Accident pic identification

[52D]

901accident.jpg (10.15 KiB) Viewed 3652 times

I found this pic a while ago, i think the loco is a n NER 901 class but have no idea of the location. Felling, Marshal Meadows and Morpeth have been suggested and ruled out. Over to the Forum.

[Mickey]

Sorry can't help with identifying the location 52D but where ever it is or was it's a right ruddy pile up thats for sure!!.

Mickey

[52D]

Yes Micky thats why i initially thought of the first Morpeth crash but after running it past 52A he quickly discounted the three locations i suggested. Morpeth is one of the 2 sites in Northumberland on the ECML that have had multiple crashes and incidents the other being Goswick.

[4812]

It's Northallerton in 1894. The locos were 901 Class No 905 and Class M No 1622. The photo seems to have been taken half-way through the clearance, with the two cranes having lifted No 1622 on to its wheels again. There's a LPC card (No1640 I think) showing the scene earlier, when No 1622 was still on its RHS with a battered coach sticking up above its tender and a Pullman to one side on top of wreckage. A helmeted PC has his eye on the photographer.

[52D]

Thanks for that i will see if the railway archive site has an accident report for it.

[Mickey]

It's Northallerton in 1894.

A fairly complicated accident (if you try and read through the full Inspecting Officer's report) with the report running into very many pages with many witness statements included with the Inspecting Officer's final conclusions running into 6 pages alone when usually a final conclusion by the Inspecting Officer was usually summed up in a few paragraphs or a page.

Apparently a guard on one of the trains involved in the collision unfortunately had his "head cut off" to quote the Inspecting Officer's words.

If the above photograph was taken 'half way through the clear up' then there must have been a 'mountain of wreckage' initially??.

Mickey

[4812]

The illustration in Railway Archive seems to show a view at about the same time as the photo above, with three cranes lifting No 1622, two at the front and one at the cab-end. Most of the debris has indeed gone, and the Pullman 'Iona' is back at rail-level with its essential structure intact - wooden Pullmans were strong and did not 'telescope'.