Does anyone know the details of the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash?

Question

Like the date it occurred ,which platform, were there any injuries and I hope there were no fatalities.

Answer 1

It happened on 8th October 1952.

340 were injured and 120 were killed.

One of the worst train crashes ever to have occurred in this country, looking at those statistics.

Answer 2

There have been a number of rail crashes at Harrow and Wealdstone, but the most serious was on 8 October 1952, when over 100 lives were lost with about 400 injured.

On 8 October 1952, London was in the grip of one of the infamous smogs. The Glasgow express was running late and the driver was making every effort to recover what time he could. The station approach signal was set at danger, but either both the driver and the fireman failed to see it, or its significance was momentarily lost on them.

Anyway, the express approached the station at high speed and smashed into the back of a southbound local train which was stationary at the platform at the time (I have fogotten the platform number at the moment!).

Anyway, the wreckage from that collision was scattered across the track and the adjacent northbound line. Before the signals could be altered, a northbound express ploughed into, and through, this wreckage causing even greater carnage.

Harrow & Wealdstone is not the worst UK rail accident in terms of lost lives - that dubious distinction is still held by the 1915 accident at Quintinshill. (In that case, a signalman was jailed for manslaughter)

Answer 3

I lived in Wealdstone at the time.  Yes, as a previous answer has said there were many people killed. An express ran into the back of a local train standing in the station loading commuters and another train ploughed into the wreckage before it could be stopped. Several people from the church  attended in Wealdstone were amongst the dead - they travelled to work on the same train together. A great deal of help was received from the American Airforce base at Ruislip. One of the locomotives involved was 'Princess Anne' an experimental 'turbomotive' loco. The passenger bridge giving access to the platforms was damaged as wreckage hit it. The father of a close friend of mine guessed what was happening and ran off just in time. I remember being in school and watching the press planes (no helicopters in those days) flying over taking photographs.

Answer 4

If you type Harrow and wealdstone railway crash into Wikipedia you will find full details.

However i can tell you that many years ago a local policeman in Harrow told me that most years on the anniversary of the accident the local police stations get inundated with calls from people reporting the sounds of the aftermath of an accident on the railway bridge including wounded and dying people crying out in distress and pain.  It is above a main road.

He was an avowed sceptic, he didn't believe in any aspect of the supernatural but couldn't or wouldn't explain how this happened , just that it did.