DP2 LNER connection
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:10 pm
"ITS 50 years ago next month that the presence of mind by an experienced East Coast Main Line train driver played a significant part in minimising the fatalities and casualties that occurred when the Anglo Scottish express he was driving collided with a derailed cement train at Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
On the last day of the month, the 31st July 1967, Driver John "Jock" Evans was at the controls of a prototype main line diesel electric locomotive DP2. It was styled similarly to a Deltic, a class of 22 locomotives that were exclusive and ubiquitous to the ECML.
On that fateful day Jock Evans would, without thinking, apply years of experience that he had gained on the footplate along the ECML. But Jock Evans was no ordinary individual. Born in Berwick upon Tweed, Jock had started on the LNER just before the outbreak of World War Two but the war was to change everything. Jock joined up and with his early skills on the railways he was immediately posted to 192 Royal Engineers - driving trains. What he went through and saw, the places he was sent all played a part in rounding Jock's character. He understood conflict, the fragility of life, the need to act quick and decisively, the need to confront and fight for your beliefs and he appreciated the worth of first aid training.
Such experience was to play a major part in what took place on the last day of July 1967 when Jock saw a dust cloud several hundred yards in front of him as he sped north at around 75mph with an express passenger train that was over 900 ft long and weighed a total of some 575 tons. The dust cloud was a cement train was derailing in front of Jock and his train and he was bearing down on it with the yards to it running out..."
As part of a series of features on railway accidents in 1967 The Railway Magazine will publish a feature about the Thirsk accident. Feature writer Fraser Pithie will explain what led to the accident, what happened immediately afterwards and what the subsequent accident inquiry said about the event. However, the feature will go further. For the first time the critical role of Driver Jock Evans will be detailed.
Using testimony from Jock himself, recorded with Bob Gwynne at the National Railway Musuem, several years ago before Jock died and also using personal material and recollections provided by Jock's son, Nigel Evans, Fraser Pithie draws out the very human side of that arose from the event. The full feature will be in the July edition of The Railway Magazine and will be available for £4.40 in all good newsagents on 5 July.
On the last day of the month, the 31st July 1967, Driver John "Jock" Evans was at the controls of a prototype main line diesel electric locomotive DP2. It was styled similarly to a Deltic, a class of 22 locomotives that were exclusive and ubiquitous to the ECML.
On that fateful day Jock Evans would, without thinking, apply years of experience that he had gained on the footplate along the ECML. But Jock Evans was no ordinary individual. Born in Berwick upon Tweed, Jock had started on the LNER just before the outbreak of World War Two but the war was to change everything. Jock joined up and with his early skills on the railways he was immediately posted to 192 Royal Engineers - driving trains. What he went through and saw, the places he was sent all played a part in rounding Jock's character. He understood conflict, the fragility of life, the need to act quick and decisively, the need to confront and fight for your beliefs and he appreciated the worth of first aid training.
Such experience was to play a major part in what took place on the last day of July 1967 when Jock saw a dust cloud several hundred yards in front of him as he sped north at around 75mph with an express passenger train that was over 900 ft long and weighed a total of some 575 tons. The dust cloud was a cement train was derailing in front of Jock and his train and he was bearing down on it with the yards to it running out..."
As part of a series of features on railway accidents in 1967 The Railway Magazine will publish a feature about the Thirsk accident. Feature writer Fraser Pithie will explain what led to the accident, what happened immediately afterwards and what the subsequent accident inquiry said about the event. However, the feature will go further. For the first time the critical role of Driver Jock Evans will be detailed.
Using testimony from Jock himself, recorded with Bob Gwynne at the National Railway Musuem, several years ago before Jock died and also using personal material and recollections provided by Jock's son, Nigel Evans, Fraser Pithie draws out the very human side of that arose from the event. The full feature will be in the July edition of The Railway Magazine and will be available for £4.40 in all good newsagents on 5 July.
