Fire Risk and Preserved Lines

NYMR Diesel hauled until further notice.

Fire Risk During UK Heatwave | North Yorkshire Moors Railway - NYMR

 

Kent & East Sussex has just circulated advice that an "amber fire risk" applies. Steam locos can still be used but with additional precautions.

 

Nene Valley running diesels this weekend due to the weather.

 

I wonder if the forecast showers will be enough to rescue the MNR steam gala next weekend?

 

From VoR Facebook page.

Service Cancellation – 12 & 13 July

We are very sorry to announce that all train services on the Vale of Rheidol Railway are cancelled this weekend (Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th July).

The ongoing heatwave has created an extreme fire risk on the line, preventing us from operating our steam locomotives safely. Unfortunately, our heritage diesel locomotive has also suffered a failure today, meaning we are unable to run any trains.

This is an unprecedented step and not a decision we have taken lightly. We deeply regret the disappointment this will cause to our visitors. If you have already booked we will be in touch regarding rebooking to a later date or refunding your fare.

Our Aberystwyth station shop, café, and museum will remain open as usual over the weekend for anyone who would still like to visit.

We are confident that train services will resume as normal on Monday 14th July.

We sincerely apologise and thank you for your understanding during this exceptional situation.

 

SVR Facebook a few minutes ago. Class 20 replacing whatever was on the steam diagram this afternoon as well.

SUNDAY 13th JULY - SPECIAL NOTICE
Due to the dry weather and increased fire risk, we have suspended Steam Locomotive operations for tomorrow. All of our services will still run as planned, and will be worked by our Heritage Diesel Fleet (D1062 and a Class 50).

This is not a decision we take lightly and we have to consider the welfare of our staff and volunteers, along with the tinder dry nature of our surroundings.

1450 will be giving brake van rides at Kidderminster between 1100 and 1600, so you can still see a steam locomotive in action within the station confines.

A decision on train services next week will be announced in due course. Thank you for understanding.

 

Lots of diesel substitution, but also other railways still continuing with steam.

On the Bluebell we have three steam services this weekend, as pretty much every weekend this year. (In fact four locos this weekend, as 65 and 72 are double heading). We have not, as far as I am aware, substituted any steam for diesel this year as a consequence of fire risk. We have also not - again as far as I am aware - burnt down half of Sussex, and in gradient terms, our locos do need to work hard in one direction.

Which raises the question about why some feel the need to substitute, and others don't? Is it a difference in risk appetite between different railways? Or effectiveness of other mitigations? (Ashpan sprays / spark arresters / control of line side vegetation etc).

This isn't meant to be a criticism of other lines for taking the decision to substitute steam for diesel at certain parts of the year, but rather to understand why some do that, but others don't.

There is a kind of existential question here, since if it became genuinely impractical in the future to operate steam at certain parts of the year, I don't believe the heritage movement is sustainable in its current form with diesel traction - steam is undoubtedly the draw. I think customers will be understanding of occasional substitions for what is seen as exceptional circumstances, but if diesel-only services through the summer become a normal part of operations rather than exceptional, I don't believe there will be enough custom to sustain railways at their current scale.

Tom

 

Tom, I’ve had a week up at my Parents in Bewdley, last Saturday there was a quite significant fire by the Safari Park which caused how shall we put this? Quite a significant delay to the days operations.
There’s been some rain around there (we got caught in it Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evening) but I’m guessing it hasn’t done much.

From what my Dad (who’s a volunteer btw) told me apparently there’s been a call out to the fire brigade at least once a day the past fortnight and as he said they must be getting pretty pi$$ed off. I can imagine those at the Safari park weren’t happy last Saturday either.

Certainly on our trip on Wednesday the burnt parts of the lineside were very noticeable.
It really isn’t a surprise to see a little bit of Type One activity atm.

 

Intersting because there wasn’t a call Friday on the Footplate Experience day, nor Wednesday, nor Tuesday. Just looks like Thursday last week.

 

I'm not criticising the decisions made by individual railways who do, of course, know the circumstances in their precise area. Rather, my query was why are some lines feeling able to continue running steam in this heatwave and others not? I'm sure differences in what vegetation is adjacent might be some of it, but surely not all. So for the lines that continue to operate - are they just lucky at the moment they haven't had a big issue, or are they doing things differently?

I must admit that as footplate crew, my immediate thought in this weather is about crew welfare rather than "am I going to have to beat out a fire today".

Tom

 

Hang on a sec sunshine, I’m not stating it as a fact, I’m only going by what I’ve been told. If my old man’s been exaggerating then fair enough, but the it doesn’t take a degree in applied b0ll0cks to know there’s been some serious lineside fires recently at the SVR, last Saturday being stuck in the loop at Kidderminster wasn’t exactly how I planned to spend my afternoon/early evening, I also didn’t envisage being sat in the garden and seeing 75069 go past 75 minutes later than it should was part of the plan was it?

 

Lineside fire at the Avon Valley yesterday. Seems to have been caused by Jennifer, working for the last day of its boiler ticket.

 

Not speaking from any position of knowledge or expertise but I presume there's a wide variety of reasons. Risk appetite is no doubt one of them, aversion to negative press could be another (see Kingscross' post above). Nature of the vegetation along the lineside will also play into it. Availability of additional volunteers to keep an eye on the lineside would be another. Then we have to take into account what fire mitigation measures they can put in place, availability of water alongside the line etc.

As an example, I visited the Isle of Wight Steam Railway on Thursday and had a chat with the loco crew about the heat. They had several measures in place. They weren't using their smaller locos as they stated the shorter boilers on things like Terriers were more susceptible to drawing sparks through and exhausting them, while their Ivatt doesn't. They had numerous IBCs full of water with buckets and fire beaters positioned along the lineside, and they were running their diesel inspection vehicle (Permaquip I think) along the line behind the service train to check for fires.

Some railways may have simply decided the added expense and complexity of all those measures simply isn't worth it and running diesels makes better sense for them.

 

At Cambrian, we have been running steam both days this weekend, but half our line is in built up area (albeit alongside a wooded footpath) and the other half has an industrial estate one side of the line and crops the other (but the crops still look quite green). Also, trains do not need to work that hard so little or no hot embers ejected via the chimney.
We have run a few diesel trips in place of steam, but that's to allow the steam crew more time to recover between trips in this very hot weather. (E.g Today, class 73 did morning ECS* trip, then steam did one round trip, then class 73 diesel took the 12:30, steam for the last 2 round trips, then diesel ECS to end the day).
* The carriages are usually kept at Weston Wharf, but most locos (and passengers) start the day at Oswestry.

 

I was on the South Devon Railway today for the Brake Van rides

They were running it with an 04, not the outside cylinder pannier which was working the service train with a 25

There is evidence of trackside fires and local fields look parched

Seems sensible to me

 

Nene Valley Railway yesterday and today ran steam with visiting praire 4144 on the short section of line between Wansford and Yarwell, with the class 14 9529 taking over the train between Wansford and Peterborough, due to the risk of setting farmers fields alight and also for footplate crew welfare reasons.

 

Given the choice between Nature and chuff-chuffs, I'll pick Nature every time, ta.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czeyx2w86xyo

 

33108 covered for 65 and 72 today. Fires yesterday.

 

So a few observations/thoughts on this. Vegetation, type of vegetation and width of total railway (some of the fence lines on some railways are very far from the rails, others less so. A fire on the line side is different to a fit in the adjacent field. Attention to spark arrestor fit, function and maintenance. Quality of coal. Curvature of line particularly sharp curves on falling gradients.

Bluebell has whenever I have seen it had a wide cess and vegetation well controlled. Since my observation is more fires are caused by coals rolling out the Ashpan than stuff flung from the chimney, the wide cess would seem to be a really good risk mitigation, as is screens on the ashpan, regular use of the spray and not allowing holes to develop in the ashpan.

Good track and absence of sharp curves also helps, fewer reasons to shake a hot coal from the ashpan.

 

In the current hot spell, I’d happily expect to find a DMU or a diesel vice steam; to fire mitigate. Aside from the physical impact on the crew having to work in high temperatures in a hot environment.

Have to say I was very impressed to find a Bullied pacific working end of last week on the Glos & Warks Rly - driver rightly worked the loco very gently throughout. That said between going into Broadway and coming back out 30 mins later, a small fire/smouldering inside the boundary fence had started just a mile from Broadway. The train crew were excellent dealing with it; stopping, soaking down lineside with the overflow pipe and buckets to ensure out - but it may just be easier to run diesel traction on heritage lines when spells of hot weather pertain.

Rounding off the weekend yesterday BBC News featured the lineside fire alongside the Avon Valley Rly; 2nd item in the link below https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002fz17/points-west-late-news-13072025