[17/11/2010] Fire on Train

[irishsaint]

I only heard this last night. As the 06:50 Enterprise yesterday was cancelled, a 29k was put on to service Dundalk and Drogheda. An electircal fault caused a fire in the last carriage. I dont know the details exactly but when it arrived in Drogheda, the removed the carriage and then continued their journey. Anyone hear about this incident?

[Mickey H]

It is not possible to remove the last carriage of a 29K except in the depot. Do you mean it was an 8 car train with the rear 4 removed?

[irishsaint]

Originally Posted by Mickey H

It is not possible to remove the last carriage of a 29K except in the depot. Do you mean it was an 8 car train with the rear 4 removed?

I dont know, I honestly don't know. Perhaps it was an 8 car as you say reduced to 4. All I know is there was a fire on one of the carriages caused by an electrical fault somewhere near dunleer. in drogheda i was told they "removed the carriage".... ill see some of the people who were on it yesterday and find out more.

[MP54]

Because of the tree-on-the-line incident yesterday (17th) would-be Enterprise passengers at Dundalk were informed that a substitute service was en-route from Drogheda. Fair enough, they often do that when the Enterprise fails to materialise for whatever reason, and the substitute service runs non-stop from Drogheda.

So we piled on to the 29K that showed up at about 8:20, which was a full set. I was in the last car. So far so good, only minor delay really. Then... between Dunleer and Drogheda smoke started to appear, quite a deal of it, with that awful burning rubbery smell. It halted entirely about 5 miles outside Drogheda for about 15 minutes, while the driver made a number of inspections before starting off again. At Drogheda there was still quite a bit of smoke coming from the area of the engine, around the bogies, and they told everyone in the rear 4 carriages to go to the forward part of the set, although there were already people on the platform so it became quite crowded. And then came the announcement that it was being run all stations to Pearse!

Finally arrived in work 90 minutes late. I suppose the substitute train sent to Dundalk was actually one that would have originated in Drogheda and served all stops to Pearse anyway, but I could have done with an announcement to this effect at Dundalk because I could then have made other arrangements to get me to work before 11:00, as I really couldn't afford to be late yesterday

[Mark Gleeson]

Sounds like the now famous sticky brake issue which afflicts the 29k, generates a horrible burning carbon smell and lots of smoke as the brake disks inside the bogie heat up to well beyond normal.

A real fire would result in a trigger for the emergency extinguishers without driver intervention

A refund claim is appropriate in this case

[irishsaint]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

A real fire would result in a trigger for the emergency extinguishers without driver intervention

How would emergency extinguishers differentiate between smoke from sticky brakes and smoke from a real fire?

[MP54]

"A refund claim is appropriate in this case"

I already have the annual ticket, so I think I'll pass on that one.

A voucher for Matthew's buses would be a hell of a sight more useful. But, erm, I wouldn't think that would be forthcoming

[Thomas Ralph]

You can still lodge a refund claim and you'll get IÉ vouchers for some proportion (1/420 comes to mind) of your annual ticket, rounded up to the nearest fiver. You can use them if you ever travel outside the range of your ticket, or to buy tickets for someone else, or what-not.

[MP54]

Thanks, Thomas.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by irishsaint

How would emergency extinguishers differentiate between smoke from sticky brakes and smoke from a real fire?

I'm not sure in this case, but there are different sensors available to deal with different situations.

Common or garden type smoke detectors aren't particularly useful in kitchens as even the smoke from a (nont on fire) toaster could trigger them. In such instances, heat detectors are more useful, they don't get distracted by the modest temperature of cooking (80-250 degrees C), but do detect your kitchen on fire (700-1000 degrees C).

There are other devices like flash detectors and the bulbs used in water sprinklers and I imagine many others.