How could this happen ?? I haven't the "foggiest"

That night a close friend died in that train crash. Later I attended his funeral, the first time death had crossed my path. Cliff was an up and coming architect, working on what was then the Festival of Britain complex. His death was painful for me to bear.....but incomparable to that suffered by his father and mother. Cliff was their only child. Always remembered.....RIP Cliff.

I've passed through on this line, to and from London countless times, and never cease to be amazed that the emergency replacement bridge, put up in just a few days by the Royal Engineers, is still there and doing service 65 years on, having carried God knows how many thousands of trains since. The picture of the crushed carriage underneath the bridge is particularly chilling. Superb account.

My mum should have been on this train but decided to wait for the next one, as it was too crowded. That decision very possibly saved her life.

Horrible accident. So many lives lost and severe injuries to many others. Excellent video and narrative. I was 6 when this happened and remember it well. My mother was worried when my father did not come home to Catford at the usual time. We did not have a telephone. He arrived several hours later. He had walked home for miles like infantryman he was during WW2.

Worth pointing out that London still burned a lot of coal in 1957 - the fog would have been thick and heavy - they weren't called 'pea soupers' for nothing.

The 'Battle of Britain' and 'West Country' classes were actually the same class, with the different names only being used for marketing purposes by the Southern (as far as I know). Examples of each naming convention include 34053 'Sir Keith Park' and 34105 'Swanage'. 110 of them were built, with around 20 surviving into preservation, and collectively they are known as Bulleid 'Light Pacifics' because they were a slightly smaller version of the Merchant Navy class.

The British definition of "temporary trestle" is "a trestle that was built to stand as long as it can".

It was the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation and not the Ministry of Transport and Civilisation.

A very well put together video...I lost an Aunt in the accident and I was never told the details of what happened. it was interesting to see the events that lead up to the event. Thank you.

My mum, uncle and grandmother lived nearby in Tresillian Road at the time of the crash. My uncle rode with some ambulances, that had come from outside the area, to help direct them to the hospital in the fog. He said that some Teddy boys helped get people out, climbing over the wreckage and tearing their expensive drape jackets in the process (they were seen as rough types so their brave assistance was perceived as out of character). A major incident at the time but long forgotten by now I think.

I had a dvd that had old news reels of rail disasters. The news reel for this wreck described it as "Scenes reminiscent of the bomb blitz of London..." Really gives a chilling insight into how the severe the wreck was and what it must have been like to witness it in that fog

I was ten at this time and lived at Blackheath opposite the then Shunting yard. So all of the rescue equipment came through there. I also recall the swimming baths at Ladywell(?) were used as a morgue for families to try to recognise missing family members. I have never forgotten that crash.

I love how you organize these parts and give so many factor details. Keep up the good work.

Much better job than the old one I made a few years back. Great work as always!

Amazing job. Your documentaries on wrecks are the best I've ever seen. Looking forward to the next one as always!

The auto system: becomes smart Snowpeircer: oh wow you have a special thing just for signals, how cute

Great video! You have a real talent for making these things! Your voice is perfect -- clear and easy to understand and with the right amount of emotion to give your credibility. Plus, your editing of the story and video it excellent! Keep it up!

The dark times of Lewisham along the railways, this brings back memories when my grandfather was involved.

Great job as always. I really enjoy these documentaries.

Nicely covered, comprehensive! Thanks for the hard work!

I love the reference to the "Ministry of Transport & Civilization". I think he means "Ministry of Transport & Civil Aviation".

Wow I lived in Lewisham for many years but had never heard about this crash that occurred before my birth. Appreciate your well presented video.

Great video... Learned alot about safety on rails thanks to you. Keep up the great job...

I’ll correct you there. As a St John Ambulance member I must tell you that it is St John, not St John’s.

2:45 3:14 This Famous Southern Railway Buileid Battle Of Britain And West Country Pacific Locomotives Are Entered By 1945 Just After The Second World War From 1939 To 1945 To 1950 By The Late 1940's And The 1950's In The 20th Century. Thanks Mate. X

@Thunderbolt 1000 Siren Productions Great Video, And You Mentioned About A Previous Lewisham Train Crash From 1857, Will You Do A Documentary On That One In The Future?

Ahh , another story ! How long do I gotta wait ?! Love ur channel . One of my top favorites.

That train still ran to Folkestone up until a few years ago when the closed off the harbour line, mad to think you’re covering my little English town on your video

Two points: 1) The GWR precursor to AWS didn’t use magnets but had an electrical contact system. This was later developed into the AWS system that used magnets. 2) Spitfire didn’t have the driver on the LH aside, he was on the usual RH aside.

Just watched another video on this accident, and yours is so superior. Much more informative. Why people (in this case train officials) aren't more eager to learn from these accidents and implement upgrades to the system I'll never know.

Great documentary!

The Bulleid Pacifics were rebuilt to rid them of the problematic valvegear which was chain-driven and enclosed in an oil bath. Chains stretched and the oil bath seals were not up to the task and leaked. Perhaps not surprising for a locomotive built with wartime economies in mind; the “sealed” valvegear was intended to reduce maintenance costs, and the “air-smoothed casing” was in fact designed to save on cleaning costs by allowing the loco to be cleaned by driving through a carriage-washing plant. The casing of course restricted access to many components - this is why it was removed on rebuilding, rather than any visibility concerns. The cabs went through several iterations of width/slope/front window size and the final iteration was carried-over onto the rebuilds. Slipping is de rigeur for Pacifics; I can testify that a rebuilt West Country can still slip like a Spamcan 🙂

@Thunderbolt 1000 Siren Productions What I meant to say is that, the West Country and Battle of Britain class Pacific’s are Identical, but distinguished only by the Subjects chosen by their Names.

I remember this as a junior schoolboy on the television news. Looking at my parents holding back tears. I grew up a lot that day.

These are by far your best videos. Sad they have to be so traject. When my sister was a baby and wouldn't fall asleep, my parents would go find a train and she would fall asleep. Lots of trains where I am from.. I've handled a couple accidents as a deputy Sheriff and they are just something that is hard to describe. Takes a true trail lover to do it.

110 Bullied Light Pacifics were built from 1945 to 1951, the first group were known as The West Country Class (numbered from 34001 to 34048, then from 34091 to 34108 ) and the second group were known as the Battle of Britain class (numbered from 34049 to 34090 and from 34109 to 34110) however the 2 classes are completely identical.

May have to wait for that other story about what happen before 1957, Good Video! Its sad that History shows us that Human & Locomotive error could lead to a big deadly accidents when it comes to bad weather and there been stories when Man & Machine can sometime be reckless when it come to fog.

Fascinating but sad, great video, well narrated, nice one

dear thunderbolt 1000 siren production, I have a question for you i've been watching your channel since day 1 and i really enjoy these videos about train accidents because of the history and the mistakes we made back then and how we learned from them. In all these years of watching your channel i've seen a quite a few videos about crashes outside of the US like Canda and Britian. But you rarely cover other parts of the world like europe, I do rember you made a video about the biggest rail crash in Germany at Etschede with the ICE. But i have a very interesting crash for you to cover witch follows a very similair story like this at lewisham. In the Netherlands in 1962 at a place called Harmelen there was a collision between two trains because the driver of one of the trains had missed a red signal due to the thic around the area. I live in the Netherlands and would like this crash to be known more about because it kinda gets overlooked around the world and even in the Netherlands despite it being the worst rail crash in the Dutch history. If you need any information i would be happy to help! Sorry if my English isn't up to standard because its not my first language. Thanks for reading my comment and greetings from the Netherlands

Doing a video on the Lewisham disaster of all disasters is a real surprise, even after the 5 year earlier Harrow and Wealdstone crash.

Good video.... although its St John Ambulance not St John's Ambulance:)

I actually remember this crash -- it was rather foggy that evening although not especially so. A couple of details. Those four aspect signals allows the distance between signals to be kept short but the blocks they protect are somewhat overlapped -- a signal will switch to red immediately a train passes but the preceding one won't clear until the first train is well forward of the first signal. This suggests that the locomotive driver not only had to pass two caution signals but quite likely two danger ones before hitting the EMU. That's probably why the report faulted him -- the locomotive crew is supposed to know where all the signals are because you can't guarantee that you'll be able to see them easily in fog or bad weather. (Another detail is that flashing yellow signals to indicated a diverging route are a recent introduction.)

13:16 I travel under this “temporary” tressel every time I get the train into London. It’s very dark and nowhere near as pleasant to the eye as this girder bridge was. Since childhood I always found it a strange design for a bridge, and now I know why it looks like that. It’s a scar of this accident I had no idea about.

You're damn good at your documentaries. Keep it up!

Can’t wait for more documentaries

Seven years earlier there was a similar, and similarly horrible, accident on New York's Long Island Railroad, with enormous casualties, also just before a holiday, Thanksgiving time...

4:29 The old 1957 news report say it was a wreck no one saw but I exquisitely heard one man scream " OH MY GOD!!!" And then many other people proceeded to scream right afterwards so basically everyone at the lewisham platform saw the collision

Very well presented....excellent work 👏 🙂 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

YES! Please keep up the wreck content! It’s sooooo good and from my limited knowledge your the only guy that does them!

Hey Thunderbolt. Mind if I do documentaries like you? Every train crash documentary I watched makes me inspired and wanting to do the same. Keep up the good work mate. Can't wait to watch the next one to come!

A very well-researched and interesting video. I was a boy of 10 years old at the time, living in Bexleyheath which is on the Lewisham line. I can well remember the word going up and down the street that there had been a train crash at St.Johns. The father of a schoolmate was on the train from Victoria which was on the Nunhead flyover at the time of the accident. Apparently, the driver of that train, sensing something wrong, used the 'dead man's handle' and stopped the train just in time. It was indeed reported that Driver Trew of the Battle of Britain steam locomotive, could not properly see the colour light signals in the cutting at St.Johns and failed to ask his fireman to look out for them. The steam train was the 'Man of Kent' , first stop Tonbridge, and was supposed to leave Cannon Street at 16h46. But it departed much later than the 17.18 Hayes train because of the fog. It was a tragic accident. I have never forgotten it.

One thing I would like to recommend documenting on is the July or December 2013 Spuyten Duyvil derailment. I just googled "Train Derail sound effect" and found out about this while looking at the images. If you get the chance to, try and make a documentary on either one.

Speaking of the Bullied Pacific problems, when I went to the Severn Valley Railway in October, I was watching Bullied Pacific 34027 Taw Valley leave Bridgnorth when it suddenly burst into wheelslip TWICE!

I travel this line almost weekly,as a ten year old I remember this accident vividly it was a national tragedy I recall it as the StJohns crash.It often comes to mind passing the site such was its notoriety

Love the video. But there was one mistake, which appeared a couple of time, the signal diagram you used had flashing yellow signals, that system was not used back then, it only appeared in the 1990's, or later. The correct sequence would, going downwards, from before the turnout, Red(stop), Single Yellow(caution), Double Yellow(double caution) and Green(clear). The Junction signal would be held at red until the train was either running very slow or had stopped, only then would the junction signal clear.

Been waiting to see my home station in one of these videos 😁

Great documentary, Thunderbolt! Just one suggestion. At 11:45, I think you accidentally reversed the sides(completely understandable, as those would be the sides looking towards the back the locomotive, instead of towards the front).

Love to see this back 😊😊

uhh, in the UK, the guy driving the train is not called an "engineer". He is called a "train driver" or simply "driver".

HoooooooRAY! My favorite train related series gets a new entry! Perfect lunch entertainment

I remember this night well! My father worked in the City and travelled back to through Lewisham on the Bexleyheath to Dartford line. My mother, my sister and I were waiting at home, not expecting him to be back on time because of the fog but, as time went on my mother in particular became quite worried. With no TV, nothing mentioned on the radio and decades before mobile phones there was no way to make contact him or find out more. Then there was a hammering on the front door and the lady from the house behind us burst in and asked to use our phone. She was the sister of the driver of "Spitfire" and had somehow heard about the accident and needed to make contact with his colleagues to find out what had happened to him. This of course caused my mother to panic until my father eventually got home in the early hours of the morning. His train from Cannon Street had been overtaken by the Ramsgate train just before St John's station and they were eventually stopped on the ramp up to Lewisham station when the power was cut off. He remembers hearing voices coming through the fog calling for stretchers etc but because of the fog could see nothing and was totally unaware of what had happened almost next to where he was sitting. Eventually they were taken off the train by ladders and then simply abandonned on the platform at Lewisham to make their own way home. With no bus services running because of the fog he was then forced to walk for several hours to get back. It is true that partial services had been restored by the following day and he never forgot the sight of the piles of the personal belongings of the dead and injured piled up at the end of the platform at Lewisham. My mother kept in contact with the driver's sister and the sad postscript to this story is that, although he was absolved of all blame for the accident after the two trials he never recovered from the horror of the accident and still felt personally responsible for the loss of life. Eventually it drove him mad and he spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital.

Wow, i knew nothing about this. Thank you.

I like the videos like this they're very interesting

I Love your videos

Wasn't one of the main causes of the wheelslip problems of the Battle of Britain Class a result of their valve gear system more than their weight on drivers? The chain driven valve gear system was submerged in an oil bath for constant lubrication, and due to faulty welding, this oil bath was prone to leaking oil onto the tracks. Oil on the tracks would understandably cause extremely violent wheelslip problems.

My Dad was an east Greenwich fireman and spent a week retrieving bodies from that crash. He didn't eat for over week. The temporary bridge erected by the Royal Engineers is still there, in use.

You have to love "The Ministry of Transport and Civilisation". Also mixing up the right and left at the end.

Dear Thomas, I have been watching your videos for quite some time I want to ask if you can do a video on the Spuyten Duyvil incident that happened like 9 years ago.

How’s the progress on the Penn Central documentary?

I finally got to see a Q1 on this video! It is my favorite steam loco ever!

Good job I like your channel

you are best train youtuber

Ministry of transport and civilisation? Or is that Civil Aviation. Also the flashing yellow lights didn’t come in until the 70s

Flashing yellow aspects on multiple aspect signalling(MAS) didn't come into being until the 1990's. The southern region of Btitish Railways at that time used "searchlight" signals , which are a lamp with a rotating disc inside showing different colours through a lens. The correct sequence of signal aspects was green > single yellow > red to approaching trains. With a train standing at Lewisham the following battle of Britian locomotive only had to miss the green and next yellow to running a train standing at the next red aspect.

You should do one on the Chualar bus crash of 1963 in California in September. It’s the deadliest train-bus accident in US history.

This was the first serious rail accident I can remember hearing about, and I still have clear memories of the reports carried by the following day’s evening paper, complete with sketch diagram of the two crashed trains, the damaged bridge, and the third train travelling on it which had pulled up just in time. One contributing circumstance not mentioned here was that the Hayes train need not have been stopped at all. It was a signalman’s error which caused that to happen. (The reasons are complicated and are fully explained by J A B Hamilton in his book “Disaster Down The Line”. The official report, extracts from which appear in the clip, would have this information as well.) Of course the signalman can’t be blamed for the disaster in any degree whatever, but it all goes to show that even something comparatively minor like his mistake can be the final link in a chain of events, each unimportant in themselves, but which cumulatively can have the most devastating consequences. Also worth noting that Messrs Trew and Hoare had been over an hour on the platform at Cannon Street station, in the freezing fog, waiting for their train to be brought in. At that time the station had no roof. I doubt the experience would have helped their alertness levels.

I love it when Americans try to pronounce the names of places in Britain and Ireland. Still a well made video, and your confidence, especially in how you speak, has definitely grown since your earlier documentaries.

There was also reports that ghosts haunt the site calling for help on the annual anniversaries of the rail crash.

18:07 That’s “Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation” not “Civilisation”.

Good video! Will you do the 2012 once rail disaster someday?

There is a ghost story associated with the train crash. In the 1980s a British Railways bridge inspector who worked on St Johns flyover, was waiting for a night bus at 2am. While he was waiting he could hear a voice calling for help from the vicinity of the bridge, as if they were trapped. He telephoned the police, who arrived in a patrol car and assured him there was no one trapped. The officer said people had reported the sound of people calling for help ever since the 1957 disaster, but it was futile searching because no one is ever found.

Today 20 of the Class have survived into preservation, 11 are West Countries (7 Rebuilts, the rest unrebuilts) and 9 are Battle of Britains (3 Rebuilts, the rest unrebuilts). In Fact one of the Preserved Battle of Britains is a famous one, it’s 34051 known as ‘Winston Churchill’ named after the Former British Prime Minister. When Winston Churchill Died in January 1965 he given a state funeral. Then it was decided that Churchill’s coffin is to be taken by train from London to Handborough to his final resting place at the parish church of Bladon and that locomotive that pulled his funeral train was the Loco that carried his name, 34051 Winston Churchill. By September that same year, 34051 Winston Churchill was retired from Service and then was put into storage for some years, by 1983 she was bought by the National Railway Museum and was moved to York. It now resides at the National Railway Museum in York as part of the National Collection, also the Luggage Coach that carried Churchill’s Coffin on the funeral train has survived and is also part of the National collection at York.

I missed out. Cool documentary still.

Thunder if you remaster teh Clapham Junction wreck you should put Disbelief Papyrus Phase 2 in it

I love your videos thunder

Great doco. On two occasions, however, the narrator mispronounces ‘the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation’ as ‘the Ministry of Transport and Civilisation’! Minor point, I know, but I found it mildly amusing. Keep up the great work and research.

I remember watching ur vids when I was 7 I always got scared

@ThunderBolt 1000 Siren Productions did you know that one of these Battle of Britain locomotives is 34051 named Winston Churchill.

Thank you for your much appreciated slow speech and pronunciation. An appalling event. Given the number of train trips per day in the UK the accident rat is remarkably low.

Amazing documentary on a very tragic accident hard to believe many years later the Battle Of The Britain basis would become the basis for Rebecca in Thomas and Friends

4:29 is that sound effect from the movie (The Train 1964) because it does sound familiar when the 2 trains crash at a switch in the movie

Can you do the Dorion, QC, Canada level crossing accident (10/7/1966) next?

As far as I remember, AWS on multiple units, although fitted, didn't become operational till the early 1980's on Southeastern routes of British Rail.

Sadly, this accident is largely over shadowed by other accidents like the Harrow and those much later in the "Modern Image" era. though for "Unrebuilt" they are actually known as Original condition, as I get reminded that every time I talk to a fan of those bullied engine's

Can you make a video about the Westfield New York train wreck?

As someone else has mentioned the signal graphics are not correct. Also the four aspect heads almost certainly did not exist then and l don’t think feathers about then either. They would probably have been the searchlight type. (Two heads which can show four aspects) l have one in my garden! A junction could be shown with two signal heads often with one lower than other in the diverging route was slower speed. When l started on the footplate back in 1970 at Kings Cross there was a mixture of colour light and semaphores and if l remember correctly only AWS at distant signals and we worked 100 mph trains under that system in all weathers.

A very thorough, sensitive account of a tragedy which could, just possibly have been avoided. The WC's and BoB's had a similar, but bigger sister class, the 'Merchant Navy's which had similar problems. Indeed, there was / is a rather cruel joke that all three classes had the big, cast metal name badges to put a bit of weight over the driving wheels to try and solve the slipping problem! Their fundamental fault lay in their designer - O V Bullied who introduced too many innovations into the Pacifics. When rebuilt - with decent Walschaerts valve gear instead of Bullied's notorious chain driven gear - they were actually very good locomotives. There's a brief glimpse of a Q1 - a 'Charlie' 0-6-0 in the film, which was possibly his best design - a rugged, basic, slogger that could pull anything and everything you hung behind it. Odd, unintentional smiles in the film - the subtitles keep talking about the 'Ministry of Transport and Civilisation'......; British Rail didn't come into existence until at least 10 years after the crash, at the time of which it was still 'British Railways' - and our railways have always had 'drivers' in the cab- over here 'engineers' are the men who design them, not pull the regulator. (throttle). But very well done, and very moving.

one little thing , of the 'Light Pacifics' (Battle of Britain and West Country) 20 survive with 10 being in original condition) however all bar 3 (34010 'Sidmouth' 34058 'Sir Frederick Pile' and 34073 '249 Squadron') having run in preservation so far with 34010 and 34058 being restored in their own right as of now and 34073 being used as a parts donor, as for 34066 'Spitfire' Post accident, crew testimony speaks of it being a so called "jinxed" or unlucky engine

Watching this on the train home 👍