Incredible photo shows sparks flying from a dislodged train carriage as it hurtles through a station – after being dragged hundreds of kilometres from Brisbane to New South Wales
- A dislodged train wagon was dragged 750km along the east coat of Australia
- The wagon damaged five train stations from Brisbane to Port Kembla last year
- But rail workers who inspected the train could not find any faults with the freight
- The findings of an investigation into the flaming train have been handed down
Incredible photos have emerged of sparks flying from an out of gauge freight train wagon as it travelled hundreds of kilometres down Australia’s east coast.
The dislodged wagon damaged five train stations as it made its way from Brisbane to Port Kembla, south of Sydney, in June last year.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau launched an investigation into the incident, with their findings released on Wednesday.
The dislodged wagon damaged five train stations as it made its way from Brisbane to Port Kembla, south of Sydney, in June last year
Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Taree, Wingham and Dungog stations were all damaged by the wagon during the 750km trip.
The wagon had been unloaded onto the tracks at the BlueScope Steel Coopers Plains facility, south of Brisbane, on June 15.
The ATSB found that during the unloading ‘the wagon body was likely lifted off the centre pin and dislodged as the load became stuck’.
But no abnormalities were discovered when the train departed.
‘The forklift operators did not notice that the wagon body had lifted and continued unloading other wagons,’ the ATSB report said.
‘The likely dislodged wagon body was not identified and train 2BW4 departed with a rolling stock irregularity.
During the journey to Port Kembla reports of platform damage were made by station staff but the train continued.
Incredible photos have emerged of sparks flying from an out of gauge freight train wagon as it travelled hundreds of kilometres down Australia’s east coast
Track workers in the northern NSW town of Grafton found damage to the station and directed the train be stopped and checked in Kempsey.
But despite and inspection, there were no faults found.
Rail staff at Dungog station in the Hunter Valley then notice the train scraping against the platform and ordered it to stop at Wallarobba.
This time, the wagon body marked RKOX4055Y was found to have been the problem.
‘Both BlueScope Steel and Pacific National completed several safety actions directed at preventing a reoccurrence,’ the ATSB said.