A report into the derailment of a freight train in Audenshaw in September 2024 has been put down to the failure of a number of screws on the track
The train derailed as it crossed a bridge that carries the railway over a public footpath in Audenshaw
The derailment involved 9 of the train’s 24 fully laden wagons and led to extensive damage to the track, the bridge and some of the wagons.
No one was injured during the accident, but the railway at this location was closed for around 8 weeks, while repairs were undertaken.
The derailment occurred due to a loss of restraint of the track gauge between the rails. This caused the wagons’ wheels on the right-hand side to drop from the rail into this widening space.
The railway tracks over the bridge were installed on a longitudinal bearer system (LBS). An LBS is a track support arrangement in which the rails are mounted on timber bearers that run longitudinally under the rails and not on sleepers and ballast, as is typically found on the railway. The rails are mounted using baseplates, which are screwed onto the bearers.
The spread of the track’s gauge was caused by the failure of a number of the screws securing the baseplates to the longitudinal wooden bearers. Subsequent metallurgical examinations showed that these screws had sustained fatigue damage before the arrival of the train.
RAIB examinations of a section of the LBS recovered from site found that there had been previous screw failures at the same locations. Records of inspection and maintenance activities confirmed that there had been at least three previous failures, with one occasion known to have been before 2020, although many of the required records were not available.
