Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

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TheGreenGoblin
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Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:22 pm

‘Serious Injuries’ and fire as ScotRail train crashes near Stonehaven

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2020/08/sc ... -fire.html
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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#2 Post by 4mastacker » Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:47 pm

Isn't that in C16's neck of the woods.
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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#3 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:52 pm


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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#4 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:52 pm

3 dead and 6 injured.
said to have turned back after encountering one landslide - only to hit a second that caused the train to derail near to a bend in the tracks.
The train was the 6.38am departure from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street, which called at Stonehaven at 6.53am.
Landslide reported 7:45.
Train derails 9:45.

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#5 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:55 pm

Embankments undermined by heavy rain followed by quick drying and heat...
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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#6 Post by CharlieOneSix » Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:28 pm

4mastacker wrote:
Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:47 pm
Isn't that in C16's neck of the woods.
Yes, just two miles from us. We lost power at 0815 this morning after the worst thunderstorms I've ever experienced in this country, 31mm of rain in 90 minutes - power back on 15 minutes ago. We knew something big was up when emergency vehicles with sirens blazing passed by the house. Terrible pictures on BBC News Scotland - train driver and two passengers dead, others in hospital.

There's flooding in Stonehaven yet again - the new flood defences haven't been completed yet. Mackie Academy in the town told pupils not to come as roads were impassable with floods. Dunnottar Primary School has been flooded as well.

All our internal landline telephone wiring has blown, yet to check n other bits of kit. Last time this happened when it wasn't so violent we lost a television, microwave and two VCRs...some years ago.
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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#7 Post by 4mastacker » Wed Aug 12, 2020 5:14 pm

You take care C16.
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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#8 Post by Boac » Wed Aug 12, 2020 6:17 pm

Any train experts on this avation site..............? If the train is reversed, can it be controlled from the 'new' front by the driver?

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#9 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Aug 12, 2020 6:21 pm

The positions of the carriages is strange.

Not easy to determine the sequence of events.

Where was the driver when he was killed?

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#10 Post by tango15 » Wed Aug 12, 2020 6:49 pm

How awful. It looks like a kid's train set from the aerial photos. So it was a locomotive with four coaches. Strange how one of the coaches has caught fire. The locomotive appears to be untouched. I'm wondering if the driver got out to inspect the damage and got caught up in the whole situation**. You can't imagine a worse place than that for such an accident.

boac: looking at the video it seems that it was just one locomotive with the carriages, so no chance to reverse. I think it's a truncated version of the trains that beardie used to run on the West Coast Main Line some years ago, before the Pendolinos arrived.

** I now see it was the conductor who was killed, which makes more sense, looking at the wreckage.

More information coming to light. Some media are reporting there were six coaches. The driver encountered a landslip and then decided to reverse the train. Unfortunately the train ran into a landslip which was not there before. Reversing one of those train configurations can't be easy. Maybe the conductor was guiding him. Being as the driver is alive, at least we can get the full story now.

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#11 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:28 pm

A large bare patch looks like an earlier landslide:-
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carmo ... d-2.313717

or, maybe just an area of harvested trees?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carmo ... d-2.313717

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#12 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:40 pm

tango15 wrote:
Wed Aug 12, 2020 6:49 pm

More information coming to light. Some media are reporting there were six coaches. The driver encountered a landslip and then decided to reverse the train. Unfortunately the train ran into a landslip which was not there before. Reversing one of those train configurations can't be easy. Maybe the conductor was guiding him. Being as the driver is alive, at least we can get the full story now.
Standard configuration for those trains here in Abellioland is a loco-carriage at each end and four carriages in between.

The train left Furryboots at 06:40 and crashed at 09:40, so there must have been some faffing around as a result of the first landslide being encountered.

Furryboots is in lockdown. No travelling in or out is allowed. Hence less than a dozen POB. A filled six carriage train would have been a massive carnage and a huge death toll. Alhamdulillah, as they say in Cults and Bielside!

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#13 Post by Karearea » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:46 pm

Nothing technical to add, but wanted to express my sorrow over this awful accident.

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#14 Post by Ibbie » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:47 pm

The train was a shortened High Speed Train unit with an engine/driver cab at each end with four coaches in between. This particular set is ex GWR and was refurbed, re-entering service for ScotRail in April, I believe. The remains, after fire, of the leading driving engine/cab are actually in the trees, below the engine that remained upright. An early photo shows the leading coach/engine on fire and the drivers cab totally missing/ripped off. I don't think the driver had much chance of survival, as the cabs are made of GRP. The conductor would probably have been assisting the driver in the manoeuvers in going back, then forward again, wrong line. He also appears to have lost his life.

Unfortunately the media have not been very good in reporting the facts and have given out some false information. Few, if any, of them spotted the burnt remains of the leading engine in the trees from the overhead photos, if any did.

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#15 Post by CharlieOneSix » Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:10 pm

G-CPTN wrote:
Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:28 pm
A large bare patch looks like an earlier landslide:-

.......or, maybe just an area of harvested trees?
That's an area of harvested trees. Those particular ones were taken down about a couple of years ago but there is constant nibbling away here and there. The accident is in a very deep cutting which can't be seen from our road. Story Contracting have been working in the cutting area for some weeks now and access is from our road - the C1K Stonehaven to Auchenblae minor road - along a rough track. Not sure what they have been doing. About 3 or 4 years ago, before they went bust it was Carillion working there for months on end.

EDIT: Local STV News in the last hour are posting that the dead were the driver, conductor and one passenger. As UP said this would have been a lot worse if Aberdeen wasn't in lockdown with only business travel allowed in and out.
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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#16 Post by tango15 » Wed Aug 12, 2020 10:25 pm

Ibbie wrote:
Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:47 pm
The train was a shortened High Speed Train unit with an engine/driver cab at each end with four coaches in between. This particular set is ex GWR and was refurbed, re-entering service for ScotRail in April, I believe. The remains, after fire, of the leading driving engine/cab are actually in the trees, below the engine that remained upright. An early photo shows the leading coach/engine on fire and the drivers cab totally missing/ripped off. I don't think the driver had much chance of survival, as the cabs are made of GRP. The conductor would probably have been assisting the driver in the manoeuvers in going back, then forward again, wrong line. He also appears to have lost his life.

Unfortunately the media have not been very good in reporting the facts and have given out some false information. Few, if any, of them spotted the burnt remains of the leading engine in the trees from the overhead photos, if any did.
Ah, that all makes sense. It looked very similar to the former WCML trains. The initial image of the undamaged cab made me believe that there was only one locomotive unit. I see from tomorrow's UK papers, that both the driver and conductor perished. A truly awful event.

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#17 Post by G-CPTN » Fri Aug 14, 2020 1:19 pm

The train, which had passed through Stonehaven before 07:00, had turned back and was heading towards Aberdeen at the time of the crash.
The alarm was raised at about 09:40 on Wednesday morning.
Mr Matheson said it would not be appropriate to speculate about what had happened during that intervening period.

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#18 Post by tango15 » Fri Aug 14, 2020 1:28 pm

It is now clear that the photos in the media were of the rear of the train rather the front, though none of them so far as I could tell, had actually pointed that out.
It's a strange and very sad story and we shall have to wait for the official report in order to fully understand the events of that morning.

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#19 Post by G-CPTN » Fri Aug 14, 2020 2:05 pm

I would have thought that a train halted by a landslide that was 'reversing' (or running back towards its departure point) would have been proceeding with caution, yet the severity of the derailment suggests at least a moderate speed.

Would there not have been some communication with 'central control' before authorising this manoeuvre (unless it was an emergency back-up to avoid a catastrophe)?

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Re: Train Crash in Aberdeenshire...

#20 Post by G-CPTN » Fri Aug 14, 2020 2:29 pm

From the DM:-
"When it became apparent that train 1T08 could not continue its journey south, the decision was taken to return it to Aberdeen, and it was routed back over a crossover at Carmont onto the down line.
"After travelling for approximately 1.4 miles (2.25km), the train struck a landslip covering the down line and derailed.
"As the track curved to the right, the train continued in a roughly straight line for around 100 yards (90 metres) until it struck a section of bridge parapet, which was destroyed.
"The leading power car continued over the bridge and then fell from the railway down a wooded embankment, as did the third passenger carriage."The first passenger carriage came to rest on its roof, having rotated to be at right angles to the track. The second passenger carriage also overturned onto its roof and came to rest on the first carriage.
"The fourth passenger carriage remained upright and attached to the rear power car; it also came to rest on the first carriage. All wheelsets of the rear power car derailed, but it remained upright."

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