6
NEWS
RAILSTAFF JULY/AUGUST 2020
TRAGEDY AT STONEHAVEN
SCOTRAIL HST CRASHES NEAR STONEHAVEN, ABERDEEN, KILLING 3 OF THE 9 PEOPLE ON BOARD
J
ust as RailStaff was closing for press, news came through of the dreadful train crash near Aberdeen. The cause wasn’t immediately apparent, but information started to come out after a couple of days. In addition, railway experts David Shirres, Malcolm Dobell and David Bickell from sister magazine Rail Engineer pored over video and photos to try and work out what could have happened. The train involved was the 06:38 from Aberdeen to Glasgow. It was a six-car, four coach (plus a Class 43 power car at each end) ‘HST’ train of the type used by ScotRail for its Inter7City services. They have a seating capacity of around 250.
Only nine people were on board this service – three crew (driver, conductor and an off-duty conductor) and six passengers. What follows is, of course, under investigation. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch, Office of Rail and Road and British Transport Police will all be involved, along with Network Rail and ScotRail. However, with the help of Rail Engineer, RailStaff has pieced together what could have happened.
SPECULATION The train departed on time and called at Stonehaven as normal. It then continued southwards, past Carmont, until, at around 07:15, it was stopped by a radio message from the signaller at Carmont, who had just received a report from the driver of a train on the Down (northbound) line that a landslip was obstructing the up line between Carmont and Laurencekirk. © PA Images
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After a lengthy wait for further instructions, the driver walked to the rear cab and began to return to Aberdeen, the wrong way up the southbound line, at slow speed. At Carmont, the train was able to cross over onto the correct northbound line, at which time the driver was able to accelerate up to near normal linespeed – 75mph. About two miles north of the crossover, the train rounded a corner and encountered a small landslip across the track. It was large enough to derail the leading power car but, by the time that it and a couple of coaches had ploughed through it, the rear power car stayed upright, though also derailed. The leading power car derailed to the left of the track and continued straight on as the track itself curved gently to the right. This path took it through the parapet of the small bridge over a stream, about 80 metres from the landslip, and then down into the trees beyond. Once it hit the trees, it stopped almost immediately. At some stage, either when hitting the bridge or when going into the trees, the diesel fuel tank split. This released the fuel which then formed an aerosol with the air and exploded, a phenomenon that had previously been experienced during the accident at Ladbroke Grove in 1999.
