As part of our work to support Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited, we recently spent a day creating video footage of emergency situations that can forseeably occur when operating on the railway network. To create these sequences safely we carried out full risk assesments and safety briefings on the day to make sure that we kept everyone (and some very expensive camera equipment!) safe.
These clips will be used to support learning programmes that we are creating for drivers, firemen, guards, stewards, shunters, service personnel and traction inspectors. The learning programmes are part of the organisation's competence management system that we have developed and support the operational rules and procedures that we are working on.
The top photograph shows what happens when the locomotive suffers a 'blowback' (as happened on a charter train service at Wood Green in 2012). Blowbacks occur when combustion products from the fire are blown back into the cab - when a train passes into a tunnel or when there is a mechanical failure of some sort (as happened at Pickering on a heritage railway in 2006).
The second photograph shows the moment that a detonator (also known as fog signals) explodes under the wheel of a locomotive. Detonators are small metal devices containing a limited quantity of explosive. Detonators are placed on the running surface of a rail by the traincrew to protect approaching trains of a hazard (derailment, track maintenance work, or something fouling the line) - the wheels of a train will cause the detonator to explode and the sound will alert the driver to to stop the train immediately. As well as creating video footage of detonators being placed, and then exploding, we wanted to test how audible they would be from the footplate of steam locomotive under a range of conditions.
We are hugely grateful to the volunteers and staff at the Churnet Valley Railway for providing access to their railway, the locomotive and train, the crew for the day and for allowing us to do some very unusual things!

Our Managing Partner, John Baker, has been working with Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited to set up the organisation and to achieve safety certification from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) so that it can run steam and diesel charter trains on the UK main line rail network. We have been working with a team of professionals to create a safety management system (SMS) and assess the risks of using 1930s on the 21st century railway network using the bow tie method. An important part of this has been analysing steam-era rules and instructions (mostly 1950s, but some dating from 1934) and turning these into suitable instructions using Plain English principles and current understanding of human factors.
On the 4th of August the ORR announced that it had granted a European Passenger Train Operating Licence to the company.
The next phase of our involvement will see us prepare for the first passenger services. This will include route risk mapping and creating training and competence management systems so that steam and diesel train drivers can be issued licences as required by the Train Driving Licences and Certificates Regulations 2010.

You can read more about the announcement on the Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited website, as well more about the locomotives it will operate.

On the 27th November 1944 3,500 tons of high explosives and an estimated 500 million rounds of rifle ammunition exploded underground at the RAF's munitions dump at Fauld in Staffordshire. 
The likely cause of the explosion was a spark from the brass chisel being used by an airman on a live bomb - a tool that was not permitted, but probably made the job easier. This spark set off a chain reaction amongst the live munitions. A nearby farm and lime works were completely destroyed and virtually every house in Hanbury village was seriously damaged. A 6 million gallon reservoir was breached, the flood waters causing severe damage. Seismographs across Europe registered the blast. Had the blast occurred above ground, the effect would have been similar to that of the nuclear explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The official inquiry found that there were several systemic failings that had contributed to the accident: management of the site was poor, allowing dangerous work practices to exist. Suitable manpower had been in short supply, so Italian prisoners of war (200 of them) were being used to carry out menial tasks. Rescuers were met with confusion; no-one knew who was trapped underground because the required register wasn't maintained.
Approximately seventy eight people were killed, mostly civilians in the nearby plaster works and local people.

The crater is 90 feet deep and covers 12 acres.
Despite the scale of the disaster, few people have heard of it. You can read more about the explosion at this local history website, and more images are available here.