Nuneaton accident in June 1975

[MarkWi72]

I was at Nuneaton yesterday morning and I saw the memorial to those lost and injured in the accident on June 6 1975. I realise it was a gas cylinder powered warning sign which was out, so the driver wasn't aware of the 20mph restriction. McKay the driver had not realised the speed restriction was still in force and temporary track was still being used as remodelling took place. I tried to visualise, yesterday, what Ive seen in photos , but it is difficult to. I think I'm right in thinking the derailment came before the road bridge to the South, or at least on the approach to the station between the road bridge and platforms and then the leading loco (pulling the 'dead' one) ended up on Platform 3. with carriages all over the place further south close to the two junctions. with Leicester and Cov lines. Driver Patel also had a lucky escape in a coal trian which was coming in off the Cov/Bedworth line (freight only then of course). His class 25 was damaged by falling OLE structures I believe.An awful accident and RIP to theose lost and kudos to the emergency services.

 

[GC class B1]

I remember this accident well but can’t tell you the exact location. One of the big factors in this accent was the presence of lots of blue asbestos on the underframes of the Mk1 sleeping cars. A colleague was closely involved in the health and safety aspects of the recovery and lots of contaminated soil had to be disposed of safely.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I remember this accident well but can’t tell you the exact location.

Just South of Nuneaton station on the WCML, but before the point where the lines to/from Coventry/Bedworth and to/from Leicester/Hinckley diverge.

 

[Railsigns]

The DoT's accident report has a diagram that shows exactly where it happened.

[Link to The Railways Archive.]

 

[Strathclyder]

The photographer Nigel Tout has two pictures of the aftermath/cleanup efforts of this nasty accident on his site.

Link here.

 

[Elecman]

The DoT's accident report has a diagram that shows exactly where it happened.

[Link to The Railways Archive.]

Just North of Nuneaton PSB

 

[Cowley]

@tpfx89 of this parish did a podcast on this accident. I’ve listened to it and I’d highly recommended it if you want to learn more about it:

Nuneaton - June 1975

Signals to Danger · Episode

open.spotify.com

 

[MarkWi72]

Many thanks.

 

[45Fox]

The signalling staff on duty at the PSB must have had an awful 'grandstand' view of the rapidly occurring horrible events, yet still had the presence of mind to send out warnings & call the emergency services.
A late friend had the Train Register Book from Nuneaton Midland Junction SB from that evening (I don't know how and never asked, although he worked in signalling at the time) with the entry 'obstruction danger (6) recieved on emergency bell from Nuneaton PSB'.

Years later I worked with both the driver and the (passed) secondman, driver by the time I knew him. They were both conscientious railwaymen who lived with the memories of what had happened, although I never pressed them for details, just not my place to do so.

An irony (if that's the right word) is that an attempt at progress might have been a contributing factor, in that the changeover from oil lamps to gas lighting of boards was then underway, the gas bottle ran out but maybe all three oil lamps, if in use, wouldn't have ran dry at the same time?

At least if any good came of this, it was the introduction of AWS warnings at TSR boards. This was a move that was subject to much debate at the time but was pretty widely welcomed by footplate crews.