The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has released its report into a freight train derailment at Sheffield station.

At 02:44 back on the 11th November 2020, 16 wagons of a freight train, which was travelling from Hope to Dewsbury loaded with cement powder, derailed at the north end of Sheffield station.

Whilst several wagons were damaged and significant damage to track was caused, which resulted in a partial closure of the station, no one was injured.

The train was travelling through the station at a speed of 12 mph when the leading right-hand wheel of the twelfth wagon dropped into a space between the rails, this was due to the rails being too far apart, a problem known as gauge widening.

The train stopped when the signaller noticed a number of signalling equipment failures on a display screen and alerted the driver to a problem.

The track had widened because a number of track screws had broken and allowed the rails to spread apart under the load of passing trains.

The track screws were found to have failed several weeks or months before the derailment and had not been found by Network Rail‘s maintenance team.

Although the location was of a potentially high risk of derailment, it had not been recognised as one due to Network Rail’s guidance for identifying risk.

Four recommendations towards Network Rail have been made by the RAIB regarding the implementation process of identifying high-risk locations, the implementation of safety changes to its processes and the standard of fitting check rails.

The RAIB has also found three learning points for maintenance staff alerting them to the need for management of track gauge on tightly curved sections of track.

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