Fire Risk

Is there a forum where steam operators can get together with NR to discuss matters of common interest like that one?

 

Agree Peter. I would imagine that would be one of the very first questions to be asked before anything started on a conversion.

Bryan

 

North West Red from Thursday with note ‘UFN’ (so beyond the five day forecast we’re given).
Otherwise the nation is largely amber with the odd Green and Red covering areas where there are no notified steam movements.

 

Perhaps North West region needs split, given that in Cumbria the temperatures at today in the mid-teens and it has rained all day. The "heat" peaked yesterday in the very low 20s. After 35 days without rain between Easter and Whit, we've hardly had a consistent dry (or warm) spell of more than a couple of days since.

 

I am confused. Are NR now saying it is safer to run steam down to Dorset than last week, even though it has only rained very lightly for a couple of hours since the Swanage Belle had to be diesel hauled last Wednesday as I understood the whole of the south was black.

 

If I am reading post 143 correctly - we in the bulk of England are Amber?! There has been almost no rain for ages over very large swathes of the country away from the NW, and very high amounts of very strong sunshine. I simply can't believe that the fire risk is as low as it has been assessed to be. Something is amiss somewhere. As the days slide by, I foresee the 9 July 'End of Southern Steam' being ironically-hauled!

 

I am merely acting as a messenger and in good faith sharing information.

The fire risk status is updated daily based on a daily Met Office report. I cannot report on information as to why it is one status one week vs the next, but there seems to be an algorithm based around the conditions presented over the UK. All operators appear to be acting very responsibly and diesels are assisting many operations whatever the status, limiting the risk and therefore not bringing questions (within the NR) as to how the fire risk index is presented.

However, I do know that higher managers (local area managers etc) have the power to overwrite the fire risk status in their patch. If they determine the risk to be greater than what the fire risk status presents, then they will act accordingly in the presence of a notified steam movement.

 

Personally I find your info, and that from my own sources, very helpful and im glad to receive it. You shouldn’t have to justify anything.

im glad after Big Al closed the first fire risk thread down, this one has held!

 

EOSS is cancelled I believe anyway. See RTC thread.

 

Indeed - that came to light after my post (for me at least). Not so long ago, the 9th July commemorative run commanded a fast main line run all the way from Waterloo (not just the return) - now they either can't find a loco or it would be fire-restricted anyway on a meander from Victoria via Staines!

 

Slightly ironic also that the previous day RTC ran a BTM to Weymouth that "Due to flooding between Yeovil and Dorchester the outward leg was diverted to Salisbury."

 

One of the best SR Anniversary runs which produced this high speed pass through Woking:


My Dad and I joined the queue of enthusiasts at Waterloo to shake the hands of the footplate crew after an exemplary run.

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

Yes re the amazing path. I believe that was done by someone who put himself out to make all the small changes to other traffic to make that work. Last time I saw him he had retired and was a volunteer at the Bluebell Railway, a guard I think.

Bryan

 

Superb sequence. There is another one taken from the slow line platform of Clan Line racing through at 75 mph. Not sure if it was that train or another.

Watching either of those sequences raises the hair on the back of my neck.

Not just to see Clan Line racing through Woking on a train (s) I was on and timing. But also of the day big brother @gricerdon and I stood on that Woking slow line platform and watched a Merchant Navy on the up Royal Wessex rocking and rolling over the points on the approach and then through the station at something like 90 mph. Don will probably have the date and loco number if he can find it in the incredibly detailed notes he took back then. And I think still does when he's out gricing.

Bryan

 

Let me add to the thread drift with a six-and-a-half minute sequence of Clan Line hauling the 45th anniversary EOSS Cathedrals Express. Locations are: the ECS crossing the Thames at Imperial Wharf, roaring down the fast line at Surbiton, restarting from Tisbury loop, hurrying through the New Forest near Beaulieu Road, and accelerating out of the loop at Shawford.

 

That is one outstanding steam railway locomotive.

Bryan

 

I am becoming increasingly puzzled by NR's fire risk level here in the north west, despite buckets of rain we have recently been elevated to "red" whilst other areas which have had little or no rainfall are at "amber". Equally concerning was the caveat UFN - until further notice. I do accept that the rainfall in Cheshire may have been only a fraction of that in Cumbria or N Lancashire. As has been mentioned previously perhaps the area needs to be broken down, even as detailed as allowing amber precautions on a particular line, although this may be considered too labour intensive.

Of course, this may some sort of revenge for starting the well documented lineside fires or is it merely that the responsible individual has gone off for his summer holiday and has left the equivalent of an email "out of office". A lot of rain has fallen from the skies since the fires.

Equally concern is that NR NW do not appear to be "following the science" - now who said that (often), a scruffy bloke with unruly hair and more children than would fill a school . . ? The Met Office formerly published the fire risk index but now pass the information to Natural England for display on their website. I understand that the Met Office also provide the information used by NR, so why the big discrepancy? Here are the Natural England maps for yesterday and today.






On Saturday the northwest was predominantly coloured blue and on Sunday, following more rain, is even more so. NRs application of the fire risk measures in the north west was at first understandably cautious, is now questionable and rapidly in danger of becoming ridiculous. Yours, "Disgruntled of Darwen"

 

Current recommended safety wear for NR track workers in NW region - Hi-Vi, aqualung and flippers. (wet suit optional)

 

I have taken a more light hearted view of this issue and so as not to upset any moderators I've posted it in the thread New General Chat/Fire Risk - True or False