47452, at the head of the 19.50 Aberdeen to King's Cross sleeper service left the track in a spectacular derailment on a sharp curve near Morpeth, and ended up on its' side. Fortunately there were no fatalaties, depsite many of the sleeper carriages rolling onto their sides, some coming to rest in the gardens of adjacent properties. However the driver and two sleeping car attendants were injured and required hospital treatment. A subsequent enquiry determined the cause of the derailment to be excessive speed; the train was travelling at 90mph on a 50mph stretch of track. Although it seems likely that 'driver error' was the main cause of the crash, the enquiry was unable to come to any specific conclusions; despite a number of allegations and suggestions as to the state of health of the driver that night. This accident occurred on precisely the same curve upon which Class 55 D9011 came to grief in May 1969, ironically whilst hauling the King's Cross to Aberdeen sleeper. 47452 was removed to Crewe Works for repairs and did not return to traffic until October 1986.
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47452
June 24th 1984 © Tim Rogers |
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