Thats a very interesting piece there Deathbyteacup. I see that an incident that I had back in 1983 is mentioned there, though I was told that the blame lay in other quarters. It says in that report:-
47367 : NEVILLE HILL : 3.5.83 • • •
On May 3rd 1983 47367 was working a Teeside to Hunslet East Oil Terminal block tank train when it ran into the back of an ecs working to Red Bank near Neville Hill, Leeds. As a result substantial damage was caused which included 47367's No.1 end cab being destroyed when the rear mail van rode up over the buffers of the loco. 47367 was being driven by an inexperienced Thornaby driver who failed to obay subsidary signal and stop short of any obstruction. The Driver was at fault as he was signalled down the Up goods under subsidary signals, meaning "proceed at caution as far as the next subsidary signal and be prepared to stop short of any obstruction"..The Healey Mills recovery train was called to the scene and 47367 was moved to Neville Hill TMD, and later to Crewe Works for repairs. Thanks to Andre Kent of the SF47 Group.
Now then, here's my side of the story. I entered the loop with a heavy train and probably wasn't travelling along as slowly as I maybe should have done, but at the same time, something strange was happening with the train in front. It appeared to be moving towards me as I approached it. I was questioned by my boss a few days afterwards and one of the questions asked was "was the train you hit coming towards you?" to which I said I wasn't sure. All I was interested in was slamming my brakes on as hard as possible. After that I never heard another word about the incident for a good ten years. There was no inquiry and no blame was laid at my door.
One day I was talking to a Traction Inspector called Jimmy Hatch and the incident was mentioned. I told him I thought it was strange that nobody had ever come back to me about the incident. He was shocked that I'd heard nothing about it in the meantime. He told me that the signalman had taken the blame for it because apart from the fact that he shouldn't have been turning my train in on top of another train like that, he was also allowing a shunting movement to take place. The parcel train had stopped at the light at the end of the loop, detatched the loco, gone into the sidings and picked up a few more vans, gone back onto his train in the loop, and then propelled his train back behind the light. Thats when I was approaching it. I only actually hit the back of the van doing a very slow speed, but because of the weight on my loco, the van sprung up over the buffers of my engine and pranged the front where the headcode indicator is.
Read into both reports what you will. The only thing I will add to it is that if the railways had deemed me to be guilty as the first report said, I'm bloody sure that I'd have had my knuckles well and truly rapped, even considering that I was supposedly "inexperienced" (I'd been passed as a driver for 18 months at this time), but I can honestly say that I've never heard anything official about the incident since.
Here's some pics I have just found of the smash.
http://www.sf47group.co.uk/html/Gall...ill1983_1.html
http://www.sf47group.co.uk/html/Gall...l030583_a.html
http://www.sf47group.co.uk/html/Gall...l030583_b.html
http://www.sf47group.co.uk/html/Gall...l030583_c.html
http://www.sf47group.co.uk/html/Gall...l030583_d.html
Cheers. Ewan.
