Just been in a tram accident.

[Deathbyteacup]

I was on an Eccles line service which has derailed a few hours ago. Suffice to say the most scary experience........

Will post pics on a moment. Basically it was because of the new MediaCity UK spur. The driver stopped on the switch just past Harbour City Manchester platform, after realising he had come into conflict with a tram coming out of MediaCity branch. He tried to reverse the tram to clear the switch thus allowing the tram out, and the switch changed under him causing the rear half of the tram to take the wrong road.

I was speaking to the driver immediately after he happened to check he was ok and stuff (everyone else tried to get the f**k out as quick as possible!) and he stated he hadn't been trained or told what to do properly and he was a bit of a mess.

Massive bang, lots of flashes, the overhead poll was destroyed by the tram and the tram's a bit of a mess too.

All in all another smashing job by Metrolink, suffice to say, incompetent dosen't describe them.

[Deathbyteacup]

I've put photos in the gallery also put some videos here on my youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaWxlekkELg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyZKpf9G3tM

[steam for ever]

My God, are you all right? You were'nt hurt or anything?

[Deathbyteacup]

Yeah, I'm fine thankfully but it shook me up a bit, more annoyed than anything, thankfully nobody was hurt....

Woops, just edited my post hehe, sorry for the profanity.

Also steam for ever I take it all back about Metrolink mate, I really do. After today I've seen how shocking they truly are. The way they were running the system, the way they handled the problem, everything. Just poor. Very poor.

[6678bjm]

Glad to hear everyone escaped unhurt, I imaginge it was still unnerving and or upsetting for you all though.

[faltskog36abba]

sorry to read about the derailment,seen the clip too,doesnt surprise me tho,ive had a few problems on the eccles line,was on a tram at exchange quay and it had run past the signal-halting the tram,he then tried to reverse..tram failure,not only the tram but the road crossing it had cars lined up trying to cross-the tram wasnt blocking the line,it just sent the road signals out of sync,when you mentioned about the driver of your derailed tram-he wasnt trained to handle things in such a situation,well i think that is a disgrace,another time on the eccles line,the tram left cornbrook and failed on the elevated line for some 5 minutes or so,this young man became irate,shouting kicking the door of the drivers cab door,the driver rang control in a state and they said let him off on the elevated line,they were waiting for him at pomona[ghost stop],when the driver let the feller off,the driver was in such a state that he stood at the door and smoked a fag,he also told passengers they could too,when the tram did eventually pull in to pomona,no metrolink staff were there and below us,the very same young man was walking along the canal,i only seen this tram driver once again,no wonder he left,once upon a time metrolink had police boarding the trams..tut tut metrolink.

[enigma45]

I was in a tram derailment in 1951 at the Elephant and Castle London. I was on the car with my Dad and crossing the multi-junction trackwork there our tram dedided to have some fun. The front truck went the correct way towards Walworth Road but the back one went off toward New Kent Road. Lot of juddering and banging but the car stayed upright. Being a small kid it frightened me but me and Dad were not hurt and had to walk home to Camberwell Gate after that. There is a picture of this incident in one of the London Tramway books

Just to give you an idea of how busy E/C was in tram days see this picture. There were over a 1000 cars per hour at one time which equals 16 cars per minute on numerous routes and it was the largest tramway junction in the world >>>

http://partleton.co.uk/Elephant1922.jpg

P.S Can you imagine the noise of all those trams clattering over all that trackwork. At night it was a firework show with arcing from under the cars as the ploughs broke ontact with the juice rails and I remeber standing there one time in the dark with Mum waiting for Dad and loving all the row of whining motors banging wheels and electrical flashes.