Potters Bar

[PJW]

The recent publicity re the long-awaited inquest into the Potters Bar deaths has made me realise that the full report has now eventuually been put into the public domain:
http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSumm...docID=3165

There have also been various articles / letters in IRSE News over the last year that relate to the conept design of traditional point systems and the alternatives.
If you were looking to "qusetion spot" on mod 5 then something closely related to this has surely got to be a high probability.

[Hort]

PJW,

Do you really think that there could be a Mod 5 question based on the Potter's Bar report? Is there much overlap between the syllabus of mod 5 and the subject matter of the accident report? I could see a question appearing in Mods 1 or 7 relating to maintenance regime of s&c, management of maintenance activities or incident reporting. A possibe mod 5 question could be to describe an adequate procedure for inspecting s&c?

H

[PJW]

PJW,

Do you really think that there could be a Mod 5 question based on the Potter's Bar report? Is there much overlap between the syllabus of mod 5 and the subject matter of the accident report? I could see a question appearing in Mods 1 or 7 relating to maintenance regime of s&c, management of maintenance activities or incident reporting. A possibe mod 5 question could be to describe an adequate procedure for inspecting s&c?

H

Yes, well at least on the subject rather than the report itself. There has been a substantial change not only in maintenance regime but also what is measured re free wheel clearances for example, the introduction of yellow stretchers, different forms of lock nuts etc as a result of both Potter's bar and Greyrigg / Lambrigg- for example see attachment.

You are absolutely right that a question could well come up as you have suggested in mod 1 (or less likely 7) but the details more related to the points themselves could equally cbe asked in mod 3 at a "principles" level or in mod5 at a more "nuts and bolts, detailed mechanical design or set-up consideration.