No service to/from Chesham UFN 3rd Jan 2023

It does seem odd that once the defective Amersham train had been assisted back into the platform at Chalfont, by coupling-up another train, that a decision was then made uncouple the two trains and move the defective onto the single-line up to Chesham, rather than, aldenham says to Amersham.
Passengers were on the train for 130mins before recovery back to Chalfont.

Is the line to the bay platform at Chalfont still accessible? Obviously the train wouldn't fit in the platform, but there is a lot more than a train length between the stops and the junction, so putting a train there would be (theoretically at least) out the way of everything.

Perhaps there is a clue here.



The service has already been up the spout for over two hours, propelling a duff unit all the way to Amwrsham and then shunting it into a siding would have just screwed things even more.

I suspect it was dumped on the branch simply to get it out of the way quickly so the rest of the service could then be recovered.

Having read some internal information on this incident, the defective train initially failed around midnight with no forward motoring available. Subsequently the defective train was found to have no motoring available from either cab hence the assisting train was required.

The assisting train takes time to arrange and implement hence the extended delay in getting customers off the failed train.

Once the customers were taken off the trains were uncoupled to allow the attending train technician an opportunity to try and resolve the defect (it's not ideal to have a 16 car train on the railway if one can avoid it as that presents its own set of problems). The train technician was able to successfully obtain motoring but with low confidence of the fix holding.

By now it was 3am. Although the assisting train was still present, as already stated a 16 car train presents its own set of problems to overcome and greatly extends any recovery of the railway as such a train movement has to be done at extremely slow speed. Moving such a combination to any particular location would have therefore impacted on the morning service start up.

The quickest and easiest way out of the situation was therefore to move the initial problem train onto the Chesham branch. It was able to move under its own power and this option would allow an opportunity to see if the fix would hold up. As it turned out the fix didn't hold up and it failed several times on the way to Chesham, eventually arriving there at 4.30am

The assisting train eventually got to Rickmansworth sidings at 0352 which at least allowed the morning service to start up on time.

Having that problem train on the Chesham branch did at least allow for the train to be further looked at by train technicians overnight and a test run to take place the following day within the confines of the branch in order to provide confidence ahead of allowing the train back onto the railway.

Whilst I can see the frustration of Chesham users, and don't doubt the communication from LU was poor, it looks to me to have been the right decision given all the circumstances.