How does the railway find a crack hidden inside a solid steel rail—and what happens when it does?

In this Rail Safety Review, we explore how rails become damaged, the development of metal fatigue and rolling-contact fatigue, and the overlapping safeguards used to prevent defects becoming broken rails.

From visual inspections and reports of rough riding to ultrasonic testing, Network Rail’s measurement trains and the Flying Banana, we follow a defect from detection and assessment through to monitoring, grinding or complete rail replacement.

There’s also a review of the latest rail safety news, including developments following the derailments at Lewes and Wickford, the fatal level-crossing collision near Burscough and the RAIB’s safety digest concerning equipment left on the railway at Queen’s Park.

OPENING CREDITS

Music track: Epic Motivation by Aylex

Source: https://freetouse.com/music

Free To Use Music for Video

Signals to Danger is a UK railway history and safety podcast exploring rail accidents, incidents and the investigations that followed them. From historic railway disasters to modern rail safety and current events, each episode looks beyond what happened to understand why it happened, what was learned and how those lessons continue to shape the railway today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.