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Post by q8 on Oct 12, 2005 17:00:02 GMT
For the second time in two days there has been a major power failure in Tyneside which blacked out 100,000 homes and brought the Metro to a standstill with folk trapped in trains in tunnels and elsewhere. Traffic lights in the region were also extinguished. In both cases it was at the hieght of the peak. Last evening and this morning..
Now although power to the metro trains was not interrupted (I gather) the supply to the Metro control Centre at South Gosforth was. Consequently they lost track indications and radio communication with drivers. Some station lighting was also put out.
What strikes me as a bit queer is that surely a place like a control centre should have an emergency generator like hospitals as a back-up in the event of such failures.
This is not the case obviously with Metro but I wonder do LUL control rooms have a back-up supply installed?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2005 18:27:41 GMT
IIRC BAET or Harsig have posted elsewhere about the emergency power supplies for the interlockings and signalbox diagrams around the combine, mainly for noting down train locations before the interlocking runs out of power. You could ask them if the control rooms have this too.
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Colin
Advisor
My preserved fire engine!
Posts: 11,346
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Post by Colin on Oct 12, 2005 23:27:34 GMT
When LUL had a network wide power failure, Earls Court control room lost everything, including the signal diagram - which took out the District and Piccadilly lines.
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Post by citysig on Oct 13, 2005 17:13:06 GMT
IIRC BAET or Harsig have posted elsewhere about the emergency power supplies for the interlockings and signalbox diagrams around the combine, mainly for noting down train locations before the interlocking runs out of power. You could ask them if the control rooms have this too. In (at least our) Control Rooms, we have a back-up supply. It is intended to run most of the system for up to half an hour. Last time they tested it, it did at least keep around 25% of the system up for a whole 5 minutes. As for noting down train locations, the older systems will quite easily remember where all the trains are once the system comes back up. They will be exactly where they were, occupying the same track circuits, as they were when the system went down ;D As for knowing which train is which, well you didn't expect it to be perfect did you  |
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Tom
Administrator
Signalfel?
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Post by Tom on Oct 13, 2005 20:36:16 GMT
Half an hour? The Old Boy's been lying to you again. It will hold up for about ten minutes on a good day, and is only really designed to cover momentary blips in the supply.
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Post by citysig on Oct 14, 2005 8:38:32 GMT
Half an hour? The Old Boy's been lying to you again. It will hold up for about ten minutes on a good day, and is only really designed to cover momentary blips in the supply. We were told that it was designed for 20-30 minutes, provided it was only keeping crucial equipment powered. Yes that was the Old Boy! Strangely enough I don't think he was around when this theory was grounded. |
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