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 Post subject: Introduction - Rob Morel
PostPosted: 28 Jan 2011, 12:42 
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Joined: 28 Jan 2011, 10:53
Posts: 93
Location: Milton Keynes, city of roundabouts
Greetings to other members,
Saw a big yellow jib at Bletchley close to the flyover rerailing some cement tanks and a class 25 in the late70s after cycling to the station after school - little did I think I would working for BR when I left at 16. The crane driver barking out " moving left" over the tannoy the engine revving, white hard hat clad breakdown men doing their stuff.
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Been through the traincrew and traincrew supervisory grades being the duty manager of Wembley EFOC yard under RailFreight Distribution, after a little spell signalling,currently a Mobile Ops Manager and Rail Incident Officer for NR.
Usually first due before the ballast dust has settled at current incidents and very interested in the development of mfd jacking equipment and the current re railing and recovery fleet.
16 cm from foot of rail to railhead, lifting/jacking such a short distance with such heavy weight an art to be perfected.
With just four recovery cranes and a dozen road- rail vehicles currently, lots of memories of incidents and jobs when nearly every depot had a crane, tool vans then a "BRUFF" and using old sleepers and fishplates perfectly acceptable to re rail - imagine that now.
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Up to date on current emergency planning,site safety and rail incident,national emergency plans- don't be afraid to ask however trivial, you can learn more talking about past operations
than any book can teach - especially putting a shovel under the crane wheels when "wheel watching"- when the shovel falls time to shout and tighten down the packing.


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PostPosted: 30 Jan 2011, 00:47 
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Joined: 07 Jan 2011, 17:55
Posts: 25
Hi Rob, nice to meet you. I like the bit about the shovel, snippets like that make it all the more interesting to us non railway blokes.



John


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PostPosted: 30 Jan 2011, 10:13 
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Joined: 15 Dec 2010, 22:30
Posts: 298
Location: North Cambridgeshire, UK
A most interesting and educational Introduction, Rob!

Two comments:
1. Purpose-built rerailing ramps can be added to your list of historical recovery equipment. We have a set of those at the Nene Valley Railway but I don't know their age. They are LH/RH handed and have a comparatively gentle ramp for hauling a derailed vehicle back onto close-by metals. They would have been useful in the days of steam locos, far easier than using traversing jacks, but might risk putting a side load on the wheels of a modern loco which could damage a traction motor (this is an aspect that I'm not at all familiar with).

2. You mention the trick of wedging a shovel under a wheel on the side of the crane opposite the load and watching for it to fall as a warning of wheel lift. As can be seen under 'Rail Clips' in the Design and Development section of our website, I picked up from somewhere (the source escapes me at the moment) that old hands would indeed use a shovel for such purpose but, rather than look for it to fall as the crane wheels lifted, they would simply watch for the handle to drop slightly as a first sign of wheel lift. I imagine that is exactly what you meant but I'm sure you won't mind the clarification.


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PostPosted: 31 Jan 2011, 11:56 
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Joined: 10 Jan 2011, 18:39
Posts: 50
Location: Bourne lincolnshire
Welcome to the Forum Rob,
Now you mention it I do remember the shovel under the wheels trick


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PostPosted: 26 Feb 2011, 23:53 
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Joined: 25 Jan 2011, 17:25
Posts: 13
Re Re-Railing ramps, these were a useful piece of kit which need a lot of skill to get the right results, yard staff had the knack off to a fine art rather than send for the tool vans, a quick easy fix. But the 'General Appendix' stated that under no circumstances should they be used to rerail bogie vehicles. Not that stopped the yard staff trying...... We would often get a call to a bogie bolster that hadn't rerailed and had trapped the re-railing ramp under it, strange how that ramp would get damaged whilst we re-railed the vehicle!! No one would attempt to rerail a diesel locomotive with ramps, the risk of heavy damage was to great. If we had a rake of wagons derailed and in line with the track and the p'way gaffer wasn't looking and we wanted to get home quick it was possible to set the ramps, then just haul the rake towards them and watch the wagons drop back on the track one after another.


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