Talk:Wrong-side failure

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In the Invergowie accident, it was my understanding that the starting signal was a few degrees above the horizontal, not quite a full STOP, but definitely not a GO. If the signal had had an electrical repeater, which is rare for starting signals, then the repeater MAY have shown the middle or WRONG indication, depending on the adjustment of the electrical contacts.

That is a technical description.

A less technical description would be to say that "the signal arm was lying a few degrees above the horizontal, and was thus a bit ambiguous as to whether it was a Stop or Go indication".

Tabletop 11:45, 2 June 2006 (UTC)


I agree with your non-technical description, but would substitute the word "few" to "several".

On mechanical signals (even if they have arm repeaters or not) the ON position is minus 5 degrees, to Plus 5 degrees. Wrong is from plus 5 degrees to 35. OFF from 35 degrees to 65 degrees.

The signal in question was sitting above the 5 degree ON position, and from what I can remember was adjudged to be between 7 and 11 degrees.

For what it's worth, a lot of Scottish Region starting signals were fitted with repeaters after Invergowrie, including the one that caused the accident.

[edit] Another Wrong Side Accident found

Abbots Ripton

Tabletop 13:49, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed Deletion 2007-08-10

  • Keep: this article is a detailed description of an unusual situation. As the term is infrequently used there is not a significant amount of other information on the subject; the article is at the top of Google results for the "wrong side failure" term. If the article continues to be proposed to be deleted, please ensure that the contents are migrated to another (perhaps signalling-related) article before the deletion and references to this article are updated. Sladen 08:54, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
    Updated comment: s/usual/unusual/. Sladen 17:21, 15 August 2007 (UTC)