The Cowan rail accident occurred at 7:20pm on 6 May 1990 when the
3801 Limited
East Coast Heritage Rail is a not for profit company limited by guarantee formed in June 1985 as 3801 Limited to operate steam locomotive 3801 and its associated rolling stock. The company operated heritage train tours from 1986 until 2017, wit ...
special
steam passenger train returning from the
Morpeth Jazz Festival was struck in the rear by the following
CityRail
CityRail was a passenger railway brand operated by the State Rail Authority from 1989 to 2003 and by RailCorp from 2003 to 2013 with services in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities in New South Wales, Australi ...
inter-urban passenger service. The steam train had stalled while attempting to climb the steep
gradient
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...
from the
Hawkesbury River
The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney.
...
to
Cowan, New South Wales
Cowan is a small town and suburb near Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, approximately north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Hornsby Shire. Cowan shares the postcode of 2081 with Ber ...
, and it was found that sand applied to the rails to regain traction had interfered with the
signals
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
and given the following train a
false clear indication.
Overview
The crash occurred approximately south of
Brooklyn, New South Wales
Brooklyn is a town and the north most suburb on the Pacific Highway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the local government area of Hornsby Shire with a population of 722 as of the . Brooklyn is surrounded by the Muogamarra Nature Reserve ...
, near the Boronia No. 3
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
. The railway line at this point, known as the
Cowan Bank
Cowan Bank is an double-track section of the standard gauge Main Northern railway line, Main North line in New South Wales, Australia. It starts at Cowan railway station, Cowan station, north of Central railway station, Sydney, Sydney, descendi ...
, is 2.5% (1 in 40)
grade
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also ref ...
and, as the special hauled by
steam locomotive 3801
3801 (pronounced Thirty-eight o-one) is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive operated by the New South Wales Government Railways between 1943 and 1974. It is arguably Australia's most famous steam locomotive, being the only one to have visited all mainl ...
passed southwards through the No. 3 tunnel, the wheels of the locomotive started to
slip
Slip or SLIP may refer to:
Science and technology Biology
* Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole
* Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting
* Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy
Computing and ...
. The driver of 3801 applied
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...
to the rails to improve
traction, but the train came to a complete stop approximately 50 metres clear of the tunnel. Passengers on the steam train reported seeing a signal fluctuating
aspects between green and yellow. The following
CityRail V set inter-urban train, which had been halted at the northern entrance to Boronia No. 4 tunnel for 10 minutes by a red stop
signal
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...
, received a green indication and proceeded, colliding with the steam train shortly after.
The impact killed the driver of the inter-urban train, Gordon Hill, and a passenger who was riding in its cab, as well as four passengers in the rear carriage of 3801's train. The passengers killed were the recently retired
Vice Chancellor
A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system.
In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...
of the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
,
John Manning Ward, his wife and daughter, and the wife of the University's
Registrar
A registrar is an official keeper of records made in a register. The term may refer to:
Education
* Registrar (education), an official in an academic institution who handles student records
* Registrar of the University of Oxford, one of the se ...
. 99 passengers were injured, 11 of those seriously. The force of the crash completely destroyed the last carriage of the steam train, and was enough to break the locomotive
coupling
A coupling is a device used to connect two shafts together at their ends for the purpose of transmitting power. The primary purpose of couplings is to join two pieces of rotating equipment while permitting some degree of misalignment or end mov ...
and push the engine 12 metres forward.
A subsequent
coronial inquiry
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's juri ...
, headed by NSW State Coroner Derrick Hand, found in December 1990 that the sand that had been applied to the track by 3801 to aid traction had
insulated the train from the rails, meaning that the
track circuits
A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters.
Principles and operation
The basic principle behind ...
failed to detect the presence of the first train, allowing the following inter-urban train to be given a false green (clear) aspect (known as a
wrong-side failure
A wrong-side failure describes a failure condition in a piece of railway signalling equipment that results in an unsafe state.
A typical example would be a signal showing a 'proceed' aspect (e.g. green) when it should be showing a 'stop' or 'dang ...
). Mr Hand also considered it likely that a passenger on 3801 had applied a
handbrake on the third carriage, and that this, combined with the heavy load, the steep grade and the curvature of the line, had prevented the steam train from restarting. No fault was found with the signalling system, although the coroner recommended that it be upgraded as soon as possible.
Contributing factors
Contributing factors include:
*
AC track circuit
A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters.
Principles and operation
The basic principle behind t ...
s, which are less sensitive at detecting
rail vehicles.
* Sand on the rails insulated the train's wheels and prevented the track circuit from detecting it - the train effectively became invisible to the signalling system.
* The signalling system was two-aspect colour light - a three aspect colour light may have provided the driver of the following train with more warning.
* No sand removal system fitted to 3801.
* No mechanism (at the time) for train-to-train or train-to-signalman communication (communication with signal boxes was only possible by track-side phones).
* It is believed that the handbrakes on one of the carriages may have been applied as a stunt.
Consequences
* An interim ban was placed on the use of steam locomotives on the NSW railway system. The ban was lifted 9 months later.
* Operators were required to use one State Rail employee on each train
* Operators were required to carry insurance cover of $10 million. The government agreed to underwrite any claims exceeding that amount.
See also
*
Glenbrook rail accident
The Glenbrook rail accident occurred on 2 December 1999 at 8:22 am on a curve east of Glenbrook railway station on the CityRail network between Glenbrook and Lapstone, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_ ...
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan Rail Accident
Railway accidents and incidents in New South Wales
1990 in Australia
Railway accidents in 1990
1990s in New South Wales
Train collisions in Australia
1990 disasters in Australia
May 1990 events in Australia