Passengers stuck in over-heated carriages

I typed that out as I sit here with a fan on my desk.. we missed the thunder-storms

The GNER stock involved was sat (empty) at Finsbury Park on my way into work last night, having been dragged by a Class 67. I have been in one of those carriages when the air-con has failed on a spring-like day and it was like an oven. Obviously with no power the air-con is first to go, and with the temperatures we had yesterday one can only begin to imagine what it felt like.

I am normally one of the first to stand up for the railways, but of late their incident management for what should be the more minor things like this leaves a lot to be desired.

The average delays to both GNER and WAGN were more in the region of 60-120 minutes (my train alone was actually over an hour late - although at least I caught it as if it was my booked train running 15 late.)

As for the overheads being rubbish, they certainly are in the summer. Just about every warm day I can remember has seen some sort of trouble with them - and that is no exaggeration. In the area of yesterday's trouble the surrounding land is quite flat. So in the summer the heat gets to work on the wires, then in the winter the wind tears across the open land and rips them down. Failing either of those, you get one of the Eurostar sets rip a few miles down in one hit.

It's about time someone came up with a different way to secure them.

I would like to see 25kv AC accross 2 rails! If that was the case i wouldnt want to go on the track!

But trespasses won't know that and would still trespass with an even higher fatality risk. The only benefits of overheads seems to be that trespasses will not get killed by electricity.

I would like to see 25kv AC accross 2 rails! If that was the case i wouldnt want to go on the track!

But trespasses won't know that and would still trespass with an even higher fatality risk. The only benefits of overheads seems to be that trespasses will not get killed by electricity.
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I think Met apprentice had his tongue-in-cheek with his post as he implys that they bloody soon would know it and avoid rail tracks like police stations.

A high voltage of current? Have you studied Ohm's Law recently? ;D
Current is the flow of electrons whereas voltage is the force that is propelling them, and as the voltage goes up the current goes DOWN and it's the current that kills you.

OK, I too wouldn't like to get close as it's still a pretty large current, but don't forget that third rail EMUs draw a starting current of around 10kA and staff work around that quite happily.

Except of course when the darn wires won't stay up or melt in the wind / sun / passage of a fast train with dragging pantograph.

As for the wires coming down and diesel powered traction passing. Someone once told me that most areas of 25kv are connected to the signalling (though not direct of course). When a section of overhead is detetced as down (or even damaged) signalling turns to red in the affected area. Not sure how accurate this is, but it would certainly explain why my services grind to a halt when there is "suspected" damage to overheads.

Add to this that any driver worth his salt would have contacted control to advise them of the damage in the first instance. This would have meant services being held until such time as the damage could be assessed. The "panic" some passengers went into would not have occured immediately as, until things began to heat up, they may have been unaware of the seriousness of the problem.

Basically, if you want high speed rail, you have to use a high-tension catenary system. It is the only practicable way of transferring enough current over longer distances. Likewise, it is capable of delivering sustained high loads.

The electrification of the ECML in Britain was very much a thing done on the cheap, with the infrastructure being skimped on in order to save on installation costs. Thus, it is not exactly a shining example of what to look for in a catenary system. Roger Ford has written some scathing columns on the subject in Modern Railways.

Russia's RZD has no problems operating 6000-ton freight trains with 3-4 minute intervals in a temperature of -30 to +30 degrees celsius, using catenary electrification, for example. Or for that matter SNCF or the various japanese railway companies operating 300 km/h+ trains with two-minute intervals. On the other hand, our dear third rail on the surface stretches here in the Stockholm metro can certainly be taken out by ice and snow during winter.

I have no idea if and how the catenary on british railways is in any way interconnected with the signalling, but I do know that several countries have systems where a sudden loss of power in a section will lead to signals on both sides of that section displaying an "absolute stop" signal aspect until further action is taken.

Although in this case to be fair to British Rail I have always been under the impression that it was a case of do it on the cheap or not at all. I.E. had the project cost any more goverment approval would not have been forthcoming.