Ely Derailment Exposes Monitoring Gaps

摘要

While there were no injuries, the derailment of 13 out of a train of 35 loaded ballast hoppers at 01.59 on June 22 2007 destroyed a five-span bridge over the Great Ouse river near Ely Dock Junction, closing this section of the important freight route between Felixstowe and Peterborough for exactly six months.rnIn its report on the accident, RA1B says it was the fifteenth wagon, REDA 16002, which initiated the derailment 460 m west of the bridge as train 6L58 from Mountsorrel to Chelmsford was rounding a 330 m radius curve at 17 mile/h. This two-axle wagon was part of a five-wagon set joined by bar couplers, and fitted with conveyor belts under the hoppers so that ballast could be distributed by a KJA self-discharging wagon at the front of the train.