Colwich rail crash

Colwich rail crash

Date	19 September 1986
Time	18:28
Location	Colwich Junction, Staffordshire, England
Country	England
Rail line	West Coast Main Line
Cause	Signal passed at danger
Statistics
Trains	2
Passengers	~873
Deaths	1
Injuries	75
List of UK rail accidents by year

The Colwich rail crash occurred on the evening of Friday 19 September 1986 at Colwich Junction, Staffordshire, England. It was significant in that it was a high speed collision between two packed express trains. No passengers were killed, because of the great strength of the rolling stock involved, which included examples of Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 coaches.

Background

Colwich Junction lies between Rugeley and Stafford and is where the four-track West Coast Main Line from London splits into two routes. Approaching from the south, two tracks go to Manchester via Stoke-on-Trent, and two tracks go to Stafford and Crewe. In the middle of the layout, two of the lines cross each other at a diamond crossing.

In August 1986, the signalling was altered so that drivers of northbound trains taking the Stoke line would see flashing yellow signals on approach. Flashing yellows signify that the junction is clear, but that the train must slow down to safely take the diverging route. This sequence of signalling was designed for use at higher-speed turnouts as a replacement for approach release from red, where the junction signal is held at red until the train is near to it.

Over the next few years, flashing yellows were also installed at locations where trains cross over between different tracks travelling in the same direction, e.g. from a "fast" line to a "slow" line. While not "junctions" in the traditional sense, the signalling sequence was identical to that given at a "diverging" route.

The accident

Sequence of signals where flashing yellow aspects are in use, when the line is clear throughout

On 19 September 1986, the signalman at Colwich saw that the 17:00 express train from London Euston to Manchester was approaching the junction at roughly the same time as the 17:20 express from Liverpool to Euston. He decided to give precedence to the latter and so the Manchester train might need to wait its turn over the junction.

The Manchester train needed to cross from the Down Fast to the Down Slow line before turning off towards Stoke. The signals presented to its driver were as follows:

Signal no.	Aspect	Meaning
CH105	Flashing double yellow	Advance indication of diverging route ahead
CH103	Flashing single yellow	Indication of diverging route ahead
CH18	Single yellow with route indicator	Next signal at Danger. Next set of points have been set for a diverging route.
CH23	Red	Danger – stop

After going through the crossover he saw CH23 at red. Having interpreted that the flashing yellows meant that the route all the way over the junction to Stoke was clear, he was expecting this signal to clear as he got near to it (as under the old approach-control system). But, as he got nearer to it, he realised it was not going to clear.

The driver made an emergency brake application but the train did not stop before reaching the diamond crossing. At that moment he saw the Liverpool train approaching at high speed and shouted a warning to a trainee driver who was also in the cab. They both jumped from the locomotive almost immediately before the Liverpool train collided with it.

The locomotive of the Liverpool train was 86211 City of Milton Keynes. It hit the other locomotive 86429 The Times side-on, which finished up in the wreckage with its body twisted and split open. The passenger coaches were scattered in all directions and some had their ends badly damaged. Eric Goode, the driver of no. 86211, was killed.

Investigation

File:Destroyed 86211 cab.jpg

The destroyed cab of 86211, the driver of which was killed in the accident

After the accident, the driver went to the signal box and told the signalman "You had double flashing yellows and the route was set for Stoke". With "traditional" junction layouts in mind, he thought that flashing yellows meant that the line was clear for him right through the junction. It was not; the signalling system regarded the crossover from the Down Fast to the Down Slow as the "junction", and the driver was not expecting to see a red signal before taking the Stoke line.

The public inquiry centred on whether the driver had had adequate training on the recently introduced flashing yellow signals and the implications at multiple junctions (Hall 1987). The driver admitting to signing for, but not actually reading, the Notice that referred to the installation of flashing yellows at Colwich the previous month.

A contributory factor was the lack of flank protection given the layout at Colwich Junction. The accident would not have happened if the points had been set for the train to go parallel to, rather than head-on into, the Liverpool train's path; similarly to Ladbroke Grove (Hall 2003), and as would have been normal practice in an older manual installation.

Recommendations

The Inspector's report recommended changing the signalling sequence so that flashing yellows would only be used when the line was clear throughout the whole junction, as the driver was expecting. A second recommendation was removing wheelslide prevention in an emergency braking situation – practical tests suggested the train could then have stopped before fouling the junction. The latter recommendation was not implemented.

Memorial

Local resident Alf Taylor created a memorial to Eric Goode at the site of the accident, which he looked after until his death in 1997. On 17 September 2006, the Sunday before the 20th anniversary of the accident, the garden was re-dedicated.

See also

• List of British rail accidents
• Lists of rail accidents

References

• .

External links

• BBC News: On this day: 19 September
• BBC news: BBC News article relating 20th anniversary of crash