Accidents mentioned

In The Midlander: The Series', some **real life railway accidents and disasters** are seen or mentioned by the characters. Most of these are recreated in detail.

## 1977 Granville Railway Disaster (Australia's worst rail disaster)

### Company

New South Wales Public Transport Commission

### Cause

Poor maintenance of locomotive 4620

The **1977 Granville Railway Disaster** is a major derailment and bridge collapse at Granville, NSW, Australia. It remains the worst rail disaster in Australia's history. This was a year after the Public Transport Commission (PTC) ended steam operations on NSW mainlines (with industrial railway not included).

### Events before disaster (morning of Jan 18th)

January 18th, 1977, started out a normal day for people that lived in Western Sydney. Many take the 609 intercity service that left Mount Victoria station at 6:09am. By the time the train left Parramatta (bound non-stop for Central), it was running late and the train had to speed up to make up lost time. The train was headed on the day by NSWGR 46 class electric locomotive No. 4620, which has had a bad luck streak.

### Disaster

At the moment No. 4620 (speeding at 80km/h aka 50mph) sped into Lead 73 at Granville, the following started.

* 8:10am: No. 4620's front bogie wheels derail.
* 8:11am: No. 4620 knocks down the supports for the Bold Street Bridge.
* No. 4620, now on its side, and carriage 1 rams into a power pole. Eight are dead.
* The Bold Street Bridge collapses on top of carriages 3 and 4. Most of carriage 3 and half of carriage 4 are crushed, but the passengers in these sections are spared by their seats.
* Bystanders race in to help before authorities arrive.

### Rescue efforts

Shortly after the bridge collapsed, emergency services from around the Sydney Metropolitan area race towards Granville. Railway workers are called in to help the authorities and rescue crews to bring people out of the crushed wooden carriages. The amount of sirens heard on that date earned it the nickname "The Day of Sirens" by a few people. An LPG cannister (Carriage 3) was removed from the deep under the remains of the bridge before heavy equipment could operate and break the heavy concrete bridge into smaller pieces for the cranes to life. The final toll for the Granville Railway Disaster was 84 dead and 213 injured.

### Investigations into disaster

An investigation into the Granville disaster only blamed the condition of the ancient rails to be the only cause for the disaster. Another investigation by Boris Osman revealed that No. 4620's L6 wheel on the front was worn out and a direct cause of the disaster, thanks to him getting access to No. 4620 before the PTC scrapped the locomotive that year. The report by Osman lead to better safety rules when it came to maintenance of locomotives and any locomotive with worn out parts.

### The Granville Disaster in the series

The accident is first mentioned via archived radio news reports from the UK about the disaster shortly after it happened. The disaster is later mentioned by Clyde when he arrived, explaining he was at Granville when the disaster happened and was present when the disaster's same locomotive, No. 4620, derailed at Wenty 12 years before.

## 1952 Harrow & Wealdstone rail crash

Photograph of the wreck site. The remains of Princess Anne and Whirlwind Islands are on the right

### Cause

Signal Past At Danger (SPAD)

The **Harrow & Wealdstone rail crash** was a three-train collision at Harrow & Wealdstone station, outside of London. This accident was a simple case of human error in bad weather and is the second worst rail disaster in UK history, let alone the worst peacetime disaster.

### Events before disaster

Before the collision, a commuter headed by a Fowler 2-6-4T had arrived at Harrow & Wealdstone station after being delayed for nine minutes due to poor visibility thanks to think fog. Running more than an hour late, City of Glasgow was heading with a sleeper train towards London-Euston from Perth. The commuter stopped at platform 4, which was in City of Glasgow's path, and waited for a clear path. Around this time, Stanier Jubilee 'Windward Islands' and newly rebuilt "Turbomotive", now named 'Princess Anne', left Euston station heading for Liverpool and Manchester.

### Collision

City of Glasgow rammed into the rear of the commuter train at 8:19am, destroying its three rear coaches and resulted in the collision pushing the commuter 20 yards (18m) forwards. A few seconds, Windward Islands and Princess Anne tripped over the wreck, toppled over to their right sides, mounted a platform, struck the bridge and landed on the electrified line of the Bakerloo line of the London Underground and caused a short circuit.

### The Harrow & Wealdstone in the series

This accident is mentioned by Hood, Australia and visitor Princess Elizabeth when Duchess of Sutherland (the heaviest locomotive the Gladsville Line has ever hosted) visited the railway in 2007, since the three won't forgive any member of the Princess Coronation/ Duchess class since their siblings, Windward Islands and Princess Anne, had to be scrapped and since then, the other Jubliees and Princess Elizabeth blamed it solely on City of Glasgow (Duchess of Sutherland's brother). The accident is even shown as the ghost of Whirlwinds Islands recalls the events of that fatal morning.

The incident is also brought a decade earlier by the NWR engines as it occurred a week after the 1952 Vicarstown Collision that also wrote off two locomotives (a British Railways Hughes Crab and NWR Black Five No. 11).