Rail accidents in Winsford#1962 accident - Coppenhall Junction

The railway accident of Winsford on December 26, 1962 was the collision of a fast train to another express train south of the station Winsford on the West Coast Main Line at Coppenhall Junction. 18 people died.

Starting position

That night it was very cold and there was snow. Two trains were on the route between Winsford and Crewe behind each other on the road: the advance express 16:45 clock from Liverpool to Birmingham. He was pulled by an electric locomotive and consisted of eight coaches with 300 passengers. Due to the cold weather and snow led to switches disorders in Crewe, so the train had to stop.

The first train followed the express Midday Scot from Glasgow Central to London Euston 13:30 clock. The train was pulled by a diesel locomotive class 40 and resulted in 13 carriages, in which 500 travelers were.

The accident

The railway signal that covered the front train, showed "Stop ". The engineer of the Glasgow train stopped there and went to the corresponding distance telephone to inquire about the cause of the " stop" signal displayed. However, the distance telephone was defective. But he could already see the next signal and decided to bring forward the train to there, to make contact to the next interlocking with the local distance telephone. What he saw and not too late at first, was the front of it train from Liverpool. With around 30 km / h, it went against 18:01 clock on him. The last car of the standing train were crushed by the colliding locomotive of the Glasgow train.

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Here 18 people died and 34 more were also injured.