West Somerset Railway General Discussion

There are usually/often consequences for engineers who make such mistakes. In the 1981 Hyatt Regency walkway collapse, the engineering company responsible for not catching the mistake that led to the disaster lost its licenses. Heck, even after the Tay Bridge disaster, way back as 1879, when the profession was far less organized, the engineer responsible, Thomas Bouch, was basically drummed out of the profession.

Yes, unless there is a failure/disaster which highlights that a mistake has been made, an undiscovered mistake is (almost necessarily) less likely to result in consequences for the person who boobed. However, one cannot make such a mistake and expect to get away scot free.

Noel

 

From day one of my apprenticeship, my tutor would mention again and again, "measure twice, cut once". It certainly cut out the basic errors. But always remember, the person that never made a mistake was the person that never did anything. [BJ]

 

As an engineer, and a formal design authority, I can assure you nobody in my business runs processes that do not have the required checks and balances. Follow the process - it's the companies decision. Deviate, and it's your personal decision. Humans make mistakes, but the correct process can almost eliminate them.

 

Absolutely! Have the correct systems that check for errors and remedy them. My complaint is with the notion that punishment will stop people making mistakes.

 

What happened to the steam service? Presumably the three possibilities are that it continued after a bridge inspection; propelled its train back to the previous station; or was rescued by a rescuing loco from BL entering the section and hauling it back. From an operational perspective, it would be interesting to know which.

Tom