• Re: Power failure at Crewe

    From JMB99@mb@nospam.net to uk.railway on Fri Aug 7 06:40:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 06/08/2026 21:09, tony sayer wrote:
    UPS? Ought to be standby generator, but then again no one ever checks
    them or the Pikey's will have the diesel away..


    I heard of a number of failures of maintained supplies because it had
    never been properly tested. Some people would try to limit the effect on
    the users by running up the diesel to speed then switching half the load
    onto it then after things settle down, switching the other half onto it.

    The same applies to UPS maintained supplies.

    We were instructed to test by just pulling the main breaker, there would
    be a short break but that happens a time when it does not cause much disruption and when there are people around to sort out any problems.

    Isn't it the diesel fuel that the 'pikeys' usually steal or the copper
    cables?



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  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Fri Aug 7 13:11:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 06:40:50 +0100, JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 06/08/2026 21:09, tony sayer wrote:
    UPS? Ought to be standby generator, but then again no one ever checks
    them or the Pikey's will have the diesel away..


    I heard of a number of failures of maintained supplies because it had
    never been properly tested. Some people would try to limit the effect on
    the users by running up the diesel to speed then switching half the load >onto it then after things settle down, switching the other half onto it.

    The same applies to UPS maintained supplies.

    We were instructed to test by just pulling the main breaker, there would
    be a short break but that happens a time when it does not cause much >disruption and when there are people around to sort out any problems.

    In this case, the power cut to the ROC only lasted 90 seconds, but it caused 24 hours of disruption.

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  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Fri Aug 7 13:28:05 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <hqib7l9gqrc03ohfud8giie5tprrlrf6ai@4ax.com>, at 13:11:47 on
    Fri, 7 Aug 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 06:40:50 +0100, JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 06/08/2026 21:09, tony sayer wrote:
    UPS? Ought to be standby generator, but then again no one ever checks
    them or the Pikey's will have the diesel away..


    I heard of a number of failures of maintained supplies because it had
    never been properly tested. Some people would try to limit the effect on >>the users by running up the diesel to speed then switching half the load >>onto it then after things settle down, switching the other half onto it.

    The same applies to UPS maintained supplies.

    We were instructed to test by just pulling the main breaker, there would
    be a short break but that happens a time when it does not cause much >>disruption and when there are people around to sort out any problems.

    In this case, the power cut to the ROC only lasted 90 seconds, but it
    caused 24 hours of disruption.

    Echoes of when there was a National Grid low-frequency event, and lots
    of AC trains decided to sulk, and took many hours to re-boot.
    --
    Roland Perry
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  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Fri Aug 7 14:59:18 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hqib7l9gqrc03ohfud8giie5tprrlrf6ai@4ax.com>, at 13:11:47 on
    Fri, 7 Aug 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 06:40:50 +0100, JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 06/08/2026 21:09, tony sayer wrote:
    UPS? Ought to be standby generator, but then again no one ever checks
    them or the Pikey's will have the diesel away..


    I heard of a number of failures of maintained supplies because it had
    never been properly tested. Some people would try to limit the effect on >>> the users by running up the diesel to speed then switching half the load >>> onto it then after things settle down, switching the other half onto it. >>>
    The same applies to UPS maintained supplies.

    We were instructed to test by just pulling the main breaker, there would >>> be a short break but that happens a time when it does not cause much
    disruption and when there are people around to sort out any problems.

    In this case, the power cut to the ROC only lasted 90 seconds, but it
    caused 24 hours of disruption.

    Echoes of when there was a National Grid low-frequency event, and lots
    of AC trains decided to sulk, and took many hours to re-boot.

    This was a completely different set of problems.

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  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Sun Aug 9 02:30:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 06:40:50 +0100, JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 06/08/2026 21:09, tony sayer wrote:
    UPS? Ought to be standby generator, but then again no one ever checks
    them or the Pikey's will have the diesel away..


    I heard of a number of failures of maintained supplies because it had
    never been properly tested. Some people would try to limit the effect on
    the users by running up the diesel to speed then switching half the load >onto it then after things settle down, switching the other half onto it.

    Had that at work in the 1980s. Brand spanking new computer system
    installed in a room with a "clean" supply fed from the main incomer
    and a "dirty" one off the local fuse, both via a changeover switch.
    Each time that the diesel generator was tested, the computer went off.
    We eventually worked out that because nobody had bothered to label the changeover switch, the "normal" position it had been left in at
    installation was from the local room supply that would be interrupted
    when the diesel was tested. 10 seconds with a felt tip pen cured it.
    <snip>
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  • From JMB99@mb@nospam.net to uk.railway on Sun Aug 9 16:25:43 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 09/08/2026 02:30, Charles Ellson wrote:
    Had that at work in the 1980s. Brand spanking new computer system
    installed in a room with a "clean" supply fed from the main incomer
    and a "dirty" one off the local fuse, both via a changeover switch.
    Each time that the diesel generator was tested, the computer went off.
    We eventually worked out that because nobody had bothered to label the changeover switch, the "normal" position it had been left in at
    installation was from the local room supply that would be interrupted
    when the diesel was tested. 10 seconds with a felt tip pen cured it.



    Sounds very much as if no one had ever tested by turning of the supply
    at the main breaker.
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  • From Trolleybus@ken@birchanger.com to uk.railway on Mon Aug 10 10:00:19 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 13:28:05 +0100, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <hqib7l9gqrc03ohfud8giie5tprrlrf6ai@4ax.com>, at 13:11:47 on
    Fri, 7 Aug 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Fri, 7 Aug 2026 06:40:50 +0100, JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 06/08/2026 21:09, tony sayer wrote:
    UPS? Ought to be standby generator, but then again no one ever checks
    them or the Pikey's will have the diesel away..


    I heard of a number of failures of maintained supplies because it had >>>never been properly tested. Some people would try to limit the effect on >>>the users by running up the diesel to speed then switching half the load >>>onto it then after things settle down, switching the other half onto it.

    The same applies to UPS maintained supplies.

    We were instructed to test by just pulling the main breaker, there would >>>be a short break but that happens a time when it does not cause much >>>disruption and when there are people around to sort out any problems.

    In this case, the power cut to the ROC only lasted 90 seconds, but it >>caused 24 hours of disruption.

    Echoes of when there was a National Grid low-frequency event, and lots
    of AC trains decided to sulk, and took many hours to re-boot.

    It was worse than that. About a third of the class 700 fleet had
    received a software update that meant that the driver only had three
    attempts to restart after a low-frequency event. If they all failed a
    physical visit by a person with a laptop was needed.
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  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Thu Aug 13 14:17:04 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 9 Aug 2026 16:25:43 +0100, JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 09/08/2026 02:30, Charles Ellson wrote:
    Had that at work in the 1980s. Brand spanking new computer system
    installed in a room with a "clean" supply fed from the main incomer
    and a "dirty" one off the local fuse, both via a changeover switch.
    Each time that the diesel generator was tested, the computer went off.
    We eventually worked out that because nobody had bothered to label the
    changeover switch, the "normal" position it had been left in at
    installation was from the local room supply that would be interrupted
    when the diesel was tested. 10 seconds with a felt tip pen cured it.



    Sounds very much as if no one had ever tested by turning of the supply
    at the main breaker.

    Indeed and as the work to install the clean feed had been done on a
    Sunday then it would have been relatively low risk compared with the
    standard generator test which was done once a month on a weekday
    morning.
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