Warwick derailment in the 1960's

[orpine]

I was at Warwick station the other day and in the ticket office they have a board which has about 5-6 historical pictures of the station.

One of them showed a big old steam engine that had been derailed. I asked the ticket staff but he didn't know anything other than that it had probably happened "in the 1960s".

It was on the Platform 1 side. The train was upright but clearly off the rails. It was aligned as if there was a third set of rails going up the embankment and had stopped just short of the station!

Does anyone know anything about it?

 

[Welshman]

There's what I presume to be a copy of that photograph here:-

http://www.search.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1759

It looks as though the engine on the loop line failed to stop at the signal protecting the slip back to the main line, and as the points were obviously set for the main-line express, went through any buffer-stops and ended-up almost on the platform!

Perhaps there may be someone along with local knowledge as to what actually happened shortly.

 

[John Webb]

The website http://www.railwayarchive.co.uk does not show any accident report for this incident, so I assume that there wasn't a passenger train involved - or if there was no injuries resulted.

As Welshman says, it looks as though the trap points were run through for some reason.

 

[Taunton]

LMR loco comes to grief on the WR - must have caused a few laughs at Tyseley!

Don't forget that LM locos had the driving position on the opposite side to The Western, where signals were all laid out to suit the latter. Plus Western locos had better brakes (genuinely; the inches of vacuum they used were higher, which sometimes caused issues when through trains were handed across from one loco to another at the boundary).

 

[orpine]

There's what I presume to be a copy of that photograph here:-

http://www.search.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=1759

It looks as though the engine on the loop line failed to stop at the signal protecting the slip back to the main line, and as the points were obviously set for the main-line express, went through any buffer-stops and ended-up almost on the platform!

Perhaps there may be someone along with local knowledge as to what actually happened shortly.

That looks like it! But the picture on the platform is side-on (from the other platform).

 

[Darren R]

Don't forget that LM locos had the driving position on the opposite side to The Western.....

I think you'll find that actually it was the Western that had the driving position on the opposite side to everybody else!

(Signing off now before the "God's Wonderful Railway" mob turn up!)

 

[Taunton]

I think you'll find that actually it was the Western that had the driving position on the opposite side to everybody else!

(Signing off now before the "God's Wonderful Railway" mob turn up!)

One of the GWR mob here (just look at my name), but .......

Pre-grouping, a fair number of companies had right hand drive. I believe both the NER and NBR did, and locos laid out like this continued to be built by the LNER. There were some classes where different batches of construction were done differently.

 

[Darren R]

One of the GWR mob here (just look at my name), but .......

Pre-grouping, a fair number of companies had right hand drive. I believe both the NER and NBR did, and locos laid out like this continued to be built by the LNER. There were some classes where different batches of construction were done differently.

To be fair, I knew the GWR weren't the only right-hand drive company when I made the posting (although the majority were left-handed) - it was just too good an opportunity to let it pass by!

 

[Welshman]

Don't forget that LM locos had the driving position on the opposite side to The Western, where signals were all laid out to suit the latter.

Indeed - wasn't this one of the contributory causes for the driver to miss a signal causing the Milton derailment in November 1955, with unfortunately 11 fatalities?
The engine was Britannia Pacific 70026 Polar Star with the driving-position on the left-hand side; whereas the signals were situated for right-hand GWR engines.

 

[chorleyjeff]

LMR loco comes to grief on the WR - must have caused a few laughs at Tyseley!

Don't forget that LM locos had the driving position on the opposite side to The Western, where signals were all laid out to suit the latter. Plus Western locos had better brakes (genuinely; the inches of vacuum they used were higher, which sometimes caused issues when through trains were handed across from one loco to another at the boundary).

The vacuum brakes on coaches were adjusted when changing from Great Way Round to anyone else to compensate for different degrees of vacuum.

 

[Taunton]

Indeed - wasn't this one of the contributory causes for the driver to miss a signal causing the Milton derailment in November 1955, with unfortunately 11 fatalities?
The engine was Britannia Pacific 70026 Polar Star with the driving-position on the left-hand side; whereas the signals were situated for right-hand GWR engines.

Along with a number of other issues. The loco (quite new) was fitted with a Crewe "attempt" at the GWR ATC (the Western's longstanding AWS) which was so poorly designed that when it operated at the distant signal, which the driver had missed being on, the vacuum ejector, which was on, was more than a match for it and kept the brakes off. This had been a known issue on these locomotives for several years. The noise in the locomotive cab when running at speed was such that the ATC warning siren was inaudible. The signal was even less visible from the cab because of handrails which had been added to the smoke deflectors. These locomotives should have been withdrawn from the WR forthwith, but all that happened was the handrails were removed and handhold holes substituted.