British Rail Train Derailment Loco 56062 Copyhold Junction 1988 

Mushy Peas! Yep, you guys did a good job.

Jack Torrance It was an extremely interesting project with many discussions on the method of recovery or cutting up on site.

First time I've seen air bags used in rail recovery, of course now the loco would be cut up on site.

Thanks for sharing, really interesting. Having seen all the prep and sheet piling it looked like a big task. Seeing that drop, it must have been quite a painful experience for the driver.

I would have preferred you to write "our team", not "my team".

I would imagine a lot of 'exchange' sub-assemblies already overhauld on stock were fitted, such as spare bogies, & spare powerunit, thus the quick turnaround. Then the rolled bogies & powerunit would have been gone through at normal pace & put back in to stock for the next 56 being 'shopped'

I knew a guy who said he was the driver. He walked away uninjured. However, I don’t know if there was another crew member who succumbed to his injuries as you imply. My friend explained how it happened, but I don’t intend to make any comments here. Water under the bridge and all that.

I was a guard at Brighton until about a year before that accident. I knew the driver and can confirm that both he and the guard were lucky enough to escape with minor injuries. It was a spectacular incident though and the engineers did an amazing job recovering the loco.

No one died in this incident.

Elizabethann Ferrario: Why are you following this new trend of isolating punctuation marks?

@@RAFchurchlawford4469 Does it really matter? Her comment is perfectly understandable and language is constantly evolving anyway. Surely there are enough problems in the world already without having to resort to such pedantry?

And what's the cost of a new comparable loco ?

pmailkeey it still would have cost a fair bit just to scrap it on site, so you may as well get it out in “ one” piece

Good video of a team of experts removing a 140 ton locomotive in a very awquid environment and where this accident happened it basically saved this grids life! I love these screaming beasts as they remind me of the screaming Valletta hst engines as they sound very simular to each other!!! 😎

His name has cropped up on a couple of railway forums in the past. Nobody had a good word for him. My experience of him was when he was driver at Redhill mid 70s. He was meant to pick me when working a set of empty DEMU from St Leonards to Redhill. He forgot and left me stranded at 04:30! Even many years before the Copyhold incident he had a reputation as a jinx Once even managed to get himself trapped in the engine compartment of a Tadpole set at Reading. No way would I ever have stepped into an aircraft with him at the controls either!

@@RebelRebelious morning brother! Taffy Jones at Brighton called him a bearded pirate bastard P was going to do a fiddle or a shunt for jonesy and didn’t. Leaving Jonesy in the shite. I did a week second manning to him on the Lavant Drayton trips. Didn’t get a drive and he made is VERY clear that wasn’t going to happen. Hardly said a word to me all week. Then the roster changed I ended up on A shift so never had to go with him again. He moved to Plymouth and got a glowing reference from Brighton area management, very keen to see the back of him.

Me too, but that's because I'm your brother.

Doesn't ARC stand for Amey Roadstone Construction (?)

@@ILikeTransport not anymore cos I think Amey Road Stone became Hanson??

I can remember a 47 going through the Catch points at Dorrington Shropshire. Signalman error !! He got 12hrs overtime. Wrong road working, points weren't clamped . Oops !! Dont think 47 was completely on its side. Most importantly nobody was injured. 👍

Are you sure the logos have been obscured? It just looks like low-quality old video, to me.

Over here, the correct term at goods line/ siding/ depot etc exits is trap points, which protect passenger lines against overrun. Catchpoints protect same against run-back moves such as on inclines or at some goods line entrances. Nearly all our catchpoints have gone; they were sprung in the trailing (normal) direction, right buggers to maintain and you always had to remember to clip them up before doing single line working.

They look like a pair of 76 ton cranes, converted from steam to diesel. I’m old enough to remember one like them working in a Possession in the winter. Could get a warm, by standing next to the boiler ( can’t do that with a diesel)

@@neilwilkinson8062 you could always use your shovel to keep warm, though I did like my long black BR coat. Doubled up as a blanket. Not so many shovels these days, all mechanized nowadays. I'm old too. 😀👍

late to the party, they're rated 76ton, but that gets smaller the further out it has to reach, and to swing a 60ft diesel between the pair would limit that rather alot i'd imagine, they could lift it vertically, but then not have anywhere to put it afterwards

But the job got done Safely and in half the time, with a lot less 'Office Wallahs' as my dad called them . No wonder I'm such a 'Millitant' ,,, as my manager calls me . Lol. Thanks Dad. 👍

No, nobody was killed.

Thanks for the heart Steve 👍🏻 I remember it was on Quest on freeview, a firm called Alleleys we're moving it. I'm sure they said it was built in the 1940's and could lift 50t

I'm pretty sure that was one of two stores at Horsham. And it was SWL 76 ton

Funny enough I saw that too the other night, the prog was "Train Truckers" (can't remember which channel now), it was Cowans Sheldon 45 tonne ADRC96719. It was being taken from Crewe Heritage Centre to the Hornby museum in Margate (or should that be "visitor centre") by Allelys.

Belive it was a railway employee involved at the time for his own records.

Looks unofficial to me. If it was an official video, surely they'd have shown the full lift of the locomotive. The fact that, suddenly, the loco is way up in the air suggests quite strongly that the guy who was videoing had to stop filming to do his actual job.

North. About half a mile before the station heading to Brighton.

Site and steel shuttering still there. Just south of HH golf club and close to public footpath. Kids have build a BMX track very close.

@@brianmccully2041 So at 51.017436, -0.105681 ? ( a little south of that at 51.016984, -0.105385 the is some unstraight 'fencing' - is that the incident sight ? What I don't understand is there appears to be continuation track (all the way to the station) unless it's just the marks on the ground where the sleepers were ? - and no sign of a footpath on Google maps. OS maps has the junction quite a bit further north - which is clearly incorrect.

I think the location is around 51.016875, -0.105209 but the site looks very different with some dense woodland now. Think someone mentioned a gas main near the site which I think I have seen. I might of course be talking b*******. Public footpath runs 51.013193, -0.101555 to 51.019186, -0.102238 but you can walk in the field to the west.

@@brianmccully2041 Your first ref appears to be the accident site - the 'junction' is further north, possibly: 51.018706, -0.106166 yet the straight track continues south from there to just short of the derailment site - maybe ploughed through buffers there ?

It was only the first 30 that were built in Romania. The rest were built in Doncaster or Crewe.

Lol, sadly that was one of the British 56s. The Romanians probably started a New Scrap business with the left overs. Then come here to start up as Self Employed. Lol

The train overran the exit signal at danger (red), and then derailed on the trap point designed to protect trains on the main lines by deflecting the overrun away from them.

Careful, might remove the decals 😆

He didn't die. I do not know what happened to his job, however.

Belive it was weight limits on crane

Steve Wallace I did think that- thanks 👍

It looks like the Engine and main Generator lifted out in a onesie.

@@paulnolan1352 Alternator, but yes.

Coulda shoulda woulda.

She was repaired, apparently cut up in 2010, though. God I hate scrapping.

I did ask this question and the person quoted somewhere in region of £180,000 but this was back in 1988 and was repaired relativity quickly!

Chris Arnold comments 'way over a million to recover it'.

@@stevoGTR From Chris Arnold's comment >£1M

Simples!! They had common sense in those days!!

Don’t forget a load of method statements and health and safety chaps around making life difficult.

We hate health and safety nazis.... they cause all projects to crawl along instead of a steady pace

I myself work on two railways, with both places having the necessary H & S in place, and adheared to. At neither place can I remember us ever having to make a thing of it though ! To pinch a title from the classic Blackadder TV series, just "Sense and Sensibility" wins the day every time 👍😀

Warwick Tregurtha We used our eyes and ears in those days, and most people were risk savvy. It’s called competent.

Why would they do that? The loco was repaired and put back into service, finally cut up in 2010.

Professor James Moriarty It’s what usually happened to steam locomotives when they had mishaps! Wonder what numpty drove it through the catch points? Very careless!

@@nigelkthomas9501 not always. LNER K3 4009 was involved in a collision at Welwyn Garden City in 1937 when hauling a Leeds bound service. It was running at about 65mph when it ran into the back of an Express headed for Newcastle. 4009 was repaired and not with drawn from service until 3/3/1962.

Another commenter suggested due to inaccessibility.

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It was true. There were audible gasps when he mentioned it at the enquiry.

Urm can you say that again? He learnt the route from the air??? What was he flying a plane or chopper or something at the time??.....or perhaps a balloon maybe?

@@benconway9010 I’m not sure but that is what a retired driver told me some time ago.

@@EM-yk1dw well was he even a qualified driver? Cos it sounds like he just just slipped an Orange jacket on and said "hello I'm a train driver where's my train"

@@benconway9010 Yes he was a qualified driver. I will see if I can find out more as it’s a while since I was told about this.

I believe it was quickly fixed and back in service

Repaired surprisingly quickly and put back into service, it was finally cut up in 2010.

@@professorjamesmoriarty5191 well that's a bit of a shame.

Yes and yes.

Why would you discipline someone for making an error? If there was evidence of gross negligence, then yes, but human error was highly predictable and I bet there were a bucket load of systemic contributory factors.

Andrew Taylor you’re not an ASLEF shop steward by any chance are you? If this was indeed purely down to driver error without any significant mitigating circumstances I think we’ll have to agree to differ on the responsibilities one takes for ones own errors and the personal sanction and accountability you are held up to at work as a result of your actions. If I made an error in my job that resulted in a clean up bill costing the equivalent of what this was reported to have cost in today’s money, not to mention the risk of multiple fatalities from a crash with a passenger train, I think I’d be expecting my p45 through the letterbox.

@@msdes82 I'm not, no. May I suggest you read the fascinating book, 'Black Box Thinking' by Matthew Syed, which describes and evidences the benefits of a 'just culture'? What you're claiming I'm saying is that there should be a 'no blame' culture, which is as harmful to safety as the blame culture you're advocating. There is a difference between error, negligence and gross negligence. Blame cultures drive near miss reporting underground, which means opportunities to learn from operational experience are missed. All the best.

Human error, driver didn't control his train so as to stop at the red signal. How much of the 'blame' BR apportioned to him I don't know; the internal investigation would have determined that, but the disciplinary he received could vary between suspension pending retraining, restricted driving duties pending retraining, redeployment in a non-driving job etc. Dismissal would only have happened if he was found to have acted recklessly. Nowadays the industry has a 'fair culture investigation' policy, which shifts away from 'blame' to understanding whether or not it was a mistake and if so what type, any contributing causes (eg fatigue, rostering issues, infrastructure design factors etc) and lessons to be learned from it before deciding what disciplinary action needs to be taken.

No serious injuries to him or the guard.

Give him a ticket!

bit of T-Cut..................

...and a hammer.

Apply a little heat and the panels will just pop back into shape.

In april 1986 i photogtaphed this loco ex works at doncaster,even the more damaged 50041 was repared a tribute to all the staff employed at brel doncaster sadly all lost

Definitely not true. Catch points are a last resort and cause small problems to prevent bigger ones. This train passed a signal at danger and was heading for the Brighton main line - far better to roll a locomotive down a bank than to have it encounter a speeding train full of passengers.

If you don't know the purpose of catch points, don't be a clown buddy

I guess when the signalling design is performed there must be some consideration of the consequences of the derailment, and positioned to bring the loco to a halt whilst minimising subsequent damage. I must admit I have looked at some where I think "well that would take the footbridge etc out"! Thankfully they are seldom called upon to save the day!

They’re trap points not catch points

@@highdownmartin Technically true. For most purposes they might as well be the same thing - both exist as a last resort to derail trains making potentially dangerous unauthorised movements - but yes you are right.