Shortly after 20:00 on Wednesday 19th October 2022, a freight train carrying powdered cement between Clitheroe and Carlisle derailed at Petteril Bridge Junction. Fortunately no one was injured during the incident. However, it destroyed the southern parapet of Bridge NER/168 and caused considerable damage to two switches (a.k.a. points / turnouts), eighty metres of track and approximately 400 metres of track-side cabling. As a consequence, the Settle & Carlisle and Tyne Valley railway lines were closed to freight and passenger traffic for seven weeks.
The locomotive and 11 of the 14 freight wagons were recovered relatively quickly (as soon as the inspectors from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch had concluded their initial examination of the site and train). However, the recovery of the remaining wagons was more time-consuming as all three had descended the riverside embankment. One was lying on its side and one was lying upside down, partially submerged in the river. The options for recovering these three wagons were severely restricted by a combination of weight-restrictions on the bridge and difficult ground conditions. The chosen solution was to source a mobile 800-tonne crane and erect it on a specially prepared pad beside the bridge. Before lifting operations could begin, a giant vacuum device was used to remove approximately 80 tonnes of powdered cement from the tanks of the three wagons, thereby lightening the load to bring it within the lifting capacity of the crane.
Network Rail engineers worked around the clock for more than 25,000 hours to record evidence, assess the extent of the damage, recover the damaged wagons, repair the damaged bridge and reinstate the tracks and signalling equipment. In addition, remedial work was undertaken to address 'scour' (the flow of the river was beginning to undermine the foundations of the bridge piers). These works included the careful positioning of 100 tonnes of stone along the course of the river bed.
Throughout these complex operations, great care was taken to ensure that the River Petteril did not become contaminated. (These efforts were closely monitored by personnel from the Environment Agency.)
The railway lines across the damaged bridge were fully re-opened (for both routes) at 6.00am on Wednesday 7th December 2022, although non-structural work on the parapet wall and repairs to the embankment and river bed continued for several weeks after that.
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Acknowledgements
This summary was written by Mark R. Harvey using information and images supplied in a series of press releases issued by Network Rail during the course of the incident.