Lewisham rail crash 4th December 1957

[harlickbalham]

Have just come across this. A friend of mine was on the Hayes train.

He helped move the injured into the night and then walked back home to Catford. His father was waiting up. He'd heard about the accident on the grapevine (most people had no phone then) and knew Ray was often on the Hayes train.

Ray said it was the first (and only) time he saw his dad cry.

Thanks for posting SR.

[twentyone222]

That part of the line must be jinxed. I remember about twenty years ago they were demolishing the road bridge over St John's station, when it collapsed, killing one workers.

[kav816]

This was some five years after, Harrow and Wealdstone Crash. But today the bridge. is whats left of it, I mean there is only one half of it still standing. The other half has been replaced by a tempory one.

[scotsman125]

LOL, DRIVER TREW WAS FIRED IN MAY 1958 FOR BEING MANSLAUGHTER. DRIVER TREW AND HIS FIREMAN WATCHING THE RIGHT - HAND SITE OF THE CAB. AT THAT TIME BR DID NOT INTRODUCED THE AWS ( AUTOMATIC WARNING SYSTEM).

[fatheribrahim11]

I remember this, Dad didn't come home til very late that foggy and cold night as he was on the last train previous to the Hayes emu. and his connecting train never came. We knew why later that evening.

[honzanoel]

2.20 I beg your pardon of the week......Joke aside, what a sad moment in South London.

[theredraven]

What happens with the electrical third rail when something like this happens? Won't that cause further harm to people or is there some kind of emergency shutoff?

[SouthernRailwayFilms]

The third rail shoud be assumed to be always live; a short will cause the breakers at the adjacent electrical substations to trip in milliseconds. A track shorting device is carried on all SR third rail trains in the event that the power has to be disabled in an emergency. They sound dodgy - manually connecting a running rail to the third rail - but staff are properly trained in to use them to avoid injury. This makes a very loud bang and you wouldn't want to use one unless you really had to.

[SouthernRailwayFilms]

In the specific case of the Lewisham accident, the electric current was cut off from all the tracks except the Down Nunhead line by the opening of the circuit breakers at the neighbouring substations on heavy short circuit at the instant of the collision; a minute or two later the circuit breakers feeding the Down Nunhead line were opened by the supervisory control. You can read the whole Ministry of Transport report on the accident - google for MoT_Lewisham1957.pdf

[brucesterman]

Ramsgit......somewhere near Margit......init.

[AndrewTiffin]

There is a temporary bridge installed and it's still in use today

[lancemckellar]

Some years ago I knew a guy named Len Baker who was the first ambo on the scene. He lived here in Australia.

[CrimePedro]

thats right i agree, everything has changed now, crime guns knifes no body has respect for one another.

[WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

@CrimePedro

Actually gun crime in Britain is comparitively very low to other countries.

[modemeyes]

A sad fact of Southern Region railway history...Thanks for sharing it 5*

[stuartthegrant]

The people we used to be.....

Stuart

[WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

@stuartthegrant

thats very cynical... people helped each other on 7/7