Pictures unearthed of Water Lane train crash almost 50 years on

On the night of January 23, 1975, the 7.10pm service from Manchester to Euston had just pulled away from Watford Junction when it was derailed after hitting two steel stillages that had fallen from a freight train that had passed a few minutes earlier.

Moments after coming to a stand, the train was struck by the 10.15pm sleeping car train from Euston to Glasgow, causing part of the train to derail and run down an embankment in Water Lane.

Tragically, the driver of one of the trains was killed while the official railway inspectorate report into the accident stated a further 11 people sustained injuries that required hospital treatment.

• Watford train tragedy pictures unearthed nearly 30 years on
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Scroll down this page to see some of the images taken by a Watford Observer photographer of the accident scene.

With thanks to Roger Middleton of the Herts Fire Museum, this is a transcript of the Watford Observer’s report of the collision that was published the following day:

Heavy rain washing ballast from under a main railway line may have caused last night’s crash involving two Inter-City expresses with about 350 passengers on board, in which one main died and 30 were injured.

British Rail experts today were at the crash, 600 yards south of Watford Junction station – and three miles from a landslide which blocked a commuter line earlier this week.

Firemen and rescue workers, on the site just minutes after the accident at 10.34pm last night, said it looked as if part of the track bed ballast on the southern lines had slipped away.

British Rail today promised an immediate inquiry into the crash, which derailed one of the expresses.

A road may have to be built for about 150 yards across a field to recover the derailed engine – one of British Rail’s latest models.

As breakdown crews fought to recover the wrecked locomotive and coaches, a Midland Region spokesman said: “An inquiry will begin almost at once.”

It is believed that the trains crashed at a combined speed of over 100mph.

The man who died was the driver of the London-bound train, 56-year-old Mr Jeff Carter, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

He was found lying between the two trains behind the engine of his express.

He leaves a widow, Margaret, aged 58, and two sons, Paul, aged 25, and Peter,22.

He had worked for British Rail for 42 years.

The terror on the night express came as passengers on the 100mph Electric Scot sleeper from Euston to Glasgow were settling down for the night.

The ten-coach train was travelling at about 50mph when it ploughed into an Inter-City express coming from the opposite direction. It was the 7.10pm from Manchester to Euston.

Witnesses said the south-bound train appeared to jump the rails seconds before the collision.

More than 200 yards of 25,000-volt overhead cables were torn down, but there was no danger of passengers being electrocuted because a safety device automatically cuts the power.

The locomotive and first carriage – a mail coach – of the Glasgow train were thrown off the track and plunged down the embankment spilling mail and parcels.

Hertfordshire police ordered a full-scale emergency alert. Fire engines and ambulances from all over the county were called to help. All hospitals in the area were placed on emergency standby to deal with casualties.

As two further coaches of the Glasgow trained leaned over the edge of the embankment at a crazy angle, about 45 passengers struggled and slipped to safety down the 40ft slope.

They were taken to George Stephenson technical college, just a few hundred yard from the crash site, and given hot tea and blankets.

Most of the passengers from both trains walked along the track to Watford Junction station.