City of Torfield boiler explosion

The City of Torfield boiler explosion occurred in Torfield on 3 August 2011 while Furness Railway no. 33 was hauling a tour. No one was injured.

Accident timeline
At 1401 on 3 August 2011, Furness Railway no. 33 set off from Torfield railway station on a tour, bound for Torfield Halt railway station and then Torfield again. At 1403, while crossing over Points 1A and 1B, FR 33 suffered a boiler explosion and the emergency brakes were applied. No one was injured in the accident, however the tour was cancelled.

Recovery
At 1405, emergency services arrived at the scene and people were evacuated from the train and carriage. RAIB carried out a brief investigation at the site before determining that they could carry out their investigation at the depot, giving permission for the train to be moved. At 1409, 66412 arrived and coupled to FR 33, which was quickly inspected for coupling and bogie damage (there was none). At 1410, 66412 departed slowly with FR 33, bound for Torfield depot, where it arrived and dropped it off at 1413. Workers then started clearing shrapnel from the railway, before the line was quickly inspected and given the go-ahead to re-open at 1420.

Workers and emergency services at Torfield were praised for the speediness of the situation; they took just 17 minutes to re-open the line after the incident. This helped to cause no delays to any services in the area (except to the tour of course, which was cancelled and compensation awarded to passengers).

The locomotive returned to service on 16 August after repairs.

Investigation
In a report published on 13 August 2011, RAIB found that the cause of the explosion was the water level in the boiler dropping dangerously low, which caused the explosion. The driver thought that they had a safe amount of water on board, as displays, which were found to be defective, in front of him were saying the water level was just over half-full. The dials are yet to be replaced.

December incident
On 13 December, the driver of FR 33, when returning to the depot with damage to the lower front end, reported some severe shaking to the locomotive. When the locomotive arrived, the driver was evacuated from the locomotive, and the boiler was quickly inspected. The boiler was found to have less than 100ml of water left, and thus was seconds away from a similar explosion. The dials were inspected soon after, and they showed the boiler as being half-full again. Torfield Tours apologised, saying that they "forgot" to replace the dials after the August explosion, despite reccommendations from RAIB. They were fined £100,000 by Network Rail shortly after. The locomotive was taken out of service to repair the faulty dials and the lower front end damage, which occurred due to poor maintenance of the train. The locomotive was back in service, but is however out of use again due to a fault.