Thanks for that Mike, fascinating. I was working as a Valleys guard at the time of the incident and we came down the bank from Queen Street minutes after the derailment. I always wanted to see some pics of it, I'm sure some of the blokes at work will like to see this. Andy Long (ATW).
I'd just retired so had the time to pass the scene on many trains between Queen St, and Central Mike...glad you enjoyed it...more to come soon inc derailment at Rhymney
Just catching up on all your videos😁 I remember triple 37s on these trains and were a fantastic sight when approaching the station. I have on my model railway an Iron Ore train based on the South Wales service with 32 wagons hauled by 3 37s. By far the best era for British Rail and Cardiff Central such an awesome station. Thanks so much for the video.
These 3.000 tonne iron ore trains ran from Port Talbot docks to the Llanwern Steelworks east of Newport, now closed and largely demolished. They were the heaviest trains in the country at the time in terms of the trailing load. The wagons were (at least in theory) 100 tonnes each fully loaded, and carried on 2 4 wheel bogies, i.e. an axle load of 25 tonnes. This was no heavier an axle load, notwithstanding the trailing load weight of the train, than the oil or steel trains which ran at the time (and still do) but certainly the experience of being in the subway at Cardiff Central while one of these monsters was running overhead suggested otherwise. As has been said, the train was not moving fast; there is a 30mph speed limit at the east end of the station, but with that sort of weight, once a derailment starts, even at moderate speed it is going to end badly... Fortunately, nobody was badly hurt, but the South Wales Main Line was blocked for several days. The iron ore had to be unloaded from the wagons before they could be lifted and removed. As Mike says, it was only luck that there was no passenger train on an adjacent track; the thought of those massive wagons ripping open the side of a HST on the down relief and pinning it to the wall is not a pleasant one! This is a very busy section of railway and the footage from the Marriot shows all too clearly how very much worse this incident could easily have been. The couplings were special heavy duty buckeyes with one end of each wagon having a rotary coupling so that the wagons could be unloaded by tipping at Llanwern. The end wagon of each set was fitted with a heavy duty screw coupling to attach the train to the loco(s), as the locomotive screw coupilng was not considered strong enough for the load. When Llanwern steelworks closed, I believe the wagons were sold to the Mauretanian railways and are still in service out there, carrying iron ore from the mines to the port for export. Thanks, Mike; interesting memories for a Cardiff resident and ex-railwayman. I also rode from Central to Queen Street and back for a squiz at the mess, but, unlike you, I did not have the foresight to bring a camera!
There was no " scrap metal " that's wagons and rail etc. The load was iron ore, which is still in some of the wagons.That's why it was the heaviest train to run in South Wales
Thanks for watching ( along with 59547 others ) Looks like accidents are the most popular of my videos. Mike in Llanblethian, Wales..........where are you watching from ?
Just found this video. I remember attending this incident as the officer in charge of the Fire Service from Cardiff;s Adam Street fire station. We had the call (wrongly)as a collision between a passenger train and a freight train just outside the railway station so we expected large numbers of casualties - fortunately nobody was injurred. I was impressed with the speed of response of the railway engineers.
I was lucky to have my video camera with me at the time. In 1998 cameras were quite large, but having said that nobody stopped me recording, whereas now no doubt there would be an immediate clamp down !
In general all British freight vehicles are equipped with "chain" couplings and buffers - although a number of wagons owned by EWS Railways (now Deutsche Bahn Schenker) have buck-eyes. The freight wagons involved in this derailment are equipped with rotary buckeye couplings although the first and last vehicle have chains couplings and buffers. The rotary couplings allow for each individual wagon to be tipped at the unloading terminal.
I believe the track spread underneath the heaviest train which then ran in S/Wales. It was only moving very slow at this point. In otherwords poor maintenance and old sleepers..unless anyone else knows different ?
I beleive it was caused by old sleepers breaking under the weight of the continuos daily flow of the heaviest train in the UK at the time Mike in S/WALES
Excellent. I remember my mate Derek telling me about this but thats the first bit of footage I have seen of it. Hell of a mess. Nice one. Had a cab ride in Gartcosh up at Machen Quarry once.
In the 1950s, when I was a young boy, I shared the camp site at the World Scout Jamboree with the Brazilians. I still have the black and white photos, but non of the trains !!
To correct John Richards' otherwise excellent comments below, only half of the Llanwern steelworks was closed and demolished. This was the 'heavy end' - the ore and coal handling facilities, coke ovens, sinter plant, blast furnaces, steel plant and caster (where I worked). The rest of it is still there, and although the hot mill is mothballed, the cold mill and galvanising line are still there and most of it still in production.
Hi Nigel.See my previous note; I believe it was old sleepers that spread under the weight. Back in 1998 we only relied on the " grapevine " no email/ mobile phones then, so that's all I know. No doubt someone may give us the outcome of the enquiry
@imautuber444 If I'm not mistaken, wasn't a homeless person sleeping under or next to the arches at the time of the derailment and injured by falling masonry?
It looks like a car picked the switch and cause the pile up behind it. No buffers and chains on these cars? They appear to have buckeye couplers instead like we have in America and Canada.
65,700 have found this video, so far. Always pleased to hear from those who were there. Very lucky an HST wasn't passing at the same time.thanks for watching..Mike in S/Wales
If you look at my video at 3.06 mins you'll see they're not chain links !! Buck eye are used because the wagons are tipped to empty their load into hoppers below the tracks at the steel works............Mike
I was lucky to have a tip off and time to drive into Cardiff for the shots. Don't forget this was in the days before mobile phones, internet etc We relied on good contacts ( and still do ) Many of my videos are the results of years of contact building that's why now that I have the understanding of YT I like to share these images.
I was a Firefighter in Devon. We got called out to a derailment and fire at Bradford On Tone in the early nineties. We knew we were in for a going job when we saw what looked like a nuclear bomb going off when we were still 10 miles away!!
Sure does make a mess of the tracks when this kind of thing happens, kinda makes me wonder where on earth do you begin on the clean up operation... Good video!
It looks like it was caused by (maybe) points failure but if I'm wrong, i think it COULD HAVE BEEN caused by a pints failure!!!!! I hope to see the video on the derailment at Rhymney Mike!! Adlee
Whatever happened occurred when the train was traveling at a reasonable speed. What a mess! Could they even stop you filming nowadays? You were obviously a passenger with a valid ticket & by amazing co-incidence you had a video camera.
That's interesting regarding the couplers.. I suppose we could share our freight cars with you then. Just kidding! That would be quite a the journey for a freight wagon. The rail spreading would surely cause the same kind of accident. We have that happen in a local yard here because of the same reason - old track and rotten sleepers.
It was the heaviest train to run through Cardiff, but now the steelworks have closed at Llanwern. In 2019 a new business has been established to build the new passenger trains to run in the Valleys
The things that you see when you don't have a camera! I've had a few of those as well. It certainly gets the olod heart rate up eh! Are you finished with the firefighting now? I retired 10 years ago. Don't miss it but I do miss the watch.
Would you like more from my 1990s collection ?
Mike
Thanks for that Mike, fascinating. I was working as a Valleys guard at the time of the incident and we came down the bank from Queen Street minutes after the derailment. I always wanted to see some pics of it, I'm sure some of the blokes at work will like to see this. Andy Long (ATW).
I remember this incident Mike, so it's wonderful to see this footage...excellent work again. The load haul 37 was 36884 named Gartcosh in 1992....Bob
Nice to see that side of Cardiff's buildings before they were raped and pillaged and Cardiff became a clone of every other city!
I'd just retired so had the time to pass the scene on many trains between Queen St, and Central
Mike...glad you enjoyed it...more to come soon inc derailment at Rhymney
Lucky I had a tip off and was able to travel to Queen st. and back with my vhs camera !
I think it's converted to You Tube ok
Mike
Just catching up on all your videos😁
I remember triple 37s on these trains and were a fantastic sight when approaching the station.
I have on my model railway an Iron Ore train based on the South Wales service with 32 wagons hauled by 3 37s.
By far the best era for British Rail and Cardiff Central such an awesome station.
Thanks so much for the video.
These 3.000 tonne iron ore trains ran from Port Talbot docks to the Llanwern Steelworks east of Newport, now closed and largely demolished. They were the heaviest trains in the country at the time in terms of the trailing load. The wagons were (at least in theory) 100 tonnes each fully loaded, and carried on 2 4 wheel bogies, i.e. an axle load of 25 tonnes. This was no heavier an axle load, notwithstanding the trailing load weight of the train, than the oil or steel trains which ran at the time (and still do) but certainly the experience of being in the subway at Cardiff Central while one of these monsters was running overhead suggested otherwise. As has been said, the train was not moving fast; there is a 30mph speed limit at the east end of the station, but with that sort of weight, once a derailment starts, even at moderate speed it is going to end badly...
Fortunately, nobody was badly hurt, but the South Wales Main Line was blocked for several days. The iron ore had to be unloaded from the wagons before they could be lifted and removed. As Mike says, it was only luck that there was no passenger train on an adjacent track; the thought of those massive wagons ripping open the side of a HST on the down relief and pinning it to the wall is not a pleasant one! This is a very busy section of railway and the footage from the Marriot shows all too clearly how very much worse this incident could easily have been.
The couplings were special heavy duty buckeyes with one end of each wagon having a rotary coupling so that the wagons could be unloaded by tipping at Llanwern. The end wagon of each set was fitted with a heavy duty screw coupling to attach the train to the loco(s), as the locomotive screw coupilng was not considered strong enough for the load. When Llanwern steelworks closed, I believe the wagons were sold to the Mauretanian railways and are still in service out there, carrying iron ore from the mines to the port for export.
Thanks, Mike; interesting memories for a Cardiff resident and ex-railwayman. I also rode from Central to Queen Street and back for a squiz at the mess, but, unlike you, I did not have the foresight to bring a camera!
Have you seen my video of the derailment of an ore train in Cardiff, sleepers could not take the weight
There was no " scrap metal " that's wagons and rail etc. The load was iron ore, which is still in some of the wagons.That's why it was the heaviest train to run in South Wales
Another great video Mike, i remember being in Cardiff when this happened. Stu
Excellent shots and great detail - amazing devastation to the track bed can see where the track has been ripped up - great archive shots
I've only just come across this, what a brilliant video. Those iron ore wagons are screwed up good and proper!
The only way was by train !!
Thanks for watching.............have you seen the one at Lawrence Hill ?
Thanks for watching ( along with 59547 others ) Looks like accidents are the most popular of my videos.
Mike in Llanblethian, Wales..........where are you watching from ?
Just found this video. I remember attending this incident as the officer in charge of the Fire Service from Cardiff;s Adam Street fire station. We had the call (wrongly)as a collision between a passenger train and a freight train just outside the railway station so we expected large numbers of casualties - fortunately nobody was injurred. I was impressed with the speed of response of the railway engineers.
I was lucky to have my video camera with me at the time. In 1998 cameras were quite large, but having said that nobody stopped me recording, whereas now no doubt there would be an immediate clamp down !
In general all British freight vehicles are equipped with "chain" couplings and buffers - although a number of wagons owned by EWS Railways (now Deutsche Bahn Schenker) have buck-eyes. The freight wagons involved in this derailment are equipped with rotary buckeye couplings although the first and last vehicle have chains couplings and buffers. The rotary couplings allow for each individual wagon to be tipped at the unloading terminal.
I believe the track spread underneath the heaviest train which then ran in S/Wales. It was only moving very slow at this point.
In otherwords poor maintenance and old sleepers..unless anyone else knows different ?
I beleive it was caused by old sleepers breaking under the weight of the continuos daily flow
of the heaviest train in the UK at the time
Mike in S/WALES
Nowadays there are no more derailments in Cardiff... cause there's no more trains. :(
Yes;; steel works now closed.
Excellent. I remember my mate Derek telling me about this but thats the first bit of footage I have seen of it. Hell of a mess. Nice one. Had a cab ride in Gartcosh up at Machen Quarry once.
Just browsing Mike and came across this historic video. Wow. Stop all the trains for a day or two these days. Elf n safety. Brilliant video
This was another good " tip off " I had. So I travelled up and down to Queen Street and back....20 years ago, I'd just retired from C & A
In the 1950s, when I was a young boy, I shared the camp site at the World Scout Jamboree with the Brazilians. I still have the black and white photos, but non of the trains !!
The wagons were there for quite a few hours so I had time to go home for my video camera and buy a ticket to Cardiff Queen st and return !
Mike WilcoGood thinking, Mike - Ian 👍👍
To correct John Richards' otherwise excellent comments below, only half of the Llanwern steelworks was closed and demolished. This was the 'heavy end' - the ore and coal handling facilities, coke ovens, sinter plant, blast furnaces, steel plant and caster (where I worked). The rest of it is still there, and although the hot mill is mothballed, the cold mill and galvanising line are still there and most of it still in production.
I remember hearing off this, because I was working at Birmingham New Street for that time for Cherry Tree Retail.
What a mess. Here, Sweden, now, 2024, we have a massive derailment on the line Kiruna - Narvik with an iron ore train. Lots of tracks ripped up.....
Same here in Cardiff. The weight of the iron ore wagons smashed the sleepers, which being old , caused the derailment
Hi Nigel.See my previous note; I believe it was old sleepers that spread under the weight. Back in 1998 we only relied on the " grapevine " no email/ mobile phones then, so that's all I know. No doubt someone may give us the outcome of the enquiry
I beleive the track spread under the heaviest train in the UK. Old sleepers ?
I remember this happening, I was in cardiff the day after watching the cleanup. nice vid
Nicely covered Mike
The train now approaching platform 6 is the derails freight service to Rhymney, This train is not schedualed to stop of this station!
Just come across this as well,most excellent videos,5* and subscribed to!!
Brilliant video, fantastic footage :-)
@imautuber444 If I'm not mistaken, wasn't a homeless person sleeping under or next to the arches at the time of the derailment and injured by falling masonry?
It looks like a car picked the switch and cause the pile up behind it.
No buffers and chains on these cars? They appear to have buckeye couplers instead like we have in America and Canada.
2:47 Those two men are like "ah, well...this sucks :/" lol
Another good reason for having reliable contacts ref. what's happening on the rail network ( and the video camera always ready ! )
65,700 have found this video, so far. Always pleased to hear from those who were there.
Very lucky an HST wasn't passing at the same time.thanks for watching..Mike in S/Wales
That train leaving at the 4.00mk almost sounded like it had a manual gearbox🤔, Surely not,
Thanks for watching one of my top 20 clips................Mike still in lockdown here in Wales
Great video, thats a hell of a mess to the wagons and trackwork...ooch..
If you look at my video at 3.06 mins you'll see they're not chain links !! Buck eye are used because the wagons are tipped to empty their load into hoppers below the tracks at the steel works............Mike
I was lucky to have a tip off and time to drive into Cardiff for the shots. Don't forget this was in the days before mobile phones, internet etc
We relied on good contacts ( and still do ) Many of my videos are the results of years of contact building that's why now that I have the understanding of YT I like to share these images.
I was a Firefighter in Devon. We got called out to a derailment and fire at Bradford On Tone in the early nineties. We knew we were in for a going job when we saw what looked like a nuclear bomb going off when we were still 10 miles away!!
I think we can definitely say, that what we have there, is a derailment, no doubt about it. What a mess!
Sure does make a mess of the tracks when this kind of thing happens, kinda makes me wonder where on earth do you begin on the clean up operation... Good video!
They use a hook and chain type coupling instead.
How did that happen? Nice one!
Rail snapped under the wagon
That was one serious derailment.
I was fortunate to receive a tip-off about the incident, and to have kept my old tape!
It looks like it was caused by (maybe) points failure but if I'm wrong, i think it COULD HAVE BEEN caused by a pints failure!!!!! I hope to see the video on the derailment at Rhymney Mike!! Adlee
how the hell did that happen in the first place!!!!!!!!
strange why train announcements are always drowned out by the noise of a train
Keep an eye on my pages, more to come. I started videoing in 1986 so have lots to edit and post on YT
Mike in Wales
Whatever happened occurred when the train was traveling at a reasonable speed. What a mess!
Could they even stop you filming nowadays? You were obviously a passenger with a valid ticket & by amazing co-incidence you had a video camera.
The old sleepers spread under the 3000 ton weight of the iron ore hoppers.
Maybe Carl will reply; I retired in 1998 after 35 yrs in the fashion business !! MIKE
That's interesting regarding the couplers.. I suppose we could share our freight cars with you then. Just kidding! That would be quite a the journey for a freight wagon.
The rail spreading would surely cause the same kind of accident. We have that happen in a local yard here because of the same reason - old track and rotten sleepers.
If you want a copy on dvd its in my 1998 series, let me know so I can make you a copy from my master
Mike
nice Class 37s
You two at 2:48, don't just look at it, fetch a dustpan and brush !
The one on the right is me !!!!!
My gosh what a mess
It was the heaviest train to run through Cardiff, but now the steelworks have closed at Llanwern. In 2019 a new business has been established to build the new passenger trains to run in the Valleys
I miss the EWS livery. :(
The things that you see when you don't have a camera! I've had a few of those as well. It certainly gets the olod heart rate up eh! Are you finished with the firefighting now? I retired 10 years ago. Don't miss it but I do miss the watch.
Now THAT is how you crash a train!...
Looked more like a crash!
"All over the sodding A'uction!"
a train load of judas priest albums derailed today....