Crash at Trowell Junction August 1988


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I was sorting out the contents of a big old Victorian pine chest that sits in the living room and came across my late fathers photo albums.

I knew that somewhere in there were photos he took of the coal train crash at Trowell, but I couldn't recall when it was, luckily he'd put the date on the photos. I don't know much about the incident, whether anyone was injured or who/what was to blame. All I remember was that the Trowell to Radford line was closed for a while and at one time was being considered for permanent closure, I recall going up to Nottingham and seeing the rusty state of the tracks running through Wollaton.

This were taken with my dad's Instamatic, not the best quality but quite interesting.

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I remember the proposal to close the Trowell branch permanently, I think it pre-dated this crash by a few years.

It was all about saving money when BR was seriously strapped for cash and the Erewash Valley passenger trains were diverted via Toton centre, crossed onto the goods lines, up to Meadow Lane Junction and then down to Attenborough Junction and into Nottingham from there.

The one big flaw in the scheme was that the lines from Toton very slow and not up to passenger standards. I remember there was a story at the time that when one passenger train was crossing over, it lurched so badly that a water boiler in the buffet car tipped over and seriously scalded a member of staff.

I think BR came to realise it wasn't a viable option because it added too much time to journeys and led to unacceptable congestion at Attenborough Jcn. where trains had to be pathed in between London services, Derby locals and freight as well.

Luckily, BR saw sense and scrapped the idea, just as well because loss of the Trowell branch would have led to tremendous problems today.

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Yes,I remember that one at Lenton, I stood on the Lane bridge and saw the piled up wreckage, it was horrific, didn't a guard get killed in that incident.

It still doesn't answer my questions about the accident at Trowell, surely someone on here must know more about it.

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Weren't some of the wagons derailed on the crossover. I believe it was hauled by a class 56, but only a few wagons were derailed.

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Judging by those pictures the incident looked a bit nasty to me, the wagons look quite badly damaged and the junction looks wrecked, so what caused it.
I recall an accident at Stanton Gate in the 60's, another coal train, wagons all over the place, some nearly ended up in the Erewash canal, I believe an 8F was involved in that one.The smashed wagons were lying about for a while after that one, four wheeled steel unfitted jobs, not them posh 'Merry Go Round' air braked thingies.

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I think I've seen pics of that one, but can't for the life of me remember which book it was in.

I wish my mate Rob237 were still with us. He was an absolute encyclopaedia of local railway information.

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I knew him when I moved to Saxondale in 85. We met in the Moot House pub in Bingham at the quiz. We hit it off immediately. Reds fans, steam buffs especially Vic Station, the exGC mainline and the ECML .

We ended up setting the quiz questions between us. I lost contact when I left my ex in ridiculous circumstances in 2000. I never contacted anyone in Bingham as my name was mud at the time. Then I saw on here that he had passed away. A great bloke.

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Don't forget the cricket!!
We had agreed to meet up sometime, but, sadly, it never happened, we were never in the right place at the right time.

I've just been going through my dad's albums again, there are quite a number of photo's taken at Barry Scrapyard, some interesting locos on there. Dad had a pal who lived in South Wales and used to go and stay over there, they even came over and stayed at my place in Finchingfield once. A puzzle to me is a picture of rusting 8F 48773, I always thought it had been taken straight into preservation from withdrawal in the NW at the end of steam in 1968. When I've time I'll post it, Xmas working at B&Q is hard going at the moment, wierd shifts, not much time to do owt.

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Cricket was Bobs first love, even more than Forest.

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There's a mention here about the Trowell derailment, with a photo:

http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;DCCS001437&pos=28532&action=zoom&id=128031

On the following site someone says the derailment: "...took place on 1st September 1988 involving a Silverhill - Ratcliffe MGR. Trowell Junction was plain lined as a result and stayed that way for several years. However, this was the era when BR sectors were forced to pay a route's main user a contribution towards maintenace costs and I was always led to believe that it was excessive demands in this respect from the Railfreight sector that drove Provincial, as it was then, to drive forward the reopening of the direct line via Radford."

https://www.rcts.org.uk/features/mysteryphotos/show.htm?img=65-019-04A&serial=3

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Interesting stuff MI, thanks for that. I was always under the impression that the line was due for closure under Beeching, traffic was always sparse with no trains on Sundays or Bank Holidays. In the late 50's a railcar service to Sheffield was introduced via Wollaton, but to recall, they only ran every four hours or so.

I very rarely travelled over the line, any journeys up north tended to be via Derby, the times always seemed to be more convenient. I recall going on a Class 5 hauled excursion to Belle Vue which travelled via Butterly and Ambergate, all my mates were sitting on the level crossing gate at Wollaton Brickworks and waved as we steamed past.

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