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Post by 1018509 on May 25, 2011 18:50:25 GMT
As an ex-train maintainer I have probably blocked most of the Central line 1962 stock fleet in the 70's. No masks, gloves and wash your own overalls in those days. Latterly as a Piccadilly line train maintainer if blue arc chutes are found (mainly on G/PB contactors or RPA tips) they are removed (gloves, masks and goggles now overall laundry provided along with all other required PPE) and double bagged as asbestos waste. It was not known whether they were (are) asbestos but treated as such just in case. I suffer from asthma and several times when it has flared up I have had medical people ask if I have ever been in contact with asbestos. I always reply that I probably have.
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Post by singaporesam on May 28, 2011 1:09:18 GMT
As an ex-train maintainer I have probably blocked most of the Central line 1962 stock fleet in the 70's. No masks, gloves and wash your own overalls in those days. Latterly as a Piccadilly line train maintainer if blue arc chutes are found (mainly on G/PB contactors or RPA tips) they are removed (gloves, masks and goggles now overall laundry provided along with all other required PPE) and double bagged as asbestos waste. It was not known whether they were (are) asbestos but treated as such just in case. I suffer from asthma and several times when it has flared up I have had medical people ask if I have ever been in contact with asbestos. I always reply that I probably have. Not wishing to be a pessimist but I personally know of three former train maintainers who died before retirement due to Lung Cancer, one of their widow's was adamant that it was the blocks from the 60s and 70s that had caused her husbands and others deaths. I'm not sure about how much asbestos was in the 73s'Arc chutes, D78 was originally supplied with non asbestos DMC moulded Arc chutes on the RPA, LBs PBs & FS's and FIC. I don't know whether the 73's were also originally fitted with Moulded Arc Chutes or whether the compound used for moulding then had asbestos in it. During the 80's and early 90's the blue fabricated Arc chutes used as replacements where of a non asbestos cement board type material which was completely and utterly useless at stopping Arc's which is one of the reasons why there were several big burn ups in Traction cases then. In the Mid 90's we experimented with a number of other materials and the replacement Arc chutes since then use the materials which passed the tests. These are a whitish colour and look more like the D78 original DMC ones.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2011 15:47:26 GMT
Mostly the materiel used for arc chutes was cement which rarely contains blue asbestos. For reasons to do with the alkaline nature of cement, it was nearly always white asbestos that was used, with brown asbestos much more rare, and blue almost never. The cement like replacement materiel was Supalux which had mica in place of the asbestos and can be seen to sparkle when a light is pointed at it. General consensus is that it was never as effective as asbestos cement but it looked very similar and so was popular. The bad news is that it was made on the adjecent production line at Turners and could easily get cross contaminated, albeit with small amounts of (usually) white. Friction materiel such as brake blocks gets abraded into such fine particles that the health risk is much lower than people think. Back in the day, mechanics used to reline their own brake shoes and cut and file the friction materiel. That would have carried a very high risk of inhalation of fibres but that has not been done for many years. Durasteel panels are strong and seem to remain in good condition unless they get mechanical damage. I'd guess that the other general nastys in tunnel and train dust is more likely to give health problems than the possible exposure to asbestos found during blocking and oiling etc.
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