Incident on the railway

Top marks must go to the driver of last Saturday's 11.00 ex Heuston Cork train. The loco hit debris south of Portarlington. At the time the train was travelling at 135 km/h, a speed within the speed limit for that section of track.

The driver was thrown around the cab but managed to bring the train to a stop. It is reported the train travelled for one kilometre before stopping.

No one was hurt in the incident and not one person on the train had a single negative comment to make about the incident.

Congratulations to the driver and train crew for a job well done. Again, it is a reminder of the great skill of loco drivers and of the daily dangers which face them.

Had the debris been on the up track would the cab, which would have been the leading vehicle, been able to sustain such an impact as did the locomotive? On an up train the loco would have been at the back of the train, pushing it.

People interested in the railway may have seen the programme on RTE 1 on Tuesday evening. The programme concerned the rail crash at Cherryville Junction in summer 1983.

Is that the best RTE can do? The programme never even tried to explain the reason for the crash. It discussed why the carriages shattered.

Cherryville happened as the result of a culmination of issues. The programme failed to explain the signalling and the typography of the landscape.

It briefly mentioned the failure of a track side telephone. But it never referred to the fault on the telephone close to the ex Kerry train.

It also spoke about in cab telephones. Did Irish Rail have in cab telephones in 1983? They certainly did not have CAWS operating at the time.

It was a good example of how not to make a programme.