On This Day in 1965, Coton Hill Train Crash

Today marks the anniversary of the Coton Hill rail crash, which occurred on 11 January 1965 at Coton Hill near Shrewsbury in Shropshire. A heavily loaded freight train ran out of control on the 1 in 100 Hencote incline and, after being diverted onto safety equipment, smashed into lineside infrastructure with fatal consequences. There were no passengers on the freight service, but the crash claimed the life of the signalman on duty and left the train’s driver seriously injured.

The train involved was the 03:56 Saltney to Pontypool Road freight, made up of Class 47 diesel locomotive D1734 and 46 wagons, with a total trailing weight recorded as 775 tons. At approximately 05:50, as it approached Coton Hill, it reached the top of the Hencote downhill gradient where freight trains of its classification were required to obey a stop sign. Instead, it passed the stop sign and entered the Coton Hill goods loop at speed.

Despite emergency brake applications being made, the train derailed on the trap points at the exit of the goods yard and continued for a further 70 yards before crashing into the Coton Hill South signal box, destroying it completely. The first 11 wagons followed the locomotive, and the destruction of the signal box opened a set of points that sent 24 further wagons into a siding, where they derailed and some struck a second Class 47 diesel that was waiting to leave the yard. The recovery effort was further hampered by hydrochloric acid leaking from a damaged wagon, and normal service was not restored until 14 January.

The official inquiry concluded that the extent of the damage made it impossible to determine whether a brake failure had impaired the driver’s ability to stop the train. Even so, the driver was found responsible because, had he stopped at the top of the incline as required, he would have been able to stop even if a brake failure had occurred; the driver himself had no recollection of the accident, and investigators considered it logical he may have assumed the points were set for the main line rather than the goods loop. When the locomotive was being broken up some months later, its Automatic Warning System equipment was found to have been isolated despite appearing to be in working order, and the locomotive—only 8 months old at the time of the crash—was later scrapped.