Midland Region - use of 4 tracks

They were used for stopping passenger trains as well.

The crash at Harrow and Wealdstone happened because the commuter train crossed over from up slow to up fast before the station. One of the actions of the aftermath was to move the crossing to the south side of the station.

This happened just after my fifth birthday. We heard it, living in an apartment less than a mile away. We saw the wreckage and the cleanup nearly every day from busses crossing the bridge at the south end of the station. Being a railwayman, my father was a volunteer straight away, until they were replaced by USAF and British disaster teams.

"Christopher A. Lee" wrote

Not in all locations. There were four running lines at Walton (near Wakefield) on the Midland Main Line but I never once saw a passenger train use the slow lines. All passenger trains seemed to use the fast lines through the station platforms.

A similar situation was the occurred at nearby Normanton, but here the slow lines were on the outside of the fast roads (which skirted the island platform). Again all passenger trains invariably used the platform roads whether stopping or not.

John.

IIRC, the LM 4 track stretch south of Glendon Jct, at 73? miles, was the longest such stretch on the system. Regular occurence, in steam days, for a fast Derby/Manchester working to glide past a semi-fast Nottingham service and vice versa.... Clearly recall an overtake involving a Nottingham 'Jubilee' on a Derby and a Derby 'Jube' on a Nottingham, leaving me still uncertain - 50 years on! - if the wrong locos were hooked on at Pancras :)

Cheers Robt P.

If you count Sharnwood tunnel.

Sharnbrook, I think?

Loughborough is an example of a station that only had platforms on the fast lines even though all local trains stopped there. There is now a relatively recent addition of a platform on the down slow for the Ivanhoe service.

ROB

No, the crash happened because the crew of the ex Perth train missed two signals, nothing what so ever to do with were the local train was, which just happened to be stationary in the path of the 'run away' express... There might have been errors by the signal man in routing the local train, but I really can't see how you can suggest that the accident happened because the local was stationary and correctly protected on the up main. Are you suggesting that the official report laid the blamed on an innocent (dead) driver and fireman?

What is still argued about is why the crew missed the signals, one suggestion is that they became distracted by a broken gauge glass, there are reports that one or both of the gauge glass isolating valves were found in the closed position but no one could prove if they became closed before or after the crash.

Anyway, Harrow is on the ex LNWR not the MR... Duh! :~)

Oops, sorry, I read the subject line as Midland Railway and not

Of course not. Would it have happened if the local had not been crossed over to the up fast?

There were no erors routing the train, it was done as per the orders in the WTT.

Why do you imagine they moved the crossovers to the sounth end of the station afterwards, troll?

Give the troll a peanut. Duh.

missed

suggest

Thank you. The whys and wherefores of the local train being routed via the mainline are irrelevant, the track in question could have still been occupied by the preceding express and the same accident would have resulted - all exacerbated by a late running express from Perth...

At some locations, there were platforms only on the slow lines. For example, Golborne South, Bamfurlong, Standish Junction, Coppull & Balshaw Lane on the WCML between Warrington and Preston. All closed, but a new Euxton Balshaw Lane has since been opened, still with platforms only on the slow lines.

Bevan Price

The LNER east coast main line was basically two tracks with various loops. Some were signalled for passenger trains others had permissive working so were for goods only.

If memory serves me correctly the ex-LNWR line had fast and slow lines. But much of the Midland line had passenger and goods, the latter being permissive. Again off the top of my head this ran from Kettering to Harpenden. South of Harpenden these became fast and slow.

Fog, impairing the Crewe driver's signal vision, was also deemed to be a factor.

IIRC, all wreckage cleared - and it was pied up 20 feet high - and normal running resumed within 24 hours...

Our modern day 'crime scene' etc scenario bollocks would have seen the station closed for a month.

Cheers Robt P.