Lower Edge Derailment

The Lower Edge derailment was a severe derailment near Lower Edge Railway Station on July 11th 2011 involving a Class 158 unit number 158905.

Accident information
The accident happened on Monday July 11th 2011 at approximately 20:16hrs. The unit was forming the delayed 20:00 Whelham Branch, which was terminating at Lower Edge due to the failure of sister Class 158 unit, 158768 in the intended platform

Recovery
The recovery process started as RAIB finished their investigation on Wednesday July 13th 2011. The slightly derailed 57905 was moved by rail, using a rail crane, whilst 52905 was moved on Wednesday 20th July 2011, a week after 57905. Work on replacing infrastructure started, which comprised of track, signals and the tunnel mouth. Tests had started on July 23rd 2011, and are expected to finish on the 27th, when a reduced service will operate until August

Returning to normal
After a long and tiring 2 weeks and a half for residents of Lower Edge and Whelham, the line finally re-opened with a limited service today, July 27th.

Appearing in the Ramsgate Express
The accident has appeared once in the Ramsgate Express (July 26th).

Investigation
2 Investigations have been held into the accident, both held by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch. A third was held by the RTAIB (Ramsgate Train Accident Investigation Branch) which serves Ramsgate, Whelham and Lower Edge

Investigation 1 (RAIB):
The first investigation held by RAIB at the scene was after the accident until July 25th 2011. The RAIB team took samples and photos to their lab to compose a preliminary examination. However, nothing was found as a main cause

Preliminary Report and Findings
A preliminary report was published, compiled as an 'Interim' report. This found that the train was not defective, the train driver was in good health and not sleep deprived. The train bogies were also perfectly fine.

Investigation 2 (RTAIB):
The second of three investigations was held by the RTAIB at the same time as RAIBs First investigation. The exact same was found, again, with no cause

Investigation 3 (RAIB):
The third investigation started on August 17th by RAIB, to try and find another cause. As of August 21st 2011, nothing else has been found. RAIB crews have said they will continue investigating the derailment until the cause is determined

RAIB said that on September 27th 2011, after another derailment involving 66612, that was caused by the same reason, was that the cause was an obstruction on the line. The same obstruction was un-noticed by RAIB, and caused the derailment on September 2011.