Granville: The rail disaster that changed Australia

[johnthefireman]

I think all those carriages have been phased out. Slam door trains are quite old now. It's possible they are not even permitted on regular trains now. A few can be found on preserved lines, but none at all on the main lines.

Not at all. HSTs still have slam doors. The difference, as I mentioned above somewhere, is that they have now been retro-fitted with central locking, but the actual doors remain the same.

[johnthefireman]

Was that done to avoid having any sort of door handle protruding inward, with the possibility of causing injury? The inside surface of the door was completely flat.

Not sure why it was like that. I do remember sometime in the late '70s or early '80s travelling from London to Halifax on New Year's Eve on a very cold and snowy evening. Trains were disrupted by the weather and timetables had fallen by the wayside, so I had to take a tortuous route with several unscheduled changes, just taking whatever train happened to be going vaguely in the same direction as I wanted to go. At one point there were a bunch of us poor passengers standing on a dark cold platform somewhere in Yorkshire. The station staff told us that a train was about to arrive but it had no heating, so we could either take that one or wait for a later train with heating that might or might not arrive. Most of us chose to get on the freezing cold train rather than wait for the possible warm one (as the old proverb says, a train in the hand is worth two in the bush). When we reached our destination and tried to disembark, we found that all the windows were frozen solid so we couldn't slide them down to reach out and open the doors. There was the comical sight of passengers racing up and down the train from door to door trying to find one where the window could actually be opened. Finally someone succeeded and the rest of us flocked in that direction and eventually managed to get off the train.

[philipmartin]

Where was the train crew? You'd think there might have been a guard or two to help out.
My first trip to Europe was on the Italian Line. We left New York and sailed up the coast to Halifax. I was sea sick the whole time and was thinking of getting off at Halifax and flying across. But a few hours on land changed all that. The rest of the trip (to Cobh) was fine. Maybe we are talking about different Halifaxes.

[johnthefireman]

Where was the train crew? You'd think there might have been a guard or two to help out.

US trains seem to have far more onboard staff than British ones did. A few months ago I did the commuter ride from Baltimore to DC a few times, and even on that short suburban trip there were two conductors onboard. On a British Rail train you would usually only find a singe guard, and on a night like that he was probably kept very busy.

Maybe we are talking about different Halifaxes.

Indeed we are. This is Halifax, Yorkshire, not Halifax, Nova Scotia. As the old saying goes, "From Hell, Hull and Halifax, may the Good Lord deliver us".

[george matthews]

Where was the train crew? You'd think there might have been a guard or two to help out.
My first trip to Europe was on the Italian Line. We left New York and sailed up the coast to Halifax. I was sea sick the whole time and was thinking of getting off at Halifax and flying across. But a few hours on land changed all that. The rest of the trip (to Cobh) was fine. Maybe we are talking about different Halifaxes.

The companies are trying to reduce staff on trains as much as possible - and beyond. For example Southern has been running a very poor service for a year because they are trying to eliminate Guards. There have been frequent three day strikes as a protest against this policy.

[philipmartin]

According to the first post on thi thread, the track was not maintained properly, and was wide gauge. "On the morning of the crash, this caused the locomotive's front left wheel to drop inside the track and sent it careering into the bridge supports."
Halifax, NS, was fine the few hours I was there; no need for deliverance from it. I don't know about the one in Yorkhire
On commuter railroads like the one I work for, you have trainmen picking up transportation from all the passengers. They make good money, put in long hours.

[george matthews]

you have trainmen picking up transportation from all the passengers.

I have no idea what that means.

[philipmartin]

Sorry about that, George. In this context, in my part of the world "transportation" means "tickets."

[ExCon90]

That terminology can be perplexing to people outside the industry. On the Pennsylvania Railroad conductors did not collect tickets--they "lifted transportation"--which was intended to include passes and other forms of written authority to be on the train. I always got a kick out of a provision in the instructions for conductors which said "Uniform jackets must be kept buttoned at all times except when actually engaged in lifting transportation." In all my years on the railroad I never saw a uniform jacket actually engaged In lifting transportation.

[philipmartin]

I saw a stuffed shirt lifting transportation one time, and an empty suit doing it on an other occasion; but that's all off topic.
Thank you for that, ExCon, I didn't realize that I had gotten that from the PRR, which I worked for many years ago.

Here's another description of Granville. http://danger-ahead.railfan.net/accidents/granvill.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MACTRAXX]

Everyone:

In case anyone was unaware the 40th anniversary of the Granville rail disaster passed on January
18th with many mentions of remembrances locally (Sydney) concerning this tragic accident.

A Google search "Granville train disaster January 18,1977" will find news and photos from various
sources which will give more insight about this wreck and its causes and aftermath.

There is a 2015 book "Revisiting the Granville Train Disaster of 1977" written by Barry J. Gobbe
who was then a first responder to this incident as an ambulance attendant and driver.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_rail_disaster" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MACTRAXX