RailStaff - Issue 274 - July-August 2021

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TRACK SAFETY

RAILSTAFF JULY-AUGUST 2021

REPORT BY COLIN WHEELER

BALLAST SCRATCHED BOOTS SHARED EXPERIENCES AND THE "GO TO JAIL CARD"

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lmost all of my railway civil engineering experience was with British Railways before the unlamented Railtrack was formed. As a graduate I began “on the shovel” in an experienced city track maintenance gang and was “minded” by platelayer Charlie in safe track working. Later I learnt how to read track patroller’s reports and to listen and learn from maintenance gangers and Permanent Way Inspectors. Later still I met with the Division’s Chief Permanent Way Inspector whose practical views and opinions on trackwork were in many ways on a par with those of the relevant local divisional engineer.

After a short while, I could see that a depth of understanding from shovel level was complementary to engineering technical knowledge.

Local experience together with that knowledge made the identification of faults and how to repair them easier. Record keeping was generally the job of “light duty men”; a benevolent euphemism for those knowledgeable trackmen retained in employment despite being unfit for manual trackwork, due to injuries sustained at work or age; or a combination of both! My early career began when “mechanised maintenance” (i.e., using rail mounted tamping, regulating and lining machines etc) was being introduced and track maintenance gang sizes and numbers were consequently being reduced as fewer men on shovels or ballast forks were needed.

Now we have the benefit of computing to store records and keep them available but have we lost many of the advantages of face to face listening together with sharing information and motivation with those whose boots are “ballast scratched”? Arguably this is evident from recent RAIB (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) reports and Network Rail’s Safety Central website.

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Red, Green, Warning and Protection Issued on 29 June on Network Rail’s Safety Central website was Local Safety Advice 21-01 from Network Rail’s “Project Manager Technical Authority”. It says that “Planners, Controllers of Site Safety (COSS’s) and other trackworkers will be aware that the terms Red and Green Zone working were removed from the Rule Book a number of years ago” and from 2017 from standard 019. Really?

The Advice adds that “Any text referring to Red and Green Zones that exists in the National Hazard Directory will be bulk updated to remove these terms on 30 June 2021”. It then asserts that the terms red and green zone will be replaced by “Warning SSOW” and “Protection SSOW” respectively; please check as I may have them the wrong way round! (SSOW Safe System of Work).

Newhouse Barton Western Safety Bulletin

Unauthorised Open Line Working with a three second near miss! On 21 June two trackworkers were patrolling in the four-foot on a curve and checking rail temperatures. Their sighting distance was inadequate when that moved to a place of safety with three seconds to spare before a train passed them.

The plan was for the work to be done using a “line blockage with additional protection”. The protection was refused by the Green Zone Access Controller!

(Does the Technical Authority know they still exist?)

The planner did not know

Colin Wheeler.

how to escalate the matter so the Safe Work Pack (SWP) was not amended before being authorised and issued to the PIC (Person in Charge). Poor mobile phone reception meant that the two were unable to contact the signaller to arrange protection so they continued their work without having a SSOW in place.

Hopefully the author of the Bulletin, Western’s principal construction manager will suggest that ease of understanding and simplicity are key on a day-to-day basis, and those changing rules and the Hazard Directory ought to get their boots well scratched by track ballast!

RAIB’s investigation of Roade track worker fatality

On 9 June the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) published report 03/2021 following their investigation of the fatal accident to a trackworker who was struck by a train at Roade in Northamptonshire on 8 April last year.

The report summary is clear and concise, “the accident happened because the trackworker, who