Hixon rail disaster marked 50 years on with memorial

A new memorial to those who died on January 6, 1968, is being unveiled in the village churchyard this afternoon.

The Vicar of Hixon, the Rev Mike Cadwallader, will be leading prayers in the grounds of St Peter's Church, from 12 noon with the unveiling at 12.36pm - 50 years to the hour of the crash involving the high speed 12-carriage Manchester to London Euston electric express.

It was carrying 300 passengers when it collided with a road transporter with a 120-tonne transformer on board coming from Stafford’s English Electric factory at the old level crossing in New Road.

The train driver, his assistant, a spare driver and eight passengers died in the crash.

Local historian Dr Malcolm Garner, a recognised authority on the disaster, will also be giving a talk on the events of a half century ago in Hixon Memorial Hall at 2pm. An exhibition about the rail crash is also being staged there.

Dr Garner's talk will cover the details of the accident, its causes and the changes which came about as a result.

The whole of the village has been invited to attend both events.

A decade ago 40 people attended the service to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy which also left 44 injured. Hixon Parish Council then marked the site of the tragedy with a permanent memorial.

In March 1999, Hixon man Anthony Heasman was also killed when his car collided with a train at the same level crossing. It led the council to demand a road bridge over the railway line - and the £2 million bridge was opened in November 2002.

The 1968 disaster saw heroics from the firefighters, police officers, ambulancemen and medical staff in their efforts to help the injured, many of whom were trapped in the wreckage.

The crash happened less than a year after the automatic level crossing half barrier at Hixon was installed.

The Express & Star edition of January 8,1968 provides a compelling account of the disaster

We reported at the time: "The train, with a full load of passengers – fortunately most of them were in the rear coaches – plunged into a low loader, moving over the continental-style crossing, with a 120-ton transformer.

"As the train hit the obstruction, slicing through the steel loading section like a knife through butter, and hurling the transformer itself about 20 to 30 feet ahead, it plunged to disaster.

"Coaches reared up, smashing against the side of the transformer, and into the back of the motive power unit of the train.

"Coaches were literally torn in half, and finished up in a quadrangle formation. Among the mangled, twisted framework of the coaches, and the seats and fittings, were sections of the railway line and splintered sleepers.

"It was a terrible scene that will live long in the memories of the people of Hixon."

Just six months later, Mr Brian Gibbens QC concluded after a 42-day public inquiry that the driver of the transporter, his employers, the police escort, Staffordshire police, British Railways and the Ministry of Transport were all guilty of negligence.

The inquiry that was launched just days after the disaster found the immediate cause of the accident was that the driver of the huge transporter vehicle failed to comply with a notice erected near the stop line on the approach road directing him to telephone the signalman before attempting to cross and drove the vehicle across the railway at two miles per hour when the arrival of an express train at 75 miles per hour was imminent.

It was found that the transporter driver did not know the notice existed, nor of the need to phone for permission to cross the line.