Hixon rail crash
Encyclopedia
The Hixon rail crash occurred on 6 January 1968 when a low-loader transporter
carrying a 120-ton electrical transformer
was struck by an express train
on a recently installed automatic level crossing
at Hixon, Staffordshire
in England
.
before the approaching train reached it.
In October 1956, senior members of the Railway Inspectorate embarked on a fact-finding trip to Holland, Belgium
and France
, to investigate the practice of automating level crossings. Their subsequent report recommended the introduction of automatically operated crossings with half-barriers, known as AHBs. This was projected to give considerable cost savings through the withdrawal of crossing keepers and would also speed up the flow of road traffic; the crossing being closed for less than a minute as opposed to 3 or 4 minutes at manned crossings.
Safety requirements were drawn up in 1957, but it was not until 1961 that the first automatic crossing in Britain
was installed at Spath
, near Uttoxeter
. The crossing was designed to give a minimum of 24 seconds warning for the fastest train on that line.
By January 1968 there were 207 automatic crossings in Britain including the one at Hixon, which had been converted to automatic half-barrier operation in July 1967. Incidentally, Hixon was only eight miles from the pioneering installation at Spath.
works at Stafford
to a storage depot on the disused airfield at Hixon. The airfield was on Station Road, adjacent to the Manchester
branch of the West Coast Main Line and approximately three miles north of Colwich Junction
.
To carry out this move a huge transporter vehicle, 148 feet (45.1 m) long and with a 32-wheeled trailer, was chartered. It had a gross weight
of 162 tons, was impelled by a tractor unit
at each end, and had a crew of five. In charge of the vehicle was Mr B. H. Groves, who occupied the leading cab. The journey was not an unusual procedure as six other abnormal loads belonging to the English Electric Company had passed over the automatic crossing in the preceding months.
The transporter and its police escort left Stafford at approximately 09:30 on the morning of Saturday 6 January. Although Hixon was only six miles from Stafford, the nature of the load meant that it needed to travel south out of the town and then along a somewhat laborious route north via the M6 motorway
, the A34 to Stone
and finally the A51
to Hixon. This route had been approved by the Ministry of Transport
, but the map
of the route made no mention of the level crossing at Hixon; the description of the route in the Order merely ended with "..Weston to junc class III road approx 2 miles (3.2 km) past Hixon turn left class III road turn left access road to English Electric Works and destination.". Mr J. H. Preston, Chief of Heavy Transport at English Electric had mentioned the level crossing to Groves, but only as a landmark.
At around 12:20 the transporter turned off the A51 into Station Road and slowed to walking pace as it approached the crossing. It stopped for a moment while the police car went over the crossing to check where the entrance to the airfield was; on its return, one of the police officers told Groves that "this is the place" and proceeded back over the level crossing.
The trailer needed to be raised by the crew in order to negotiate the track, but, in addition, it needed to be low enough to clear the overhead lines. While this was taking place the transporter slowed to around 2 mi/h. At this speed, it would take approximately one minute to traverse the crossing.
to Euston activated the crossing sequence by operating a treadle
1000 yards (914.4 m) away. The warning lights began to flash and the bells began to ring, with the barrier descending onto the forward part of the transformer. At about the same time Groves, who had not heard the bells and could not see the lights, saw the train approaching from his left and, realising that it would not stop, shouted a warning to his crew. He then accelerated and so did the driver of the tractor at the rear, Mr. A. L. Illsley, although this meant that Illsley was deliberately bringing himself into the direct path of the train.
As a result of these actions, the train hit only the rear seven or eight feet of the transformer at approximately 75 mi/h, sheared through the trailer and threw the transformer forward and to the left of the line. The train consisted of a type AL1
electric locomotive
no. E3009 and 12 coaches. The locomotive and the first five coaches of the train were demolished, and the following three coaches were derailed. Both railway lines were destroyed for a length of 120 yards (109.7 m) and the overhead lines were brought down.
Eleven people (eight passengers and three railwaymen) were killed, with 45 being injured; six of them seriously.
The circumstances of the accident, and the subsequent public reaction, led to an Order being made on 16 January for a judicial enquiry under Section 7 of the Railways Act 1871. The findings of this enquiry would be presented to Parliament by the Minister for Transport
. This was the first Section 7 inquiry since the Tay Bridge disaster
of 1879. It was chaired by Mr F. B. Gibbens QC
.
. A catastrophe was only avoided after its driver violently revved the engine and let the clutch
in.
Wynn's had pointed out their concern at the short warning time given in a letter to British Railways, but received a terse reply, and therefore did not press the matter further. BR's letter to them said, "I must emphasise... that the hazard was of your firm's making and it is fortunate that it was not more than a hazard". This was described as being "remarkable for its arrogance and lack of insight".
Despite this incident, no instructions regarding automatic crossings had ever been given to Wynn's drivers, and at Hixon the driver assumed that it was safe to cross because the police car had already done so.
Leaflets had been distributed to local police station
s when the crossing was automated the previous July, although they were only on display for the public to pick up. The inquiry described them as "mere flotsam".
provided before crossing the line. There was a warning notice at Hixon crossing to this effect, but it was almost impossible to read from a passing vehicle.
In 1977 the Railway Inspectorate again examined the question of automating level crossings and once again a working party visited mainland Europe. This time, as well as relaxing the requirements, they recommended the introduction of an automatic crossing with only the warning lights, known as an Automatic Open Crossing (AOCR). However, history repeated itself in the Lockington rail crash
of 1986, which involved a newly installed AOCR.
Lowboy (trailer)
A lowboy or dolly in Australia is a semi-trailer with two drops in deck height: one right after the gooseneck and one right before the wheels. This allows the deck to be extremely low compared with other trailers...
carrying a 120-ton electrical transformer
Transformer
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...
was struck by an express train
Express train
Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping at every single station...
on a recently installed automatic level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
at Hixon, Staffordshire
Hixon, Staffordshire
Hixon is a village in the borough of Stafford, Staffordshire, England. It is about 8 km east of Stafford at .Hixon was served by a railway station which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on May 1, 1849....
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Background
In the 1950s, British Railways found that the cost of manning some 2,400 level crossings had risen past £1 million per annum, with some locations seeing a tenfold increase. In the postwar labour market it was often difficult to recruit crossing keepers, the job itself being a responsible but rather dull occupation. In addition, manually-operated crossings often caused long delays to road traffic because of the need to close the gates and clear the distant signalRailway signal
A signal is a mechanical or electrical device erected beside a railway line to pass information relating to the state of the line ahead to train/engine drivers. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly...
before the approaching train reached it.
In October 1956, senior members of the Railway Inspectorate embarked on a fact-finding trip to Holland, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, to investigate the practice of automating level crossings. Their subsequent report recommended the introduction of automatically operated crossings with half-barriers, known as AHBs. This was projected to give considerable cost savings through the withdrawal of crossing keepers and would also speed up the flow of road traffic; the crossing being closed for less than a minute as opposed to 3 or 4 minutes at manned crossings.
Safety requirements were drawn up in 1957, but it was not until 1961 that the first automatic crossing in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was installed at Spath
Spath
Spath, is a small village north of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England.Spath is on the River Tean and is divided from Uttoxeter by the A50 road....
, near Uttoxeter
Uttoxeter
Uttoxeter is a historic market town in Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. The current population is approximately 13,711, though new developments in the town will increase this figure. Uttoxeter lies close to the River Dove and is near the cities of Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and...
. The crossing was designed to give a minimum of 24 seconds warning for the fastest train on that line.
By January 1968 there were 207 automatic crossings in Britain including the one at Hixon, which had been converted to automatic half-barrier operation in July 1967. Incidentally, Hixon was only eight miles from the pioneering installation at Spath.
Events leading up to the accident
On 6 January, a 120-ton electrical transformer was to be moved from the English ElectricEnglish Electric
English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...
works at Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
to a storage depot on the disused airfield at Hixon. The airfield was on Station Road, adjacent to the Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
branch of the West Coast Main Line and approximately three miles north of Colwich Junction
Colwich Junction
Colwich Junction is a rail junction on Britain's West Coast Main Line, near the town of Little Haywood, Staffordshire. It was the site of the 1986 Colwich rail crash...
.
To carry out this move a huge transporter vehicle, 148 feet (45.1 m) long and with a 32-wheeled trailer, was chartered. It had a gross weight
Weight
In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity. Its magnitude , often denoted by an italic letter W, is the product of the mass m of the object and the magnitude of the local gravitational acceleration g; thus:...
of 162 tons, was impelled by a tractor unit
Tractor unit
A tractor unit, prime mover , road tractor, or traction unit is a heavy-duty commercial vehicle within the large goods vehicle category, usually with a large displacement diesel engine, and several axles. The tractor unit serves as a method of moving trailers...
at each end, and had a crew of five. In charge of the vehicle was Mr B. H. Groves, who occupied the leading cab. The journey was not an unusual procedure as six other abnormal loads belonging to the English Electric Company had passed over the automatic crossing in the preceding months.
The transporter and its police escort left Stafford at approximately 09:30 on the morning of Saturday 6 January. Although Hixon was only six miles from Stafford, the nature of the load meant that it needed to travel south out of the town and then along a somewhat laborious route north via the M6 motorway
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
, the A34 to Stone
Stone, Staffordshire
Stone is an old market town in Staffordshire, England, situated about seven miles north of Stafford, and around seven miles south of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It is the second town, after Stafford itself, in the Borough of Stafford, and has long been of importance from the point of view of...
and finally the A51
A51 road
The A51 is a road in England running from Kingsbury in Warwickshire to Chester. The road follows the following route:*Kingsbury*Tamworth*Lichfield*Rugeley *Little Haywood*Great Haywood*Weston*Sandon...
to Hixon. This route had been approved by the Ministry of Transport
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
, but the map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
of the route made no mention of the level crossing at Hixon; the description of the route in the Order merely ended with "..Weston to junc class III road approx 2 miles (3.2 km) past Hixon turn left class III road turn left access road to English Electric Works and destination.". Mr J. H. Preston, Chief of Heavy Transport at English Electric had mentioned the level crossing to Groves, but only as a landmark.
At around 12:20 the transporter turned off the A51 into Station Road and slowed to walking pace as it approached the crossing. It stopped for a moment while the police car went over the crossing to check where the entrance to the airfield was; on its return, one of the police officers told Groves that "this is the place" and proceeded back over the level crossing.
The trailer needed to be raised by the crew in order to negotiate the track, but, in addition, it needed to be low enough to clear the overhead lines. While this was taking place the transporter slowed to around 2 mi/h. At this speed, it would take approximately one minute to traverse the crossing.
The accident
At 12:26, the leading tractor had traversed the two railway tracks and the main bulk of the transporter was astride them when the 11:30 express train from ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
to Euston activated the crossing sequence by operating a treadle
Treadle (railway)
In railway signalling, a treadle is a mechanical or electrical device that detects that a train axle has passed a particular location. They are used where a track circuit requires re-inforcing with additional information about a train's location, such as around an automatic level crossing, or in an...
1000 yards (914.4 m) away. The warning lights began to flash and the bells began to ring, with the barrier descending onto the forward part of the transformer. At about the same time Groves, who had not heard the bells and could not see the lights, saw the train approaching from his left and, realising that it would not stop, shouted a warning to his crew. He then accelerated and so did the driver of the tractor at the rear, Mr. A. L. Illsley, although this meant that Illsley was deliberately bringing himself into the direct path of the train.
As a result of these actions, the train hit only the rear seven or eight feet of the transformer at approximately 75 mi/h, sheared through the trailer and threw the transformer forward and to the left of the line. The train consisted of a type AL1
British Rail Class 81
The British Rail Class 81 is an AC electric locomotive that formerly operated on the West Coast Main Line of the London Midland Region of British Rail...
electric locomotive
Electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or an on-board energy storage device...
no. E3009 and 12 coaches. The locomotive and the first five coaches of the train were demolished, and the following three coaches were derailed. Both railway lines were destroyed for a length of 120 yards (109.7 m) and the overhead lines were brought down.
Eleven people (eight passengers and three railwaymen) were killed, with 45 being injured; six of them seriously.
Investigation
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
. This was the first Section 7 inquiry since the Tay Bridge disaster
Tay Bridge disaster
The Tay Bridge disaster occurred on 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge, which crossed the Firth of Tay between Dundee and Wormit in Scotland, collapsed during a violent storm while a train was passing over it. The bridge was designed by the noted railway engineer Sir Thomas Bouch,...
of 1879. It was chaired by Mr F. B. Gibbens QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
.
The haulage company
The inquiry identified the directors of the haulage company, Robert Wynn and Sons Ltd, as being chiefly to blame. It transpired that, in November 1966, one of their transporters had narrowly avoided disaster when it became grounded on an automatic crossing at LeominsterLeominster
Leominster is a market town in Herefordshire, England, located approximately north of the city of Hereford and south of Ludlow, at...
. A catastrophe was only avoided after its driver violently revved the engine and let the clutch
Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device which provides for the transmission of power from one component to another...
in.
Wynn's had pointed out their concern at the short warning time given in a letter to British Railways, but received a terse reply, and therefore did not press the matter further. BR's letter to them said, "I must emphasise... that the hazard was of your firm's making and it is fortunate that it was not more than a hazard". This was described as being "remarkable for its arrogance and lack of insight".
Despite this incident, no instructions regarding automatic crossings had ever been given to Wynn's drivers, and at Hixon the driver assumed that it was safe to cross because the police car had already done so.
The role of the police
Neither of the police officers who were escorting the load had been to Hixon before. They had both been posted to traffic duties in the Stone Division five days earlier and they were unaware of the presence of a main railway line.Although both officers knew about the existence of automatic crossings in Staffordshire, they were not aware of the comparatively short warning time that the crossing gave, one of them later telling the inquiry, "...I was absolutely astounded by the speed of the whole process.".Leaflets had been distributed to local police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
s when the crossing was automated the previous July, although they were only on display for the public to pick up. The inquiry described them as "mere flotsam".
British Railways
Both British Railways and the Ministry of Transport also received criticism for their lack of foresight and failure to adequately point out that drivers of slow or heavy loads were required to use the telephoneTelephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
provided before crossing the line. There was a warning notice at Hixon crossing to this effect, but it was almost impossible to read from a passing vehicle.
Aftermath
From 1969, new and improved warning signs were introduced, informing drivers of large or slow vehicles that they should telephone the signalman for permission to cross the line. The crossing equipment was also modified so that an amber light was exhibited before the red flashing lights operated. Even so, the automation of level crossings ground almost to a halt; from 207 in 1968, to 234 in 1978.In 1977 the Railway Inspectorate again examined the question of automating level crossings and once again a working party visited mainland Europe. This time, as well as relaxing the requirements, they recommended the introduction of an automatic crossing with only the warning lights, known as an Automatic Open Crossing (AOCR). However, history repeated itself in the Lockington rail crash
Lockington rail crash
The Lockington rail crash occurred on 26 July 1986 at Lockington, Humberside , England, when the 09:33 passenger train from Bridlington to Hull on the Yorkshire Coast Line hit a Ford Escort van on a level crossing...
of 1986, which involved a newly installed AOCR.
The site today
The level crossing at Hixon was replaced by a bridge in 2002. Part of the airfield is still in use as a heavy transport depot by Abnormal Load Engineering Ltd.http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/208298External links
- Staffordshire Past Track - an illustrated page about the crash
- Level crossing telephones - an illustrated page by a British RailBritish RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
engineer involved in the development of these telephones