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 Post subject: 2011 arrangements
PostPosted: 29 Jan 2011, 14:27 
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Joined: 28 Jan 2011, 10:53
Posts: 93
Location: Milton Keynes, city of roundabouts
With Network Rail having DB Schenker (EWS) as contractors to provide mainline re railing and recovery facilities, the current contract involves initially a request from operations staff to confirm that these facilities are required, then one of the dozen Route Controls fill in a request form for DBS to attend with information such as location,access point,on site contact,vehicle details etc. For years the trade name "BRUFF" has been well known for the little Bedford road rail vehicles that bounce over the track, lower turntable, align with rails then move off towards the incident and today although NONE of this fleet of 30 vehicles is currently registered to operate on the national system (4 exist however in use on depots/yards etc) the name BRUFF is still widely used in control rooms and on the ground.
A recovery engineer will also be sent to bigger jobs or jobs requiring crane use, most small derailments with minimal damage,low speed etc will just be attended by the breakdown gang led by a supervisor.
DBS currently operate four 2 axle Volvo road rail vehicles T241 - 244 CNN and one larger Volvo road rail vehicle R6 EWS based at various freight depots around the country.
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As the term "fetch the BRUFF" is still used today, for those staff on the ground a bruff means a possession of the line must be taken, maybe a traction isolation, a suitable on tracking point
arranged, but in reality if the incident is under the overhead wires and the derailment is minor
mfd jacking equipment may arrive like the attached photos!
.
I also understand that difficulty manning the current road rail fleet with suitably trained HGV class one drivers exists, so the small vans are used , all be it needing two to carry all the gear.These of course can get to places the larger trucks can not.
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Responsibility for re railing off network rail lines, in depots,sidings and yards etc is the responsibility of the company concerned, so First great western (Reading) First capital connect (Hornsey) and West Coast Traincare (Longsight, Manchester, Wembley, London)
still have Bedford Bruff road rail vehicles for internal use or to take equipment to other depots, move wheel skates etc.
Imagine then, when requesting a "BRUFF", these two turn up.
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A number of commercial companies also offer mfd jacking such as knights rail services (Eastleigh) and Railway support services limited


Attachments:
File comment: From the archives - Willesden TMD bedford/bruff at Wembley yard (job was to fit wheel skates).
Yard lighting showing the front axle arrangements and the inset front road wheels/inset axle that caused the demise of these vehicles

bruff 004.jpg
bruff 004.jpg [ 95.15 KiB | Viewed 18657 times ]
File comment: White van men
truckone_jpg.JPG
truckone_jpg.JPG [ 152.03 KiB | Viewed 18657 times ]
File comment: More white van men
trucktwo_jpg.JPG
trucktwo_jpg.JPG [ 97.5 KiB | Viewed 18657 times ]
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 Post subject: Re: 2011 arrangements
PostPosted: 31 Jan 2011, 12:41 
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Joined: 10 Jan 2011, 18:39
Posts: 50
Location: Bourne lincolnshire
I did wonder why the BRUFF were withdrawn, they were good at what they did, but looking at the caption under the photograph saying that the inset wheels caused the demise of the BRUFF, this does bring back memories of two occasions when I had wheels sheer off the stub axle, I think the wheels were too inset, on later road railers the front wheels hang & the only tyres on the rails are the inner rear wheels, not quite sure what the braking arrangements are ??


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 Post subject: Re: 2011 arrangements
PostPosted: 31 Jan 2011, 16:02 
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Joined: 28 Jan 2011, 10:53
Posts: 93
Location: Milton Keynes, city of roundabouts
Fairmont-hyrail (now bought out by Harsco), converted at least two of these Bedford Bruff vehicles with new front rail axles that lifted higher, this allowed a standard Bedford Road axle to be fitted, but as this was out of gauge with the rails , the new rail axle lifted the road axle clear! and cured the front hub problem even though the results looked like the truck was performing a wheelie.
30 built for recovery,1 flatbed ,1 in Northern Ireland and one with Blackpool Transport


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