Funny enough, I happened to watch a video 2 months ago by Forgotten Relics, talking about this derailment, and looking at the bridge site today. Neat to see news coverage from when it occurred.
This class 4 Freightliner departed from Garston Freightliner Terminal. That Signalman deserved a Medal, not an easy decision to make when you don't have to long to ponder over it.
I was 21 years of age when this happened. Yet I don't remember it. What i do know now is, Bill Taylor should be recognised as not just a local hero but a national hero. He, without doubt, saved many lives. Just doing your job is one thing, thinking quickly on your feet, regarding an emerging catastrophic event is something only reserved for heroes. Nevermind your actors and corporate MPs on the national honours list. This man should be honoured. God bless you Bill Taylor
XxFyrez GamerxX yes and if you look at some of the fencing by the path / flood defences you will see that the architect has included symbols (signal levers etc ) as a tribute to the near disaster in 1st May 1984
To those of you wondering about the braking, the train was stopped with a dragging brake but after they isolated some brakes to fix the fault the brake pipe was not correctly reconnected. The front was fine, but the rear was not. The front portion was safely stopped in Carlisle station, but the rear was routed round the goods lines and derailed at around 60 in a 20... The actions of the signalman prevented serious consequences.
Wait a minute ...... first the coupling comes apart .... yeah, okay .... but what happened to the automatic brake? Freightliner wagons weren't swingers and toxic chemicals weren't carried in unbraked wagons ..... That all seems to have been ignored. Also, how come the front portion never lost its brake either. Smacks of sabotage to me.
The brakes had been dragging on a wagon but when it had been isolated the pipe had been put back incorrectly which bipassed the vacuum ‘fail safe’ brakes
