 Apr 2016, 09:59)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I am trying to identify this accident from a card in my postcard collection.
Loco appears to be 0-6-0 type tender loco number 1186.
Postcard is probably c.1905 to 1910.
If I can determine which company the loco belonged to,
I can locate the date of the accident.
I think this may be north of England, but not sure.
Maybe someone can recognise the style of cab number plate.
Mickey B.
1186Accident by
Mickey B, on Flickr
1186cab by
Mickey B, on Flickr
Going from practical experience ( Two events of SUB units in the dirt through Trap Points... Was NOT me wot caused it!) the distance that loco and tender have gone down the bank suggests to me that John would be right about a run-away down a gradient - some speed involved to get it that far... Maybe the crew had jumped??? They'd certainly be glad that they were running tender first - otherwise (if the loco had gone down that far) they'd at least have had all the coal in the tender join them in the cab if not had the tender ride up on them. This would have resulted in a report... Very serious/horrific injuries... A broken leg or so from jumping would be far better than crushed and the risk of either a steam escape from a broken gauge glass or being trapped under coal that caught fire from the firebox... I've read some horrific reports. Bearing in mind the limitations of painkillers and antibiotics before the 1950s.
I would guess that in this case the train was turned into a refuge and slid through the Trap st the exit end and therefore went down the bank. This would mean that the train weight pushed the loco through - although the wagons in the view all look like empties... However; empties at the front pushed by a heavy load would have reduced the amount of braking that the fireman could achieve at the front end by dropping on the ballast and pinning down brakes as the wagons rolled by him. In a bad situation the Driver would also drop on the ballast and pin down all those he could reach.
Of course we would have to ask what the HSE would make of train crew hopping off moving trains to apply the brakes today - but it was common practice in the decades before loose coupled, unfitted trains ended.
There is a chance that this was caused or contributed to by the guard failing to get enough brakes pinned down at the back end of the train. As well as his van brake he would also have dropped to the ballast - gone forward and pinned down brakes - so long as he could keep up with the train and didn't fall over. Again this was entirely normal working. This, rather than the loco's inability to get up speed, was what kept the speed of loose-coupled, unfitted goods trains low.
There are pictures around of a train that slid through the Down Refuge at Gomshall (SECR/SR) with the result that the whole loco and tender were pushed up onto the Down Platform that was beyond the end of the Trap Point.... Contributing causes were that the train had come down the long drop of Deerleap Bank and wet rails... No brakes at all are of any use if a train "picks up" its wheels and aquaplanes. Another reason for going slowly. (I've ridden in the cab of a 3 car Western DMMU that aquaplaned for several miles - Nutfield Tunnel to just outside Redhill. We didn't stop for passengers at Nutfield! It was a good laxative approaching the junction).
On the other hand... When the SUBs pushed out of Dorking sidings against the signal (SPAD) and got tipped off toward the underbridge by the Traps they both only dropped the leading bogie off before the dirt brought them to a shuddering halt. The same thing can be seen on the GCR at Quorn when they put the tender in the dirt a couple of years ago. Yes, someone waking up and apply the continuous brake helped in both cases - but the main stopping force for a slow move through a Trap is the planet.
So... No idea where this was - but - as I've suggested - it was probably a right-direction runaway that went out the end of a refuge.
It would be unlikely that this would have been a derailment of a train running back down a gradient through a Safety Catch Point after either a break-away or failing up a bank... The loco would have to have been Assisting Iin Rear for a start. On the other hand - that would explain it coming off tender first.
A couple of other possibilities with Safety Catch Points...
1. The loco may have been working inside an Engineers Possession and someone failed to account for a Safety Catch Point. Problems of getting the lay of points wrong still occur in contemporary Possessions even without there being any (possily more than a tiny remnant) of Catch Points in the system. To try to prevent this they now use flashing blue lamps to protect any points within Possessions and within Engineering Supervisor's Work Sites.
2. The loco may have been fetching the wagons back from working a siding In Section - hence no Brakevan - but, in that case any Safety catch points would tend to be worked (using a slotted joint to allow the blades to normally spring open except when intentionally held shut). I think this option is unlikely.
3. Another unlikely option is that the loco was bringing back the tail of a divided train... Unlikely because there's no Brake Van between the loco and wagons.
Conclusion (supposition) - as said - this accident slid out the end of a Refuge.
I hope that while this waffle doesn't answer the actual quaetion - that it will give modellers some ideas about what could happen in real working.
