Hither Green rail crash 5th November 1967

A newsreel depicting the aftermath of the Hither Green rail crash that occurred on 5 November 1967 opposite Hither Green Traction Maintenance Depot, between Hither Green and Grove Park railway stations, in south-east London.

A Sunday evening express train from Hastings to London, consisting of twelve coaches (two six-car Class 201 diesel-electric multiple units), derailed at approximately 70 mph, shortly before the train crossed the St Mildred's Road railway bridge. Most of the carriages overturned, two of them having their sides torn off. The train was well-filled and 49 people died, making it Britain's sixth worst rail disaster in terms of death toll.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• SR
• BR
• class
• 201
• southern
• railway
• british
• rail
• railways
• region
• hither
• green
• crash
• disaster
• accident1967

[elli1897]

the train involved was 1007 leading and 1017 trailing. 1007 went back into service as a 5 coach formation. St Mildreds Road Hither Green is one of the only sites of a major disaster not to have a memorial plaque. St johns Lewisham and Clapham do have a plaque.

[SouthernRailwayFilms]

I'm astonished that there's no memorial to the disaster. Is any group making noise about this?

[mcknife25]

@scudo1905 yeah its on the wall of the convienience shop in the main ticket hall ,basically walk up the pushchairs nightmare entrance to the entrance of the platform to orpington then before you leave the ticket booth look "right" and you should see a shiny gold plaque commemorating it. its not huge but still noticible

[ngipiksari]

"Local residents responded to the crisis with spontaneous and untiring offers of help." Nowadays in Hither Green the locals would only show up to steal the valuables of the dead.

[scudo1905]

@mcknife25 can you tell me where on hither green station the plaque is. i grew up there and my father was a civil engineer at beckenham regional offices. works and general. i can honestly say i never saw a plaque there but that was many years ago.

[mcknife25]

@SouthernRailwayFilms i know this comment is 3 years old but theres a plaque on the wall at the station , thats what highlighted me to this crash

[scudo1905]

That accident was horrific . Who was really responsible . was it mechanised maintenance , was it the p way , was it the divisional engineer . It speeded up the introduction of continuous welded rail . Think about it , if it was an EMU instead of a demu the train would have stopped when it derailed because there would have been a short circuit. As it was a demu the train kept on going as the driver wasnt aware that the third coach had derailed .

[AG3304]

My neighbour's daughter was among the dead there.lt always was a rough section of track with all those crossovers,and the heavy axle-hung traction motors used didn't help.l worked on the Hastings London Charing Cross run for 25 years.The old DEMUs could be a bit bouncy at speed,shall l say,but the 375s are frightening!

[prueisgr8]

Strange that the crash took place just ten years after the Lewisham crash which was just a mile up the track I'm sure it was the Hastings train involved again

[GrahamLondonUK]

Bee Gees member Robin Gibb and his girlfriend, Molly Hullis, survived this rail crash, they married the following year (1968). Wikipedia has full details of the accident.

[hotchilliqueen]

I was eight at the time, my Mum was one of those who helped the injured.

[bundleHastings]

powerful images. thanks for uploading. i worked on that line 10 yrs.