Piling drill burst onto Moorgate line

This unbelievable image was tweeted by @FirstCC this afternoon...

According to FCC the driver of the train in the picture, which was not in passenger service, 'did them proud' by managing to stop short of the obstruction on the line. 

Not half!

According to @NetworkRail: 

At 10:09, a train driver reported that water was flowing from the roof of the Moorgate Tunnel - between Old Street and Essex Road stations. Lines were immediately blocked and our response teams were sent to site.

At 11.05 our staff boarded a special empty train from Moorgate to investigate the problem. As the train approached the area at low speed, two large piling drills - which were being used above ground by a building contractor - penetrated the skin of the tunnel.

Repairs to the tunnel are ongoing but the line - which is normally closed at weekends - is expected to reopen in time for services on Monday morning.

FCC also confirmed by Twitter that the piling drills are 'not railway related'. 

It is believed that ground level drilling works at 'a private construction site' resulted in the breach to the tunnel wall.

Hopefully someone at said construction site will soon be helping the BTP with their inquiries...

UPDATE: Oh dear All Foundations, what have you done!

Number Crunching - The price of safety

This, surprisingly, from the late Frankie Howerd..

Woe, woe and thrice woe!

According to the latest edition of RAIL which, for non-subscribers, hits newsstands tomorrow...

 No!! Twitter ye not!!! (Indeed. Ed)

Melbourne Metro: Dumb ways to die

This Australian safety video has gone viral...



Not sure why Boris Johnson features at the end though!

Alliance goes Jesuit on railway safety

This from Network Rail...

Children in primary schools across the south and south west of England are to take the lead in educating classmates about staying safe on the railway.

The Network Rail and South West Trains Alliance is launching the railway safety reps programme across the route which runs from London Waterloo out to the south coast and south west England.

Primary schools will nominate children to learn about how to stay safe when using level crossings and the dangers of trespassing on the railway and will then share their new knowledge with their friends.

The programme will complement Network Rail’s ongoing safety campaigns and continued efforts to improve safety and reduce the number of incidents involving children and young people.

Eye missed this when it was released last Wednesday but, in light of ASLEF's comments the day before, well worth a mention.

V. Good. Tick.

Signal sighting problems explained

UPDATE: Eye is grateful to a Mr Saltaire for this novel solution...


WTF?

Carriage crash test at Long Marston

MIRA staged a full-scale rail collision to showcase opportunities for technology transfer between road and rail.



With a bowler tip to the Railway Gazette...

Is it just the Fact Compiler or does one of those dummies look like it's soiled itself?

UPDATE: This just in from PJ over at Network Rail...

When I arranged the much more exciting Top Gear crash a few years ago we wanted dummies in the car.



Unfortunately, the Top Gear team deemed it 'tasteless'.

I have to say this was a high point in my career - out done by Clarkson on grounds of taste...

UPDATE: Captain Deltic groans....

Oh no! not again!

With their own industry going down the Swanee MIRA think they can bring enlightenment to the backward railways.

Crashworthiness standards for train interiors have been around for years.

Time for RSSB to do something really useful.

Give then a copy of Ian Walmsley's article on train interiors and tell the petrolheads to go and peddle their wares elsewhere.

Integrated control?

Not a good day for Network Rail Southern and SWT.

Local press in Hampshire are up in arms following the electrocution of an escaped shire horse after NR refused to turn off the juice.

Read the Aldershot News & Mail story here.

It also emerges that the driver's request to isolate power was declined despite three people, endeavouring to catch the horse, being trackside.

Aslef are rightly concerned.

Some you lose

Telegrammed by Eboracum (50A)
The RAIB report into the collision of a train with a demolished footbridge at Barrow upon Soar was published today.

Section 9 of the report is reproduced below

"The causal factor was that the lorry driver forgot to fully lower the body of the lorry
because he was distracted from his normal routine by having to unlock the cab passenger
door to allow access for the COSS."

The COSS is of course the Controller of Site Safety – or perhaps not!