{"id":340633,"date":"2025-12-31T18:16:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T08:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=68343"},"modified":"2025-12-31T18:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T08:16:22","slug":"snapped-bolts-2024-manchester-derailment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=340633","title":{"rendered":"Snapped bolts: 2024 Manchester derailment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in September 2024, an aggregates train derailed in Manchester. The UK\u2019s independent watchdog, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), has released its report into the crash. Sheared bolts were the primary cause, but the Branch has been critical of procedural shortcomings.<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

RAIB has slammed Network Rail over design assurance, installation, inspection and maintenance at a bridge location, which led to a serious derailment. Investigators have also found that the track team in the maintenance unit responsible had neither recorded nor reported similar problems over a period of years. A total of eight safety recommendations have been made.<\/p>\n

Previous failures, missing records<\/h2>\n

In the morning of 6 September 2024, at about 11:25, a bulk aggregates freight train derailed as it crossed a bridge that carries the railway over a public footpath (formerly a local road) in Audenshaw, in the south of Greater Manchester, England. The derailment involved nine of the train\u2019s 24 fully laden wagons and led to extensive damage to the track, the bridge and the rolling stock. No one was injured during the accident, but the railway at this location was closed for around eight weeks, as RailFreight.com reported at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Audenshaw
Audenshaw is in the south of Greater Manchester. Image: \u00a9 RAIB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rails moved under the train, spreading the gauge and derailing the wagons. \u201cThe spread was caused by the failure of a number of the screws securing the baseplates to the longitudinal wooden bearers,\u201d says the RAIB report. \u201cMetallurgical examinations showed that these screws had sustained fatigue damage before the arrival of the train. RAIB examinations 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, although many of the required records were not available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Automated and manual inspection didn\u2019t detect trouble<\/h2>\n

The tracks over the bridge were installed on a typical longitudinal bearer system (LBS), an arrangement in which the rails are mounted on timber bearers that run longitudinally under the rails and not on sleepers and ballast. Critically, the rails are mounted using baseplates, which are screwed onto the bearers. The screw components failed, and this has drawn the ire of the RAIB.<\/p>\n