Hixon rail crash
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On 6 January 1968 a 120-ton transformer was being moved from the English Electric factory at Stafford to storage at the disused airfield at Hixon. (See this note for what such a move entails.) The trailer was moving at walking pace over the level crossing in New Road (also known as Station Road), Hixon, grid reference SJ992258. An express train from Manchester Piccadilly Station to Euston ran into the transformer. Eleven people (8 passengers and 3 railwaymen) were killed and 27 seriously injured.
Being a slow and heavy load, the transformer had a police escort, but the police were untutored regarding the amount of warning time that the level crossing signals gave - barely 30 seconds. The crossing had only recently been converted from a manned crossing with gates to an automatic half-barrier, a relatively new type in the UK at that time. The drivers bravely tried to accelerate the transporter off the track, but in vain.
Following this accident the requirements for telephones at automatic crossings were increased greatly and their position and signage improved. Presumably, the manual for police escorting slow or heavy loads was changed to advise such escorts to using the level crossing telephone to inform themselves about train movements.
The level crossing was replaced by a bridge in 2002.
[edit] External links
- Report of the Public Inquiry into the Accident at Hixon Level Crossing on January sixth, 1968 Warning - 22 Mb pdf
- Staffordshire Past Track - an illustrated page about the crash
- Level crossing telephones - an illustrated page by a British Rail engineer involved in the development of these telephones
