3. OFF THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW
  4. OFF THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW

OFF THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW

This gallery is a sort of compendium of all the bent and the broken, the crashed and the bashed, both steam age and modern, loco and stock, both British and foreign. Most are duplicates of pictures to be found in other galleries, some taken by me and some very obviously not. These pictures are displayed for recreational/information/research purposes only and are not for sale under any circumstances. Every effort has been made to verify the information in the captions but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
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YORK - Early in the morning of Wednesday, April 29th, 1942, York suffered its worst air raid of the war. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. In the previous few days, the Luftwaffe had attacked two other cathedral cities, Norwich and Bath. These were the so-called 'Baedecker Raids'. The story had it that Hitler, enraged by the RAF’s attacks on Lubeck and Rostock, picked up a Baedecker guidebook and ordered that every historic place in England marked with three stars be bombed in retaliation. The Luftwaffe bombarded strategic targets – the railway line, the station, the Carriage Works, the airfield. York Minster was not touched. Unfortunately for Class A4 Pacific No.4469 SIR RALPH WEDGEWOOD and Class B16 4-6-0 No.925, a bomb fell through the York North Locoshed roof and exploded between the two engines. Both locomotives were severely damaged as a result of the explosio. 4469 was recovered and towed to Doncaster shortly afterward. Due to the degree of damage, it was considered impractical to rebuild and only the tender was savable. The B16 was also scrapped.
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YORK - Early in the morning of Wednesday, April 29th, 1942, York suffered its worst air raid of the war. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. In the previous few days, the Luftwaffe had attacked two other cathedral cities, Norwich and Bath. These were the so-called 'Baedecker Raids'. The story had it that Hitler, enraged by the RAF’s attacks on Lubeck and Rostock, picked up a Baedecker guidebook and ordered that every historic place in England marked with three stars be bombed in retaliation. The Luftwaffe bombarded strategic targets – the railway line, the station, the Carriage Works, the airfield. York Minster was not touched. Unfortunately for Class A4 Pacific No.4469 SIR RALPH WEDGEWOOD and Class B16 4-6-0 No.925, a bomb fell through the York North Locoshed roof and exploded between the two engines. Both locomotives were severely damaged as a result of the explosio. 4469 was recovered and towed to Doncaster shortly afterward. Due to the degree of damage, it was considered impractical to rebuild and only the tender was savable. The B16 was also scrapped.

  • WHITLAND - On December 19th, 2011, Class 175 002 was near Whitland, on the 0910 Milford - Manchester, with nearly 60 passengers on board, when it was in collision with a lorry loaded with hay on a level crossing at Llandboidy. Seven people on the Milford Haven to Manchester service suffered minor injuries, five of whom were taken to hospital after the crash. The driver of the lorry was arrested for endangering public safety.
  • WILLESDEN JUNCTION - On July 4th, 1969, a warm clear evening as an electric hauled empty parcels train hauled by E3084 was leaving the Up Carriage line from Willesden carriage sidings, the driver, routed into a short goods loop where he was to wait the passing of a passenger train before joining the Up Slow line to Euston, passed at Danger the loop exit signal which had been intermittently in view for about 150 yards and fully in view for a further 300 yds. The locomotive hit the buffer stops at the end of the loop at about 25 mph, bursting them apart and throwing one half of them onto the Up Slow line. It then hit the vertical stanchion of a portal frame carrying the overhead equipment of the Main lines, before coming to rest leaning towards and dangerously near the top of the retaining wall at the foot of which the Watford to Euston "DC" electric lines run in a cutting some 12 feet below. After destroying the buffers, the parcels train also cut some signal and power supply cables and the compressed air main to an area on the Euston side of the obstructions, with the result that some signals failed and the signalman in Willesden was unable to control the signals and points in that area. Some 30 to 40 seconds later an 8-coach electric multiple-unit train, travelling under clear signals on the Up Slow line at about 70 mph, hit the half buffer, and the damaged cross girder of the portal frame which was partly supported by the catenary wires, and was derailed, coming to rest after travelling a further 190 yards with the front 6 coaches off the track. The half buffer was thrown clear on the left of the track, but the cross girder was dragged some 40 yards, and the other end of it was also sheared from its vertical stanchion, and both the cross girder and the stanchion were left foul of the Up and Down Fast lines and Down Slow line. Two drivers and a guard received slight. Note that some lunatic on the Watford EMU has the door open for a better view!
  • WILNECOTE, Staffs - August 16th, 1953 - 45699 GALATEA derailed at Cliff Sidings while heading the 0928 Bradford - Bristol, with over 450 passengers on board. comprising 9 bogie coaches and was travelling at about 55 mph when it became completely derailed on plain, straight track. The train parted between the second and third coaches during the course of the derailment, and the front portion came to rest well ahead of the rear. There was no structural damage to the coaches though the engine fell on its side. Only two passengers required treatment in hospital for concussion and shock, and the driver and fireman, who remained on the engine were unhurt. Emergency arrangements were put in hand promptly and doctors, ambulances and police arrived within a few minutes. A relief train for the passengers was brought near to the site by 3:17 pm and left for Birmingham half an hour later. The derailment blocked both lines, though there was little damage to the up line and it was quickly repaired but it was required for the cranes employed on re-railing the engine and coaches and could not therefore be opened to traffic until 1042 on the morning of the next day. The down line was repaired and opened to traffic at 1837 that evening. The cause of the accident was attributed to the state of the track.
  • WINSFORD - On April 17th, 1948, 24 people died when the 1740 Glasgow to London Euston train was stopped after the communication cord was pulled by a passenger (a soldier on leave who presumably lived near Winsford and was seen to leave the train after it had stopped). The stopped train was then run into by a following postal express hauled by LMS Coronation Class 4-6-2 No 6251 City of Nottingham. The collision happened at between 40 and 45 mph and was so severe that only five of the ten passenger coaches could be pulled away on their wheels and only the rear eight of the 13 Postal coaches could be pulled back. 24 passengers were killed. The signalman at Winsford had, in error, reported the passenger train clear of the section and accepted the postal train. The person who pulled the emergency cord was a railway employee who worked as a signalbox lad in Winsford Junction, but was currently serving in the army having been called up. He thought that the train would be perfectly safe because he knew how the signalling equipment of the time in that area worked; but he did not know that the train had stopped short of the track circuit, which would have reminded the signalman of its presence. He attended the enquiry to confess, and was still a signalman in Winsford Junction until he retired in the 1990's.
  • WITHAM - September 1st 1905 - the Cromer Express derailed in Witham Station when the train ran over an unsecured length of rail, killing 11 and seriously injuring 71 - here we see the recovered underframe of a 6-wheeled carriage.
  • WITHAM - September 1st 1905 - the Cromer Express derailed in Witham Station when the train ran over an unsecured length of rail, killing 11 and seriously injuring 71 - here we see the remains of a 6-wheeled carriage.
  • WITHAM - September 1st 1905 - the Cromer Express derailed in Witham Station when the train ran over an unsecured length of rail, killing 11 and seriously injuring 71 - here we see the underframe of a 6-wheeled carriage across the platform, the bodywork completely smashed to pieces.
  • WITHAM - September 1st 1905 - the Cromer Express derailed in Witham Station when the train ran over an unsecured length of rail, killing 11 and seriously injuring 71 - note wreckage piled on platform.
  • WITHAM - September 1st 1905 - the Cromer Express derailed in Witham Station when the train ran over an unsecured length of rail, killing 11 and seriously injuring 71.
  • WITHAM - September 1st 1905 - the Cromer Express derailed in Witham Station when the train ran over an unsecured length of rail, killing 11 and seriously injuring 71. This coach, minus its centre pair of wheels, has miraculously survived almost intact.
  • WOODLESFORD - On Wednesday July 20th, 1910, a train was being shunted into the station goods yard with the rear carriage overshooting the buffers and plummeting down the embankment into Aberford Road. The accident happened shortly after seven o’clock in the morning when there were few people about. Luckily there was nobody on the road at the time and there were no injuries. The coach was badly damaged but successfully recovered by a breakdown crane from Holbeck depot during the course of the morning with the road finally cleared about noon.<br /> The train was for miners who were working at the newly opened Water Haigh colliery and possibly the existing pits of T. & R. W. Bower over the River Aire near Swillington and it left Leeds Wellington Station at 0530, called at Hunslet at 0536 and arrived at Woodlesford at 0543. After its arrival the locomotive was detached from the carriages to “run round” them via the goods yard because of the way the points were arranged. It was then coupled to the back of the train and drew the carriages into a long siding next to the line from Leeds between the platform and Pottery Lane bridge. After just over an hour, when the crew would no doubt have their breakfast, they would push the carriages back across the two main lines and into the goods yard siding ready to set off back to Leeds at 0730. It must have been during this manoeuvre, and possibly with an inexperienced driver or guard, that the train failed to stop in time resulting in the rear carriage crashing through the buffers and plunging into Aberford Road.
  • WOODLESFORD - On Wednesday July 20th, 1910, a train was being shunted into the station goods yard with the rear carriage overshooting the buffers and plummeting down the embankment into Aberford Road. The accident happened shortly after seven o’clock in the morning when there were few people about. Luckily there was nobody on the road at the time and there were no injuries. The coach was badly damaged but successfully recovered by a breakdown crane from Holbeck depot during the course of the morning with the road finally cleared about noon.<br /> The train was for miners who were working at the newly opened Water Haigh colliery and possibly the existing pits of T. & R. W. Bower over the River Aire near Swillington and it left Leeds Wellington Station at 0530, called at Hunslet at 0536 and arrived at Woodlesford at 0543. After its arrival the locomotive was detached from the carriages to “run round” them via the goods yard because of the way the points were arranged. It was then coupled to the back of the train and drew the carriages into a long siding next to the line from Leeds between the platform and Pottery Lane bridge. After just over an hour, when the crew would no doubt have their breakfast, they would push the carriages back across the two main lines and into the goods yard siding ready to set off back to Leeds at 0730. It must have been during this manoeuvre, and possibly with an inexperienced driver or guard, that the train failed to stop in time resulting in the rear carriage crashing through the buffers and plunging into Aberford Road.
  • YORK - Early in the morning of Wednesday, April 29th, 1942, York suffered its worst air raid of the war. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. In the previous few days, the Luftwaffe had attacked two other cathedral cities, Norwich and Bath. These were the so-called 'Baedecker Raids'. The story had it that Hitler, enraged by the RAF’s attacks on Lubeck and Rostock, picked up a Baedecker guidebook and ordered that every historic place in England marked with three stars be bombed in retaliation. The Luftwaffe bombarded strategic targets – the railway line, the station, the Carriage Works, the airfield. York Minster was not touched. Seen here are Platforms 2 & 3 of York Station after the raid.
  • YORK - Early in the morning of Wednesday, April 29th, 1942, York suffered its worst air raid of the war. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. In the previous few days, the Luftwaffe had attacked two other cathedral cities, Norwich and Bath. These were the so-called 'Baedecker Raids'. The story had it that Hitler, enraged by the RAF’s attacks on Lubeck and Rostock, picked up a Baedecker guidebook and ordered that every historic place in England marked with three stars be bombed in retaliation. The Luftwaffe bombarded strategic targets – the railway line, the station, the Carriage Works, the airfield. York Minster was not touched. Unfortunately for Class A4 Pacific No.4469 SIR RALPH WEDGEWOOD and Class B16 4-6-0 No.925, a bomb fell through the York North Locoshed roof and exploded between the two engines. Both locomotives were severely damaged as a result of the explosio. 4469 was recovered and towed to Doncaster shortly afterward. Due to the degree of damage, it was considered impractical to rebuild and only the tender was savable. The B16 was also scrapped.
  • YORK - Early in the morning of Wednesday, April 29th, 1942, York suffered its worst air raid of the war. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. In the previous few days, the Luftwaffe had attacked two other cathedral cities, Norwich and Bath. These were the so-called 'Baedecker Raids'. The story had it that Hitler, enraged by the RAF’s attacks on Lubeck and Rostock, picked up a Baedecker guidebook and ordered that every historic place in England marked with three stars be bombed in retaliation. The Luftwaffe bombarded strategic targets – the railway line, the station, the Carriage Works, the airfield. York Minster was not touched. Unfortunately for Class A4 Pacific No.4469 SIR RALPH WEDGEWOOD and Class B16 4-6-0 No.925, a bomb fell through the York North Locoshed roof and exploded between the two engines. Both locomotives were severely damaged as a result of the explosio. 4469 was recovered and towed to Doncaster shortly afterward. Due to the degree of damage, it was considered impractical to rebuild and only the tender was savable. The B16 was also scrapped. Seen here at Doncaster Works after recovery from the ruins of York.
  • YORK - On August 4th, 1958, 60036 COLOMBO was approaching Platform 12 at York Station on a terminating train from Sunderland when it overran the buffer stops and ended up in the concourse. 11 people were injured and, although considerable, the damage looks worse than it is. Presumably there was a braking problem but I am unable to find out for certain.
  • YORK - On August 4th, 1958, 60036 COLOMBO was approaching Platform 12 at York Station on a terminating train from Sunderland when it overran the buffer stops and ended up in the concourse. 11 people were injured and, although considerable, the damage looks worse than it is. Presumably there was a braking problem but I am unable to find out for certain.
  • ZSR - 750 149 - 165 locos converted to ETH from Class 753 between 1991 and 1995, 46 on ZSR - dumped on the scrapline at Zvolen, 09/09/06. Many of these locos seem to withdrawn following cab fires and, as the cabs are fibre glass, looks to be badly damaged.
  • ZSR - 753 - 408 engines built by CKD from 1968 with steam heating - dumped at Zvolen, 01/06/04. It looks as though it has been on fire at this end, quite a common problem with this class I think.
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