The Signals to Danger podcast has launched its new episode today, which tells the story of the collision between two trains in Eccles on the outskirts of Manchester on Tuesday 4 December 1984.
At 10:30 in the morning, the 10:05 passenger express train from Liverpool to Scarborough crashed into the rear of a tanker train travelling from Stanlow Oil Refinery, Ellesmere Port to Leeds.
The collision took place on the track alongside the M602 motorway, which had only recently been built. The tanker was carrying gas oil, as a result of which the collision ignited a serious fire leading to the tragic death of the train driver and two of passengers. Sixty-eight people were injured.
The passenger train was 1E79, formed of a Class 45 diesel locomotive No.45147, seven passenger coaches and a parcels van. The freight train was 6E85, composed of a Class 47 locomotive No.47310 and fifteen tanker wagons containing fuel oil.
Signals to Danger is a podcast that seeks to explain some of the UK's worst railway accidents in a way that listeners can easily understand. It boast of using “rich storytelling, and explaining exactly what happened in every accident in a way which means you don't need an engineering degree to understand even the most complicated pieces of the jigsaw.”
In this latest 73-minute episode, the podcast explains how the accident happened, how it was investigated and what caused it.
Signals to Danger is produced by Daniel Fox, under the DF Rail Media umbrella. The podcast has had 168,000 downloads over thirty-seven episodes. It is available wherever you get your podcasts, as well as through services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and others. It has is own website and is on social media under the handle @signalstodanger.
Podcast producer Daniel Fox said: “The UK has one of the safest railways in the world, but this is a reputation that has been paid for so many times in the past with the lives of passengers and staff. Those stories deserve to be told, and we're proud that we're able to be part of that effort.”
I will look forward to listening to this. I saw the crash from a bus that night, which I had to get on because of the crash meaning I could not get a train home. On the day we had a motorcycle courier picking up urgent materials around the corner from the accident, he was trapped in the police cordon, and we had to stop production as we ran out of the film stock the rider was supposed to be collecting for us. A few days later, I was standing on Salford Central Station, when a train brought the wreckage through.
This was the second disaster at Eccles, a far more serious accident took place on 30th December 1941, where tragically 23 people lost their lives, in the accident, which was the result of fraud and poor working practices. ( Theme for a future podcast?).