Repair and Recovery after Cement train derailment at Sheffield Midland Station - 115937*

* 216Mby MP4 phone Video. WITH THE WIND REMOVED AND CALMING SOUNDTRACK ADDED!!
* Part Two, taken just before leaving on Sunday, it is 1min 49s long, so video can be watched within the Flickr interface.

Back on Sunday 15th November for more shots of the progress which has been made since the early morning, Wednesday 11th November, derailment of a freight train, traversing the rails along platform 1, one of the main passenger platform for main and local down, away from London, trains. A heavy cement train from Castleton, Earles' Sidings in the Hope Valley, had derailed on exiting from the station along platform 1 at around 02:45 that morning. It was the 6E91 working to Dewsbury Blue Circle, with Freightliner class 66, 66603, at the front hauling a rake of 34 full PCA tank wagons, 16 of which had derailed with one having turned over completely; this is the one standing right at the end of platform 1, seen in the videos seen here. The video is in two parts, the first 20 shots are those from the 11th, 8 of which were show as still pictures here-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50590200841/
and here-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50590200516/
At that time, late morning, a lot of Network Rail staff were present and were having a 'jolly good look' at the situation presented to them, now 8 hours after the event took place; Freightliner 66603 was at the front and halted on the Nunnery Main Junction and visible below in the hole in the Broad Street tunnel. Serendipitously, a blue/red striped cement truck passes along Sheaf Street right next to the toppled PCA wagon, the driver presumably blithely unaware of what was happening to his material, over the other side of the wall! The second part, the still taken last Sunday morning in very windy, but warmish conditions for the time of year, shows the progress made in 4 days and, more to the point, the mess which was made by such a relatively minor/moderate mishap. In addition, it appears that this set of points were replaced quite recently and there is a 10m.p.h. speed limit for passes along the line into the Shrewsbury Road tunnels; the R.A.I.B. will be looking at this as well as other aspects to determine what caused the incident and the ensuing disruption to passenger and other freight services which had to be cancelled or re-routed in the area for the rest of last week. The views here aptly demonstrate the kind of 'hands-on', heavy industrial type work, which has to be carried out in any weather or conditions and with the ever presence of danger close by. I personally feel it is to the Rail Network's credit that this is performed in a timely, serious, considered manner and any complaining which is done, and I have ready some about the speed at which clearance has taken place, should just step-back and look at what is involved for the best and safe outcome. The rails were replaced to a large extent by yesterday, so I understand, I haven't been back to look, but that's a week of whole and partial disruption, no-one being injured or killed and with the minimum of fuss about how good B.R. was; the past is a different country! Following this on the next day or so, both halves of the wagons which were still on the rails, one set at the front behind the lead loco, 66603 and another set at the back, sat along platform one, were disconnected leaving the centre section of derailed wagons with one toppled over, in-situ. The rear ones, maybe around 12, were taken back to Earles Sidings using a light engine move from there to connect up to the rear and move the undamaged set away back along the Hope Valley. The re-railed ones remaining were eventually also moved and were shunted into the Station Washer sidings and can these be seen in the video in two short rakes right, about 7 in all, next to the Shrewsbury Road tunnels. The front section, maybe 8 or 9, full PCAs, eventually continued on their designated path to the Blue Circle Cement Works at Dewsbury. The depressed centre PCA Bulk Cement wagons, tare weight is around 13 tonnes and when filled with 37 tonnes of material results in the toppled tank wagon, #10756, weighing around 50 tonnes, so 37 tonnes of cement had to be pumped out before the wagon could be moved, the timing load for this move was 2000 tonnes. By Tuesday this week, all looked normal(ish) on the track diagram and services appeared to be coming and going including the normal reversal on US1, Up Slow 1, between platforms 5 and 6 of the Tuesday RHTT, 3S12 inwards and 3S13, the diagram to Gainsborough back out. Last Wednesday, due to the stop on traffic into the station, the RHTT ran a series of 3Zxx workings, the early morning run, 3Z11, from York Thrall, reversing in the Brightside Sidings and then heading back out, 3Z12, on a circular route north and back to Woodburn Junction where, for the first, and only, time it came along the Stocksbridge Branch to give the rails up there a bit of a clean. See these, first at Neepsend on the way north-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50597380742/
and then back south at Wharncliffe Wood, the right-hand shot-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50597255081/
The bright and very breezy Sunday produced some very colourful shots both outside and inside on the station platforms where access, with adherence to the Covid-19 rules was in place, thankfully, was un-stressful, though there were hardly any folk about other than the occasional dozen or so getting off the Intercity services on platform 8. The high reach crane, brought in and parked on Sheaf Street where the road was under a closure all day Sunday, looks to be taking charge of the heavy ironmongery shifting, bringing in sleepers, track panels ans other stuff, over the Sheaf Street Wall. As has been pointed out, the River Sheaf flows beneath the station here in a large culvert and it actually passes under near where the derailment took place. Some investigation will presumably reveal it wasn't a collapse of any part of this which caused the track to buckle and the wagons to hit the ballast, one more dramatically than the rest! There were various parked up sets of Northern stock, a class 195, 195024 on Up Slow 2, class 170, 170476 on Up Slow 1, a class 153, 153317, on Down Slow 2 and class 195 on Down Slow 1, seen from the footbridge and a class 153, 153331, in the Washer Sidings next to the parked up PCA tanks. A couple of passenger moves also came and went, the first was an East Midland Railways HST set arriving from the north and coming in slowly, it had just traversed the Sheaf Street Tunnel, along platform 6 to pause for passengers, this was the 1C43, Leeds via Sheffield Platform 6 to St. Pancras International passenger service with 43314 at the front and 43316 at the back; a rainbow illuminates the top floor of the Parkhill Flats in the background and scrap material can be seen in the spent waste train wagons in the foreground. The shot looking over to platform 8 was the rear of the EMR train comes into view, sees Northern class 170, 170476 on the Up Slow 1 line, the EMR rear power car, 43316 and poking out behind the 'Sheffield' running in board, a Northern class 158, 158861 on platform 8 awaits passage out of the station to the east on the 2P14 service to Lincoln Central, usually using the lower numbered platforms, it has been forced to use 1 of the only 2 in service, 6 and 8. Freightliner 66953 is thrumming away on bay platform 3A with its train of spoil and a light engine move, 66601, will come in later to haul the whole north to Doncaster on the 6Y75, Sheffield to Doncaster Down Decoy spent materials train. Having grabbed as many shots on the station site which I deemed appropriate it was time to move off and so, leaving the station I walked back alongside the high wall, finally standing on the step-ladder and poking the camera over the wall at the Tram stop near the station covered footbridge. Grabbing what was thought to be the last 2 or 3 shots, a complete surprise came along in the form of an orange/yellow Colas loco, having not bothered to see what was on offer that morning, I had no idea that the late running, fortunately by 90 minutes at the outset, 'MENTOR' test train was in the area and would be passing through and set to be held for 20 minutes at Sheffield's S0077 signal just outside the station. In the event it picked up some time on the way up from Derby and arrived outside the station 48 minutes late, but then wasn't held at the signal and passed along platform 8 at 11:49. This is the 'canary yellow, 'MENTOR', 'Mobile Electrical Network Testing, Observation and Recording' train with Colas class 67, 67027, 'Charlotte' at the front and 67023, 'Stella' at the rear; the next 7 shots show the progress of this, slowly along platform 8 on the 1Q19, Derby R.T.C. to Heaton T&R.S.M.D. working. Jolly glad it set off 101 minutes late or else I wouldn't have been here to see this, which I haven't done for a long time. Just as it is passing into the Sheaf Street tunnels, a Sheffield Supertram rattles past on the tracks outside the station, this one, unit #101, heading to Malin Bridge from Herdings Park. The final traction move appears just as the Ainscough crane prepares to hoist some new railhead over the wall, heading from the north through the right portal of the Sheaf Street Tunnels and heading along platform 8, just after the Colas Rail test train cleared out of the way, is a Cross Country Trains class 220, 220018 at the front with class 221, 221128 at the back on the 13 station stop, 5 hours, 1V54, Newcastle via Sheffield Platform 8 to Bristol Temple Meads passenger service. The final shot shows the new rail having been secured and its now on its way to form a new section of the damaged track from derailed freight train last Wednesday in the early hours of the morning.

Taken on: November 20, 2020

Tags:

Sheffield Midland Station

Midland Main Line

Colas Rail

Class 67

67027

Charlotte

67023

Stella

1Q19

Derby R.T.C. to Heaton T&R.S.M.D.

MENTOR

Mobile Electrical Network Testing, Observation and Recording Coach

Derailment

Freightliner

Class 66

66603

Derek W. Johnson MBE

6E91

Hope(Earles Sidings) to Dewsbury Blue Circle Cement

Cement Wagons

PCA Cement Tanks

6Y75

66601

66953

Sheffield Platform 3A to Doncaster Down Decoy

Platform 3A

Wagons of spent Waste

VolkerRail

On Track Machine

DR75301

DRK81613

6J36

Sheffield Platform 1 to Doncaster D.C.E. Sidings

District Engineers Sidings

Northern Rail

DMU

Class 195

195024

195014

Up Slow 2

Class 170

170476

Up Slow 1

Class 150

150276

Platform 4B

Class 153

153317

153331

Washer Sidings

Class 158

158861

2P14

Sheffield Platform 8 to Lincoln Central

East Midlands Railway

Class 43

H.S.T.

43314

43316

1C43

Leeds via Sheffield Platform 6 St. Pancras International

Cross Country Trains

Class 220

Class 221

220018

221128

1V54

Newcastle via Sheffield Platform 8 to Bristol Temple Meads

Park Hill Flats

Sheaf Street Tunnels

Shrewsbury Road Bridges

Broad Street Tunnels

Sheffield Power Box

Signal S0139 « less

Sets appears in: • Sheffield Midland

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