LMS Route: The Shakespeare Route

Kineton Station: smjk209

Ex-LMS 4F 0-6-0 No 43568 is being lifted clear having collided with a low-loader stuck on a level crossing near Kineton. In this view the breakdown cranes from Saltley shed and Rugby shed are lifting in unison the locomotive clear of the track. The low loader was carrying a large excavator with flagmen present and under the supervision of the Ettington stationmaster, George Holton. All went well and, with the excavator safely on the other side of the railway, the stationmaster and flagmen left the crossing and returned to Ettington station. Unbelievably, nobody considered the fact that the low-loader would have to make the return journey across the railway lines later in the day and that precautions ought, to be taken for that operation too. During the afternoon a phone call from a local farmer to Ettington station advised that the low-loader had got stuck on the crossing, and that a goods train had collided with it. Upon inspection it was found that the low-loader had been pushed a hundred yards along the line and the locomotive and several wagons derailed.

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