Friends of the Rail Forum

Freight train driver 'unaware' that 10 wagons detached

6:00PM Wednesday Jan 21, 2009
nzherald.co.nz

A locomotive driver who failed to notice the loss of 10 freight wagons while travelling on the North Island main trunk line has been criticised in a Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) report.

TAIC found the driver failed to establish the cause of a sudden loss of air pressure in the train brake pipe after the train separated between the 22nd and 23rd wagons between Te Awamutu and Te Kawa in the Waikato in September 2007.

The engineer heard a sudden loss of air from the train brake pipe and the emergency brakes applied automatically.

He went to examine the last wagon and saw there was no train end monitor attached to it.

"Thinking this was the last wagon on the train and that the loss of the train end monitor was responsible for the loss of air in the brake pipe, he advised train control and continued, leaving behind the rear 10 wagons," the report said.

The wagons were found some time later by a following train, which was travelling cautiously on instruction from train control.

No one was injured and the train was not damaged.

TAIC found the "locomotive engineer did not properly ascertain that the train was complete before resuming the journey" after the wagons came adrift.

There was a lack of crew resource management, suggesting staff were not sufficiently trained or lacked understanding, the report said.

TAIC recommended the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) chief executive that a review be undertaken into how effective the safety training was in the rail industry.

It said that ensuring the completeness of a train following a train parting or a similar event was a "safety-critical procedure for protecting against wagons being inadvertently left behind and creating the potential for a high speed collision".

- NZPA

In theory this couldn't happen in South Africa, even where there are no track circuits or axle counters, as the driver is supposed to check not only the end of train marker (or telemeter or "train end monitor" on an air-braked train) but also the serial number of the last vehicle as written on both his vehicle list and train load certificate.

I suppose human error occurs anywhere in the world, though...

Not so, John. Exactly the same thing happened on the line between Warmbad and Klein Kariba about two years ago. I understand that the crew of an up train did not check that the vehicle on which they replaced the brake-pipe (back on the dummy or closed the cock -- don't know if the train was air or vacuum braked) was actually the last vehicle on the list. They left, I think it was several wagons, in section and headed on to Warmbad, where they crossed a down north-bound train. Needless to say, it would seem that the down train crew did not look back at the crossing train and check for the last vehicle marker. I understand they headed off north from Warmbad straight into the abandoned wagons about 5 km up the track. Don't know what happened to the crew.
In this instance, the section is operated under the track warrant system (a computerised, modern variant of the radio train order system). There are no track circuits or axle counters in use north of the end of CTC at Pienaar's River to check for train integrity.

Quote from Financial Mail, 5th August 2005:

A head-on collision is the accident most feared by railwaymen. That’s what apparently occurred on June 28 at Bela Bela. The Railway Society of SA’s June newsletter reports in detail how a train of petrol tankers drawn by two diesels ran into a coal train headed by two 7E electric units. The force was enough to leave the leading locomotives of both trains off the rails on their sides.
Speculation is that confusion arose between the two drivers because radio working has replaced more costly lineside signalling.
Spoornet, however, in its first comment on this accident , told the FM that “about 10 wagons got disconnected from one train in motion at Bela Bela and a train from the opposite direction collided with those stationary wagons." The two versions are not compatible — but parted-train accidents were once rare, thanks to guards’ vans.

The bit about radio working replacing more costly line-side signalling is a typical bit of journalese. There never was any lineside signalling on this line; it was previously worked either by Telegraph Orders or by Van Schoor Tablets, both of which would only have prevented this sort of accident if the local TCO handing out the tablets or issuing the orders had been very alert and spotted the incomplete up train as it passed.

As I said, "in theory", and "human error occurs anywhere in the world", despite the safeguards which are in place...

Do you know that NZ railways employ foreign drivers. Perhaps the driver was from NRZ!!