Holton Heath Train Crash, Poole 1989 & Rail Crane
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- Опубліковано 24 січ 2020
- From the Archives...
On 20th April 1989, a Class 33/1 locomotive No 33107 running light engine ran into the rear of a freight train at Holton Heath Sidings, Poole, Dorset. The Class 33 driver was killed.
This is the story of the engineering recovery operation that lasted the rest of the day and all through the night. The Eastleigh Rail Crane was dispatched and is seen in operation in this video. The film begins with the BBC South Today news report.
The HSE report on the accident can be found here:
www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docu...
Clive Brooker was the the driver. Lovely bloke, never swore & never said a bad word about anyone. My last memory was taking him a cup of tea at Southampton Parkway in the Wednesday before when we were working a Pig to Wloo.
Arthur English (actual name but English too) was the Eastleigh driver and Polish Eddie was the guard.
Only the siding was track circuited but the rest of the lines from Poole to Weymouth were Absolute Block.
The train was too long for the sidings but with the circuit showing 'occupied' the signalman thought it was in clear. He didn't understand Eddie's accent that it was fouling the main line.
Thinking that the train was 'in clear' from what Eddie had said, he gave Clive a green signal to proceed. 85mph line speed at that point so quite legal for Clive to have been doing 50.
Clive had been down to Winfrith to reposition the nuclear flask wagon that had been left in the wrong place by another driver.
So the freight left the siding and was not showing because of the absolute block. They tried to blame Arthur but he knew the rule book inside out as did most of the old steam boys. Sadly Arthur and Eddie died shortly after retirement & I think the stress of the incident had a lot to do with it.
Big turnout for Clive's funeral and we formed up in a kind of guard of honour in our railway uniforms as the hearse arrived.
We don't like the modern over the top H&S but we have one of the safest, if not the safest railway in the world now. Wish it had been in place for Clive.
My comment about Arthur and Eddie was that their faith wavered following the tragic death of Clive in the disaster.
Thanks for your detailed comment
@@marktrvls1218 No problem Mark. Anyone from Bomo depot would pay tribute to Clive. Such a smashing bloke, true railwaymen and salt of the earth.
Wait how do you know all this?
@@LolLol-xy4rh Did you not read what I wrote above? I was a Bournemouth guard and worked with Clive. Also with Johnny Rolls the driver in the Clapham crash.
I'd have dumped the air and ran back through the engine compartment... very few people would survive a fall at 50mph. In the event, sadly it sounds like it was un-necessary - from the report: "Although the locomotive was extensively damaged and the leading bogie derailed, the integrity of the driver's cab remained intact."
Hate things like this, poor bloke just went to work and stuff like this means he's never clocking off. RIP Driver Brooker
Looking at that damage, I reckon the driver may have survived the crash if not jumping out of the door.
What a shame. And given the cab wasnt totally crushed he might have had more of a chance if he had stayed on the train. He had no way of knowing that especially in the heat of the moment.
Hard to say. Remember that there are no seatbelts so he'd have been launched forwards in the impact and would have hit the front of the cab/back of the van head first at whatever speed his locomotive was doing before the impact. That would have caused serious injuries at a minimum.
Thus is probably the best video of a railwauly crane in operation on UA-cam
I'm surprised at that, but many thanks! Camera's back then weren't very good in the daylight, let alone the dark. I had video lights on as well, not that it it made a lot of difference!
@@RailFlicks sure there are higher resolution ones of such cranes on heritage lines today but there are so few videos of them in use when still in service. A really unique video!
I remember this was made more tragic by the fact the light engine had been sent to move a wagon that had previous been placed slightly out of position under an overhead crane that was fixed ie only able to lift and could not move horizontally, so a loco was sent to be move it into the correct position.
Fascinating film, thanks for sharing this. RIP to the driver.
Wow, it was great that you could add all that lineside footage after the news article. I don't remember this crash off hand, but your video showed up after I replied to a comment on one of my videos, from the email I got from You Tube and it looked really interesting and was. The random things YT brings up for us eh! I have to agree as well. This is the most footage of a British Rail recovery crane in action and I am a big fan of them and have a Hornby one too.
Thanks, glad YT linked us up! We just need Hornby to bring out an electrically working model with sound... now there's a thing!
Although the class 33 drivers cab is badly damaged ,the left side is where the driver sits its likely had he not jumped from the cab which resulted in his death he may have survived the impact possibly with injuries. Maybe?
Hard to say. Remember that there are no seatbelts so he'd have been launched forwards in the impact and would have hit the front of the cab/back of the van head first at whatever speed his locomotive was doing before the impact. That would have caused serious injuries at a minimum.
I remember when this happend. And it put me off traveling by train for 8 years.
This sort of incident and worse happens on the ROADS every hour of every day
Wonder why John Cleese is helping at 5.09
The guard had retired by the time the report into the accident had been finalised - if he had been still in service, they would have recommended retraining. It seems a number of things had an impact. Sadly, the poor driver who died did absolutely nothing wrong - travelling under clear signals he spotted the rear of the other train. It was likely he jumped from either the front or rear cab, or on the steps - they were not able to establish which. The guard was primarily to blame, plus the signalman and the train driver. A collection of little errors that together caused the collision.
I live Poole, never even new this happened.
Well now u know
You have to listen to your local news, or buy a newspaper. Are you aware that Man landed on the moon in 1969. Or was there a news blackout in your area again.
South Today with Bruce Parker and Sally Taylor.
Cheers.
Clapham then purley were on my patch. I was completely unaware of this pitch in. Rotten do
Sad story highdownmartin, I’ve not heard “ pitch in “ for years.
Like the way they use a detached bogie as a dining table for the chips
Ironic that the driver jumped out only to suffer fatal injuries. RIP.
Although the news article says he jumped according to the HSE report he did not jump but was thrown to the ground. Here is a quote from the report "Evidence was adduced that Driver Brooker, after applying the brakes, probably realized that a collision was inevitable, attempted to escape being crushed in the cab by standing either in a cab doorway or on the cab steps, and met his death by being thrown to the
ground in the collision. It remains a matter for speculation whether he had made his way to the rear cab before the collision.attempted to escape being crushed in the cab by standing either in a cab doorway or on the cab steps, and met his death by being thrown to the ground in the collision."
l was a Guard at Bournemouth in the 90s and remember the old timers talking about this in the mess room on several occassions !! Apparently there was a mis-understanding between the Guard and the signal man . The Guard was either an a German ex pow who stayed in England after WW2 or a Polish refugee or serviceman from WW2 .Either way his English wasn't that brilliant !! He spoke to the signal man on the phone and said something like they had left Holton Heath sidings but had problems wlth the brakes or the loco and were stuck blocking the up main line! Apparently the signalman mis understood and thought he said they were still stuck in the sidings with brake problems and hadn't departed yet! So he let the light engine from Wareham enter the section anyway even though he wasn't sure!
I've had similar problems trying to understand my hospital clinicians at times! I really think that when you're in a safety critical job, your command of English is so much more important. Simple translations from 'mother tongue' directly into English often results in a completely different interpretation to a native English speaker.
Found that was the case with my German ex-girlfriend! Thanks for your comment. 👍
How careless. You need to speak the lingo properly when lives are at stake! This is totally unacceptable!
At last. An informative reply from a railwayman. I had to call North Pole box once, I had trouble understanding the West Indian signalman. There was a bit of repeat that mate going on.
Poor sod in the Crompton , like John Rolls, just a day at work.
I guess this shows where something as simple as a language breakdown can prove so dangerous. Like many accidents - it’s often caused by something quite trivial but the implications can be huge.
@@AnthonyFurnival Too right!
A hard decision.....stay with it or jump, at that speed I'd have jumped, hopefully as a driver I'll never have to decide but it's something I ofter think about, especially when passenger often block our cab access into the train carriage with suitcases which could end up trapping us in the cab.
Besides the unfortunate event which I don't recall hearing about (I lived many miles away and this was in the days before internet, of course), a couple of things struck me. Number one is the unsung work of those that deal with incidents like this. Yes, they are rare (three times in five months was an outlier) but crews have to be ready to get the call to respond to an event like this day or night, and know that they will be there working long hours in all kinds of weather. It's hard, dirty and dangerous work to remove train wreckage and repair the line. Doesn't sound the tracks were badly damaged at this crash site but obviously removing the Class 33 took some doing. I think about those involved in removing the wreckage and repairing the tragic crash site near Stonehaven last year...it has to be very difficult.
Secondly, as others have commented, the locomotive that was running light doesn't look that badly damaged considering. Had the driver stayed at the controls, who knows if he'd have lived. It's easy to second guess what was obviously a very distressing situation that he found himself in. Given its age, I'm assuming the Class 33 was a write off but if this had been a newer locomotive, it might have been worth repairing. To think, thousands of people pass this location every day (at least they did pre-pandemic) and have no idea of the tragedy that unfolded there in 1989.
3:27 Notice how the workmen just laugh and swear disrespectfully near where the train driver's dead dead body just lies there decomposing. How awful. But this was still the 80s and train travel was a lot more dangerous back the. And people had very little respect for dead people or dead bodies!
@@sanchoodell6789 I don't really think that is exactly right...first of all, is the body still there in the video or had it been removed? It's not clear.
Perhaps more importantly, these men may have sounded 'disrespectful' - indeed going on with their jobs and sharing jokes, etc. - but there is such a thing as 'gallows humor'. It's a coping mechanism we all have, to laugh or speak inappropriately when confronted with tragedy or difficult situations. It's a way to deal with stress. You make it sound like riding the rails in the 1980s was akin to taking your life into your own hands or that people were blatantly disrespectful of the deceased. I think that both of those are gross mischaracterizations.
@@sanchoodell6789 I don’t think they would’ve just left the body there
In answer to the questions on the loco - it was formally withdrawn the month after and scrapped a short while after that. I agree theres a lot of behind the scenes stuff that goes on at sites like this.
@@sanchoodell6789 The drivers body will have been removed pretty soon after - it’s not in the video at 3:27. This aside, the laughing and joking is often a way people get through distressing times and incidents.
I know this is off topic but the news reader at the beginning sounds pissed up.
🤣
WHY IS IT WHEN THERES A RAIL DISASTER THEY ALWAYS SAY RAIL TRAVEL IS ALWAYS THE SAFEST FORM OF TRAVEL
I always understood aviation was the safest! 🧐
The cab of the '33 wasn't that badly deformed,it looked as if the driver had stayed aboard they may have survived.
Very true, I guess the driver has to make a split second decision - always easier in hindsight I guess.
I thought the same to a point, maybe straight in to the engine room/bulkhead too, but no time to think rationally i suppose.
Think most would jump in that situation the driver was unlucky to lose his life jumping though
@@andymath1523 I think it was most likely the speed at which the loco was travelling combined with the fall that did the damage.
@@AnthonyFurnival Yes he was doing about 50 mph when he see the impending collision so probably jumped at 40 mph survivable if your lucky
Interesting film. But what's all this about 'no respect' below? Its not like the poor driver has just been left there, and this isn't the BBC filming, this is just some private person filming. Yes its the scene of a disaster, but they're working hard to get the line cleared. And the workers gotta eat!
It does look as though perhaps if the driver had thrown himself to the floor he might have got away with it, but isn't hindsight a wonderful thing.
Was the 33 brought back into service?
I believe that it was scraped because I don’t see any records of it being preserved
@@LolLol-xy4rh It was scrapped by M.C.Metals, Glasgow Works May 91 after Eastleigh works had stripped it of all re-usable equipment .
We will never know why he chose to jump out when it may have been safer to stay & seek shelter in the engine room.
The front of the class 33 is damaged
The 33 was written off! 👍
What has happened to all the rail cranes? Getting rid of them was a big mistake as they are still needed today for the very same purpose as in those day in the event of a derailment like this the rail cranes were used to put the train back on the tracks & repair it so it can be towed down the line to the nearest depot These days sadly they use non railway cranes to remove the train from the scene & transport it by road which is expensive Dangerous Bad for the enviorment & disruptive to road traffic & also it takes twice as long this way as the site has to be acessed from outside the line which in many cases is difficult. So why do they do it the hard way? The only reason i can think of is that recovery by rail is only possible with Rail cranes.So the solution is to bring back the rail cranes. Other countries use them so why not the UK?
I'm surprised they haven't purchased and started using tracked side boom cranes, sidewinder I think the US railway recovery operations call them. Would make recovery operations about 10x faster and more efficient. I don't know if the UK politicians are up to handling that much efficiency improvement without burying it all in red tape and paperwork from one end to the other! :D
we have cranes on the network.
how do you think they sort out derailments and track renewals.
kirov crane for example
We still have the Rail cranes but unfortunately they are quite old now and not really up to the job, especially with larger, heavier more modern rolling stock, that`s why these days, it makes more sense to do a contract lift with a Mobile Road Crane. The company assumes all responsibility for the lift and they supply however many staff is required to operate the crane. I have done jobs where we have used Mobile super Lifters, that would just not be possible with a Rail Crane. The only Rail Cranes being used now, are on Engineering jobs during possession work.
Glad I captured one of these machines in operation when I did, there can't be many of them about now except for those with new homes on preserved lines, of which there are numerous examples.
@@RailFlicks As far as I know, there are Three 75 Ton Cowan`s & Sheldon Cranes left. They were stabled at Springs Branch Shed in Wigan, last time I was there. There was a debate as to what was going to happen to them. One was going to be a donor crane, no matter what, because it needed too much spending on it. Network Rail were debating on replacing them with 2 new Kirow`s but at over four Million pounds each, It was decided to use outside contractors, for Derailment jobs, The Breakdown Coaches have also been withdrawn, some are also stabled at Springs Branch and one set is at Warrington Arpley. They are talking about a Modular system, that can have different pods swapped as required, a bit like Thunderbird 2 and I believe, that was the name suggested, Thunderbird units. They would use container flats, for transportation.
Nowadays it would be a month before the line was reopened and rescuers would have to fight through the Buddleia/overgrown lineside to get at the trains.
The overgrown line side is rail track cashing in on eu “wilding” grants the farmers get!
Actually, you couldn`t be more wrong. I have been on the Railway nearly 34 years, some of it spent with the Breakdown Teams, just like here and when a Main Line incident occurs, everything required is mobilised within no time at all and no expense is spared. I have been to jobs where wagons have been derailed all over the place, with some on their side and the P-way wrecked. Crews have worked straight through, relieving each other and the line has been open within a couple of days and believe me, it is pure hard graft.
@@stephensmith4480 Thanks Stephen for your informative reply.
@@EM-yk1dw You`re Welcome my friend 🚂.
Hi
i have a feeling the driver would have survived had he not jumped out
Although the news article says he jumped acording to the HSE report he did not jump but was thrown to the ground. Here is a quote from the report "Evidence was adduced that Driver Brooker, after applying the brakes, probably realized that a collision was inevitable, attempted to escape being crushed in the cab by standing either in a cab doorway or on the cab steps, and met his death by being thrown to the
ground in the collision. It remains a matter for speculation whether he had made his way to the rear cab before the collision.attempted to escape being crushed in the cab by standing either in a cab doorway or on the cab steps, and met his death by being thrown to the ground in the collision."
3 fatal crashes in 5 months, Jesus
Whilst it’s bad - I think it helps us appreciate how much safer and advanced railways are nowadays.
The 2 before this one were Clapham Jn 12th December 88 & Purley 4th March 89.
What was cause can't find on Google
Have you tried the link given in the video description above at all? You may have to click 'show more' to reveal it. It's the full report which is an interesting read! Basically though, the siding did not have full detection signalling because it's not used very often. Procedures protect it instead, but when events like a longer than normal train which requires extra moves in shunting, and the procedures not being adhered to the letter, then a dangerous situation results.
I'd still recommend reading the fascinating report though if you have time.
@@RailFlicks I'll try down load again. Was poor driver who killed no to blame in any way?
I guess it was miscommunication between signal box and train crew?
Clear and concise, thanks for that summary.
I love it, @ 3:50 fish and chips!!!!
I wondered when someone might notice that! Seems insensitive, but they worked very hard, must have been starving. A class 33 locomotive bogie makes an ideal make shift picnic table, clearly !!
I noticed that as well
Carnt belive they eating fish n chips off the wreakage
@Gary Vity , we can’t all work in a nice cosy office like you !
@@kennethhume8628 wouldnt know never worked in office drove jcb all my life just think it disrespectful after driver died
@@garyvity8379 , so you are one of those lazy sods who “work” on the Highway . Funny how you see groups of say 5 or 6 people , one working and the others standing around watching . It’s no wonder that it costs so much to repair roads with virtually zero productivity . What a cushy number .
@@kennethhume8628haha yes it is n well paid now get back to your trainspotting
@@garyvity8379 , looks like the English language was one of your poorer subjects at school , have another go at your response but get someone with brains to double it before hitting the send button . Ha ha you are bit dense !
well as long as the crews can cuss , at 3. ;49 and get their fish and chips , what else matters
Yeah why not, remember people were not pussy’s back then. They are proper men.
I think that work gang are very disrespectful laughing joking and swearing and eating no respect for that driver, yes we all have to eat but they could have eaten somewhere else out of view of the camera absolute no respect👎
_Eating_ is disrespectful?!? They're pulling a twelve-hour shift to clear the line and you think they shouldn't eat?
@@beeble2003 As I’ve already stated if you read my comment properly, eat off camera which I’ve already said I am a HGV) Driver have been for the last 25 years I have seen all sorts of carnage on the roads and I certainly would not stand over a wreckage stuffing my face with fish and chips where somebody had just recently died do you get where I’m coming from?????
@@petemullen842 If you replace your loaded phrase "stuffing [their] face with fish and chips" with the more prosaic "eating their dinner", suddenly it doesn't sound so terrible any more.
@@beeble2003 Oh well sorry I can’t be as good as you with your grammar after all I’m only a rough neck lorry driver underpaid too many hours perhaps that’s got something to do with my attitude with people like you anyway hasn’t been nice talking to you don’t bother replying thank you.☹️
@@petemullen842 Sorry for coming across like I was trying to get one over you.