WCML Accidents in the 1980s

[Ash Bridge]

George Stephenson College, built on stilts because Water Lane used to flood regularly. When Watford Borough Council (much later) declined to approve the Hotel in Water Lane because it was a flood plain, a Government Planning Inspector approved it on appeal. Just before it opened it flooded and in its first few weeks of operation it flooded again, the hotel punters having to go out by boat! WBC councillors were highly amused.

Getting back to the accident, the other loco (83003) was written off and its driver came to a particularly nasty end in the collision.

A quick search of google didn’t come up with any images of 83003 (perhaps that’s for the better) but I can still recall the shots published in the Railway Magazine edition that covered the 1975 Watford collision and the catastrophic damage that 86209 inflicted on the 83 made sure that poor unfortunate driver could not have stood any chance of survival. I passed the site of the incident on a Manchester Picc - Euston service perhaps a fortnight after the event and 86209 was still down the embankment where she came to rest although mainly covered by tarpaulins by then, how long did it actually take to recover? - I seem to remember now that the body had to be separated from it’s bogies for transport as these were close to being submerged in the marshy ground?

 

[Clarence Yard]

It took quite some time to recover. They had to build a Bailey bridge in Water Lane, then they had to build the temporary road, bring in and build up the cranes (Sparrows supplied the cranes), lift the loco, detach the bogies and then put it on a trailer. The unusual road move had to be organised and Pickfords did the haulage. It was recorded as arriving at Crewe Works on the 20th April 1975.

Pickfords used a Scammell Contractor from its Enfield depot for haulage. Really apt as it was, of course, it was built in Watford, at Scammells Works in Tolpits Lane. Scammell trucks were absolute masters of their heavy haulage jobs and the town was (and still is) very proud of them.

I saw a picture of the truck and the weird thing about it was that it was Pickfords number M6202. Those of you that know their steam will know what happened to (4)6202 and not so many miles away either.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Quite a feat to recover this locomotive then, the total cost and effort of all this must have been astronomical but clearly to BR the cost of losing a then relatively new and modern machine was considered greater?

That Pickfords truck number - Yes quite a coincidence there!

Excellent information as always, thank you.

 

[Clarence Yard]

Even more of a co-incidence is the date of my post regarding 46202 - 74 years to the day.

 

[Taunton]

Quite a feat to recover this locomotive then, the total cost and effort of all this must have been astronomical but clearly to BR the cost of losing a then relatively new and modern machine was considered greater?

The cost of breaking it up on site and removing the pieces would have been a good proportion. You would still need heavy plant and road trucks to access it.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Even more of a co-incidence is the date of my post regarding 46202 - 74 years to the day.

well this is certainly becoming a somewhat eerie set of co-incidences now!

The cost of breaking it up on site and removing the pieces would have been a good proportion. You would still need heavy plant and road trucks to access it.

Yes, that is a fair point.

 

[AlterEgo]

At that time, my family lived the other side of the hill over the tunnel (Knaves Hill) but, in that pre-digital age, we had no idea of the accident until that evening's BBC News.

Small world. That is where I grew up!

 

[Sun Chariot]

Small world. That is where I grew up!

Early 1980s memories of walking over the public right-of-way between Soulbury Road and Stoke Road (and leaning over the road-bridge, to watch northbound trains burst out from the tunnel).

 

[Silent]

So we have:

• 16 Feb 1980 - Bushey derailment
• 9 Dec 1982 - Linslade Tunnel accident
• 1 May 1984 - Carlisle Avoiding Line freight train derailment (runaway)
• 11 Oct 1984 - Wembley Central collision
• 13 Nov 1984 - freight train derailment on Stockport viaduct
• 19 Sep 1986 - Colwich Junction collision

1984 seems like a dangerous year to travel on the wcml

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

1984 seems like a dangerous year to travel on the wcml

Not just the WCML. It was also the year of Polmont, and there were other fatal collisions away from the WCML at Eccles (incidentally probably the last fatalities due to a plain line SPAD before the recent Elstow collision) and Longsight. Additionally, there were various serious non-fatal incidents (e.g. the Summit Tunnel fire, Morpeth and the HST derailment near Tyne Yard).