Incident
The City of Townsville diesel Tilt Train departed Roma Street railway station in the Brisbane central business district on-time at 6:25 pm on a normal scheduled service to Cairns, numbered VCQ5. The full journey is split into parts, with first change of crew at Bundaberg; the drivers of the first part of the journey found no defects with the train and reported the trip as uneventful.
Departing Bundaberg two minutes early at 11:11 pm with a driver and co-driver, five passenger service attendants and 150 passengers, the City of Townsville reached Berajondo at 11:50 pm. Four minutes later, after passing through a series of curved sections of track with speed-restrictions between 60 km/h (37 mph) and 80 km/h (50 mph), the co-driver left his seat and driver's cabin and went to a vestibule area adjacent to make a "brew" for the driver, as he had complained about the quality of the beverage that was offered at Bundaberg.
The driver maintained control of the train and was operating it normally, keeping it under or close to posted speed limits. Travelling at 111 km/h (69 mph) with a limit of 150 km/h (93 mph), at 11:55:11 pm the train passed over a midsection train protected magnet to warn of the reduced speed limit ahead. The driver immediately acknowledged the alarm, and kept the train at speed with the train's throttle at 60 per cent power. At 11:55:24 pm, close to the posted 60 km/h (37 mph) speed limit sign, the driver moved the train's throttle to zero power, then to emergency braking less than one second after.
At 11:55:27 pm, 419.493 km (260.661 mi) from Brisbane (Roma Street), the City of Townsville derailed while travelling at 112 km/h (70 mph). The lead power car 5403 came to rest 108 m (354 ft) past the point of derailment parallel to the track after skidding onto its right side. Baggage car 'A' came to rest upright behind it, first sitting car 'B' was approximately 40 degrees off to the line of travel, sitting cars 'C' and 'D' jack-knifed at right angles to the track. Car 'E', a club car, came to rest parallel to the track but some 15 m (49 ft) away from it due to the force of the derailing cars before and after it. Sitting car 'F' was about 90 degrees right angle to the track, while the last sitting car 'G' was on the left side of the track. The trailing power car 5404 remained upright with just its lead bogie set partially derailed to the left. All cars became detached except for cars 'A' and 'B'.
As the City of Townsville derailed underneath electrified overhead lines, the Electrical Control Operator at Rockhampton contacted the North Coast Control at 11:57 pm to report that a circuit breaker had tripped the 25 kV AC traction power supply approximately 419 km north of Brisbane. North Coast Control identified this site as where the tilt train was travelling through, and tried to contact the driver a number of times by radio but did not receive a response. As the train is powered by diesel engines, it would not necessarily have been affected by an interruption to the overhead power supply. At the same time, a passenger from the derailed train called emergency services on his own mobile phone and raised the alarm of the incident. News of this incident was reported back to North Coast Control and at 12:02 am, and along with the report by the Electrical Control Operator of the overhead traction power supply being tripped, it was recognised that a major incident had occurred.
Read more about this topic: Cairns Tilt Train Derailment
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