Right Track 44: Low adhesion, SPADs at STOP boards, and escalator safety
It was during the 1990s that leaves on the line became a media joke, a mirth-missile to fire at the railway when commuters were late for their jobs during the autumn.
But of course there’s nothing funny about them. This was demonstrated on 31 October 2021, when a train from Waterloo to Honiton failed to stop at a red signal and struck a Portsmouth–Temple Meads at Salisbury Tunnel Junction. Both trains continued for some distance into Fisherton Tunnel before they came to a stand, half in, half out.
Thirteen passengers and a driver required hospital treatment, the driver losing three weeks to the accident, which was caused by low adhesion brought about by leaf contamination.
In Right Track 44, we focus on Salisbury, describing what happened and why, and what drivers should do in low adhesion conditions. We also draw a line to RSSB’s extensive research to help industry tackle low adhesion, including double variable rate sanders and all the other work done under the ADHERE banner.
On similar lines, Network Rail’s Sue Johnson discusses the work of her company’s Weather Academy, where it is forever autumn, as action follows planning follows action all year round. RED 66 considers the wider implications of the weather on train operations, because if it isn’t the wrong kind of leaves, it’s the wrong kind of snow, and – increasingly – fatigue-inducing temperatures. We always take the weather with us, but the railway constantly adapts to the changing conditions, and will do as our climate changes, and the seasons blur into a series of distinct weather events.
Elsewhere in Right Track 44, Freightliner’s Jimmy Pettitt looks at signal passed at danger incidents involving STOP boards, an issue we’re seeing more of in yards, depots and sidings, and which is a particular focus of the National Freight Safety Group. Network Rail’s Martin Bloomfield looks at the carriage of dangerous goods, and RSSB’s Michael Woods considers station escalator safety, an important part of the customer experience, and one which RSSB has researched extensively.
