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| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 26/02/2011 at 20:55 #2516 | |
postal
5265 posts 
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Modern Railways this month reports a serious incident on 11th. January in Holland when there was a collision due to theft of copper cable. The report reads: "An ICE3M high speed train operated by NS Hispeed from Amsterdam to Cologne derailed near Zevenaar, a few kilometres from the German border between Arnhem and Emmerich, on 11 January when it collided with a freight train from Germany to Rotterdam operated by German operator Ruhrtalbahn. The last three empty container wagons of the freight train, destined for the freight-only Betuwelijn that starts at Zevenaar, were still standing in the points in the junction when the points were reset for the ICE to pass in the opposite direction. Apparently the wagons were not detected by the signalling system. The driver of the ICE made an emergency brake application but could not avoid a collision. As a result the first two cars of the ICE struck the last part of the freight train and derailed, along with several wagons. Fortunately nobody was seriously injured in the accident but the ICE and track were seriously damaged, with repairs likely to cost 1million Euros. Subsequent investigation suggested the accident was most likely caused by the theft of copper cables in the points, which were part of a track circuit, which should detect trains in that section. Further inspection revealed that at the same spot another set of points had been hit by copper thieves as well. Clearly the theft was an expert job, as only those cables were stolen which could not be detected by the signalling centre fault detection system. In total more than 300 metres of cable was stolen." Could such a thing happen here or are our train detection systems different? “In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe Log in to reply |
| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 26/02/2011 at 20:55 #13798 | |
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postal
5265 posts
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Modern Railways this month reports a serious incident on 11th. January in Holland when there was a collision due to theft of copper cable. The report reads: "An ICE3M high speed train operated by NS Hispeed from Amsterdam to Cologne derailed near Zevenaar, a few kilometres from the German border between Arnhem and Emmerich, on 11 January when it collided with a freight train from Germany to Rotterdam operated by German operator Ruhrtalbahn. The last three empty container wagons of the freight train, destined for the freight-only Betuwelijn that starts at Zevenaar, were still standing in the points in the junction when the points were reset for the ICE to pass in the opposite direction. Apparently the wagons were not detected by the signalling system. The driver of the ICE made an emergency brake application but could not avoid a collision. As a result the first two cars of the ICE struck the last part of the freight train and derailed, along with several wagons. Fortunately nobody was seriously injured in the accident but the ICE and track were seriously damaged, with repairs likely to cost 1million Euros. Subsequent investigation suggested the accident was most likely caused by the theft of copper cables in the points, which were part of a track circuit, which should detect trains in that section. Further inspection revealed that at the same spot another set of points had been hit by copper thieves as well. Clearly the theft was an expert job, as only those cables were stolen which could not be detected by the signalling centre fault detection system. In total more than 300 metres of cable was stolen." Could such a thing happen here or are our train detection systems different? “In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe Log in to reply |
| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 26/02/2011 at 21:02 #13799 | |
Albert
1315 posts |
Content deleted by Moderator
AJP in games Log in to reply |
| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 26/02/2011 at 21:11 #13800 | |
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postal
5265 posts
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I've been trying to find out some more details from Keith Fender, the Foreign Editor for Modern Railways. My spell checker suggested I might want to change Zevenaar for Stevenage when I wrote to him. I hope that is not an omen! If Keith does get back to me, I'll report further. “In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe Log in to reply |
| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 26/02/2011 at 21:14 #13801 | |
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Albert
1315 posts |
The situation I described could also happen on Stevenage, yes. My Dutch spell checker does not correct Stevenage to Zevenaar, however. AJP in games Log in to reply |
| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 27/02/2011 at 09:43 #13804 | |
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TomOF
452 posts |
With the greatest of respect, posting on how one could steal copper cables without detetction on a public forum might encourage the more undesirable elements of society. Such actions by the thieves show a selfish disregard for human life and it makes my blood boil. Log in to reply |
| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 28/02/2011 at 20:09 #13816 | |
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sunocske
121 posts |
Cable thefts are really often (or so "common" here in Hungary. We can't do anything against that people. All we can do is to replace the stolen ones with new cables. It's a chaos... 
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| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 01/03/2011 at 12:00 #13818 | |
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hotwellian
211 posts |
Three years ago, whilst I was staying in Cadiz, the local papers reported the theft of about 11 kilometres of the overhead catenary wire from the Seville -Cadiz line.
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| Copper Thieves cause serious incident in Holland 01/03/2011 at 16:04 #13823 | |
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ewanm89
19 posts |
Make it high voltage AC, strip away the insulation then let them try to nick it... Bzzzzt.
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