The Chester General rail crash occurred on 8 May 1972 at Chester, northwest England, resulting in extensive fire damage, but no casualties. It was caused by brake failure through human error.

Course of events

The 19:31 freight train from

Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, south of Birkenhead, southwest of Runcorn and south of ...

Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

Junction consisted of 38 wagons hauled by a Class 24 diesel locomotive no. 5028. The first five wagons were tank wagons containing

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning " wax", and was re ...

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic c ...

and

gas oil Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), ...

. At around 20:50 the train was approaching Chester station (then known as Chester General) on a 1 in 100 falling

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

when the driver discovered that the

brakes A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction. Backgroun ...

had failed. It ran past a signal at danger and through a set of points which were set for no. 11

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. Overview Bay and islan ...

, where an empty

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

was standing. As there was nothing more he could do, the driver jumped out onto the platform with the train still travelling at around 20 mph. It ploughed straight into the DMU and completely destroyed the first coach. The second coach was torn from its

bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

s and thrown up onto the platform where it demolished the refreshment room wall. There were very few people on that part of the station, although the staff in the refreshment room had to shelter themselves from falling

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

. A major fire broke out when the burst fuel tanks of the trains ignited, but the

fire brigade A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

were based nearby and arrived within a couple of minutes. They were able to rescue a trapped postal worker and evacuated several passengers from an adjacent lightly loaded train before it too was engulfed by the fire. Damage caused to the trains was severe, especially after petrol from two of the tank wagons began to boil and was forced out of the pressure relief valves, whereupon it ignited. The fire was not extinguished until 00:20 the following day. The trains involved were all written off and a section of the station roof was damaged and consequently removed.

Causes

The first eight wagons were equipped with the vacuum brake but the pipes had not been connected. The train had run from Ellesmere Port as an unbraked freight train and stopped at

Helsby Helsby is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Overlooking the Mersey estuary, it is approximately north east of Chester and south we ...

, where it needed to reverse. The guard had forgotten to connect the vacuum pipes when the locomotive coupled up to the opposite end of the train, so that extra brake power was not available on the falling gradient into Chester. The driver had also omitted to carry out a brake test before departure.

External links

YouTube video showing the damage caused by the crash.

References

* * {{Railway accidents in the United Kingdom, 1900–1999, state=collapsed Railway accidents and incidents in Cheshire Runaway train disasters History of Chester Railway accidents in 1972 1972 in England 20th century in Cheshire Train collisions in England Train and rapid transit fires

Course of events

Causes

External links

See also

References