ATSB – RO-2018-004
A signal, RD5, and an interlocking set of points permits trains to travel straight ahead along the Platform 2 line, as was the case the morning of the incident, or to be diverted onto one of the other two lines.
The permissible posted speed for trains travelling in the section from East Richmond Station to Richmond Station is 50 km/h. At the time of the accident, there were no temporary speed restrictions in place in the section from East Richmond to Richmond. The three buffer stops at Richmond Station were all of the same energy-absorbing design. Sydney Trains indicated that the buffer stops were installed in the early 1990s. They all had bodies constructed from steel-reinforced concrete with two oleo-type 15 MMO-2000-0104 hydro-pneumatic rams bolted to the face of the buffer stop. These rams were designed to assist in absorbing the energy of a collision with a train.
This type of buffer stop was a minority type on the Sydney Trains network, with the majority being of a fixed timber design. A high percentage of critical locations utilise energy-absorbing designs. The last examination done on the Richmond Platform 2 buffer stop was by Sydney Trains on 2 April 2017. The buffer stop examination report did not list any defects or make any comment about its condition. The next scheduled examination was on 16 November 2020.
The overall dimensions of the L-shaped buffer stop was 6.45 m long, 3.5 m wide and 4.1 m high. The end stop portion of the buffer stop was steel-reinforced concrete, protruding 1.6 m vertically from the ground. The majority of the mass of the buffer stop was below ground level. The engineering approval drawing for the buffer stops at Richmond Station was dated 26 February 1991.
The hydro-pneumatic rams had a metal tag affixed to the end plate dated 3 September 1991 (Figure 9). These rams extend approximately 1.1 m from the face, with a hollow tubular area cast into the concrete behind the rams so that under impact they can collapse into this tube.
Source: ATSB
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