Wednesday 22 May 2013

Off The Rails

Oops! Derailment recorded as it happened...

There was a good reason why the semaphore signal that we see at the right side in this video was at danger: the points to the main route were not set for the siding. Fortunately the catch points made sure the train approaching from the siding did not encroach onto the main line: it would have damaged the points and blocked the line if it had.

This is the primary purpose of catch points, which the observant rail traveller will probably have seen out a train window and wondered what the strange thing is and what it does. This incident, at Quorn just a few weeks ago, shows how important they can be. The 'TPO' in the video's title stands for 'Travelling Post Office' by the way.

As for the train crew: why did they pass the signal at 'danger' anyway? They surely didn't have permission from the signalman to do so. I wonder if we shall ever know...

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