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| East Croydon Area Power Surge Yesterday 19/12/2019 at 18:26 #122346 | |
Edgemaster
332 posts |
Network Rail have produced a good write up of what went wrong with yesterday's signalling systems failure in the East Croydon area, which simultaneously took out 4 interlocking areas. A power surge lasting 20s tripped out various different control systems in each interlocking resulting in all signals in the area reverting to danger and systems requiring manual reset. https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-regions/southern/disruption-at-victoria-and-london-bridge/ Log in to reply |
| East Croydon Area Power Surge Yesterday 20/12/2019 at 08:24 #122357 | |
JWNoctis
58 posts |
Not directly relevant, but I'm being reminded of this article on 1930's third-rail electrification, power frame, and the Brighton Belle: https://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/electric-power-grand-scale.html I wonder, but honestly have no idea, what 20s of power surge would have done in those times, or later during the PSB era. Log in to reply |
| East Croydon Area Power Surge Yesterday 20/12/2019 at 09:05 #122358 | |
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kbarber
1711 posts |
JWNoctis in post 122357 said:Not directly relevant, but I'm being reminded of this article on 1930's third-rail electrification, power frame, and the Brighton Belle:Nuffink guv. An L frame or a K frame wouldn't notice, I doubt that a surge would be enough to harm any lamps and the relays would be pretty much unaffected as well. And the trains wouldn't worry either; good old fashioned contactors & starting resistances would likewise be unaffected, though a driver might notice his train performing a littl ebetter than usual. Log in to reply The following user said thank you: JWNoctis |
| East Croydon Area Power Surge Yesterday 20/12/2019 at 13:42 #122363 | |
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Edgemaster
332 posts |
It's interesting to note that the NR article didn't specify by how much the supply voltage was over the nominal value, I wonder how much tolerance the various equipment transformers have? Quote: I wonder, but honestly have no idea, what 20s of power surge would have done in those times, or later during the PSB era.The interlockings impacted are in the PSB era. Three of the four noted are freewired or route relay interlockings controlled by TDM from Three Bridges ASC. The report notes that the TDM (telecoms) equipment had its power supply tripped. The fourth interlocking that failed at Streatham was resignalled in 2016 with a computer based interlocking and recontrolled at the same time from Victoria ASC to Three Bridges ROC. Log in to reply The following user said thank you: JWNoctis |
| East Croydon Area Power Surge Yesterday 20/12/2019 at 16:33 #122366 | |
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clive
2737 posts |
It all comes down to what kind of protection you have on the front end of your power supply. From memory, the Farnley Junction fatal collision in the ?1970s was partly due to power supply surges. A computer-based system is more likely to have good protection because it's more sensitive. In many cases, the Uninterruptable Power Supply you put there to deal with unexpected power cuts also does a good job of regulating the supply. Log in to reply The following user said thank you: JWNoctis |
| East Croydon Area Power Surge Yesterday 21/12/2019 at 12:47 #122379 | |
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slatteryc
248 posts |
I've not seen the south London rail network knocked out so comprehensively in a very long time
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| East Croydon Area Power Surge Yesterday 23/12/2019 at 00:58 #122392 | |
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JWNoctis
58 posts |
Most interesting, thanks. It's kind of...I don't know, terrifying? That they apparently did not have failover on overvoltage in their power supply, even though overvoltage and power surge is normally very uncommon these days. Log in to reply |