- and an environmental catastrophe narrowly and expensively avoided.
The report into the Llangennech derailment has been published, and it makes depressing reading. Not only does it highlight poor maintenance:
The derailment occurred because one set of wheels on the third wagon in the train stopped rotating during the journey. The wheelset had become locked, probably because of a defect in the braking system on the third wagon, arising from deficiencies in the design and maintenance of components. The sliding of the locked wheel along the railhead caused damage to the profile of the wheel treads. This meant that the wheels were unable to safely negotiate Morlais Junction, near Llangennech, damaging the pointwork and causing the third wagon to become derailed. The following wagons derailed on the damaged track. Some of the derailed tank wagons were ruptured in the accident, and the spilling fuel ignited.
- but also points out that technology (hot axle box detection) was able to detect the trouble when the train passed through Pembrey station. However, it seems that the reporting software had been disabled because there had been false positives in the past.
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