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Posted by Colin Clarke
on 16/11/2009, 3:06 pm, in reply to "Pitsea rail crash"
Hi Martin,
I well remember this derailment as I got off the train the stop before.
It happened on the 18th of April 1961, when single line working was in place and unfortunately the point setter at the works left the jacking points set to derail "down" traffic on the "up" line and waved the driver of the down train through. The engine was derailed and the first 4 coaches ran into it and 3 of them were totally wrecked. The engine did have a "Pilot" on board who spotted the wrongly set points just too late!
Sadly, two people lost their lives and more than 40 were injured as a result. The engine was visible from the Vange side of the bridge and, had it been travelling a little faster, could easily have ended up in the road below!
However, there is a report on this online at "The Railway Archive" but you have to work you way through the dates to get to it!
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