Wagons derailed after a cement train came off the tracks in Carlisle have begun to be been lifted off the line by workers.
Engineers have been on site today, November 12, to lift the wagons, which were derailed on Wednesday, October 19. In total, five wagons – each filled with 80 tonnes of cement – derailed at the Petteril Bridge Junction. Two were able to be righted on the rails, but three had to be lifted out by crane.
One wagon ended up in the River Petteril and two others came to rest on the railway embankment.
The wagons will be examined by rail accident investigators.
An initial report published by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch found that a fault with a train wheel was the most likely cause of the derailment.
Network Rail brought an 800-tonne crane to lift the wagons this week, after specialist contractors were brought in to empty 300 tonnes of powdered cement from the wagons earlier this month.
Network Rail said: “Once the wagons have been removed, we can take over the site to fully fix the railway infrastructure.”
It is estimated this work will be completed by early December – and in the meantime, rail replacement buses are running for services on the Tyne Valley and Settle to Carlisle lines.
Around 40 engineers will be on site each day and replace 80m of damaged track, install 400m of cabling, secure the bridge’s foundations with 100 tonnes of stone and rebuild around 41m of the bridge’s damaged parapet.
