Saturday, July 13, 2013

A fish plate or a points failure

French State Railway Company SNCF has accepted the accident in Paris yesterday was the result of a technical failure.

Some media outlets have reported a faulty fish plate. Other news outlets have suggested it was a defect at facing points.

Back in the 1970s when Irish Rail was relaying the track between Dublin and Kildare they installed facing points. At the time the then Station Master at Newbridge was not at all happy with the removal of trailing points and was always worried that a points failure in the station would mean the demolition of his house at the side of the platform.

Of course facing points are used on all rail networks today. Trailing points are no longer part of mainline traffic.

The French accident called to mind to this writer the controversy that existed in Ireland when facing points were first introduced by Irish Rail.

2 comments:

Póló said...

Don't follow how you could operate on trailing points only. Still trying to figure it out.

Michael Commane said...

You are correct. But the Station Master in Newbridge was greatly concerned about facing points.

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