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PostPosted: 12 Aug 2015, 00:18 
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Joined: 11 Feb 2014, 11:24
Posts: 14
Hi, as member of WIGAN TMD breakdown crew for 12 years and a crane driver of 30 & 50 ton Cowans Sheldon steam cranes and a 75 ton diesel crane. I would like to know how they get the job done with having to write method of work and keep to the radius charts because in my day the radius charts were only used as a guide and where ever you could you placed packing under the crane frame to stop it from turning over and you had to have a person you could trust watching the wheels.


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PostPosted: 12 Aug 2015, 18:50 
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Joined: 23 Dec 2010, 00:07
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Location: Poole, Dorset
Interesting question, and I can only hope that someone involved in today's operations will provide insight.

Personally I have mixed feelings with the modern trend that procedures and paperwork can substitute for years of experience -all too often this seems to discourage initiative and independent thought!

I wonder how something like the aftermath of the triple collision at Harrow in '52 would be approached now? Hopefully we will never find out.


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PostPosted: 12 Aug 2015, 23:21 
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Joined: 11 Feb 2014, 11:24
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Roger Cooke wrote:
Interesting question, and I can only hope that someone involved in today's operations will provide insight.

Personally I have mixed feelings with the modern trend that procedures and paperwork can substitute for years of experience -all too often this seems to discourage initiative and independent thought!

I wonder how something like the aftermath of the triple collision at Harrow in '52 would be approached now? Hopefully we will never find out.
I agree with you roger and hope we never have an accident like that again.


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PostPosted: 16 Aug 2015, 18:28 
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Joined: 28 Jan 2011, 10:53
Posts: 93
Location: Milton Keynes, city of roundabouts
Perhaps best described as 'the digital railway' things are much much slower these days as so many parties are involved. The 'rush' to get stock re railed has gone and meticulous planning is required.
The Breakdown foreman of old (recovery engineer today) need not leave his/her house as images of the incident site can be sent electronically as most 1st line Ops staff have smart phones. The terrain around the site can also be scoped out via online mapping showing utilities,water courses etc.
If I ring you up and say in a nervous voice "it's leaning over all axles off" you will paint your own picture based on previous experience, but if I send you a 'live' pic of the scene, your response will be very different.
The rush to rerail is also slowed down by investigation, various parties may 'claim' the scene so things remain sterile 'as the dust settles'.
By no means exclusively staffed, many many Ex Military guys now working on the Breakdown & Recovery teams with DB Schenker who currently hld the contract for 'mainline' recovery work.
And then we come to paperwork, any crane requires a 'lifting plan' will be produced and this goes along with the Route Control who produce a realistic milestone plan which sets out who does what and in what timescale.
These are usually formulated via a conference call between various parties and take the form of:
Recovery Engineer to site eta 14:00 actual 14:10
Assess site 14:30 actual 14:30
Possession taken of site - planned 22:00 actual 22:12
site lighting moved into place 22:30 actual 22:15
Road rail recovery vehicle on track at access point 22:40 actual ....
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so each one of these ' a milestone'
recently whilst using MFD gear to get a loco back on the packing sunk into the ground and put the plan back an hour of two whilst extra packing sourced so this would revise the bar chart.
=
As no incident is the same (no sort of actual template to follow) actually having all this written down allows ' the customer'to havesome idea when services will resume, so no more "yeah - we'llhave her back on in no time" you have to produce this plan.
So real time if an "earth fault" occurs whilst you are reading this, no point sending the gang straight out or even mobilising them until the plan is known as staff will be out of hours.
Network Rail will be represented by a Rail Incident Officer (RIO) on site
the freight or passenger operator will be represented by a Train Operator Liaison officer (TOLO) on site and the Recovery Engineer or in his/her absence a Breakdown & Recovery Supervisor.
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Traction power isolations also subject to planning as indeed the ' train plan' (timetable) which in English relates to - shall we rerail it now - or leave it til the weekend no train period and 'work around' the problem until then.
Changes also taking place with site safety with the replacement of (ES) Engineering Supervisor and Controller of site safety (coss) by various levels of Safe Work Leader (SWL) YES -I Know you all refer to Safe Working Load, the process to plan Safe Work Leader and risk assess is also complex.
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Finally tech like drones with cameras give a site overview, people posting on social media images of the site also allow a site view in some cases before the dust has settled.......
But old habits die hard ...every job is a crane job - Right??

-
Fail to Plan - Plan to Fail


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PostPosted: 16 Aug 2015, 20:02 
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Joined: 28 Feb 2012, 03:52
Posts: 67
Location: Havant, Hampshire
As an aside, i'm an SWL2, biggest load of crap i've ever seen. :lol:


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PostPosted: 17 Aug 2015, 20:35 
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Joined: 01 Feb 2013, 16:57
Posts: 17
I read this reply in disbelief. I'm afraid if you read that back and actually believe in it you've lost the plot. Utter drivel and a very expensive waste of tax payers money. Lets have a meeting about a meeting about a meeting and then plan another meeting. As an experienced engineer and ex railwayman I despair at people who literally invent jobs at massive expense. This country will never be competitive in the world with stupidity on this scale. I was quite pleased that someone jumped in before me to berate this!!!


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PostPosted: 18 Aug 2015, 19:26 
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Joined: 24 Jan 2011, 21:37
Posts: 23
Location: Stockton-on-Tees
What a load of old pony I'm glad I'm out of it!!


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