🎉   Please check out our new website over at books-etc.com.

Seller
Your price
£15.06
RRP: £19.99
Save £4.93 (25%)
Dispatched within 2-3 working days.

The Hixon Railway Disaster

The Inside Story

By (author) Richard Westwood
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Barnsley, United Kingdom
Imprint: Pen & Sword Transport
Published: 15th Nov 2017
Dimensions: w 148mm h 243mm d 20mm
Weight: 460g
ISBN-10: 1473884438
ISBN-13: 9781473884434
Barcode No: 9781473884434
Trade or Institutional customer? Contact us about large order quotes.
Synopsis
This is the shocking true story behind the botched introduction of Automatic Half-Barrier level-crossings into Britain. January 1968 saw the convening of the first Parliamentary Court of Inquiry into a railway accident in Britain since the Tay Bridge Disaster nearly a century before. Why was this? Because Britain's 'Railway Detectives', the Railway Inspectorate, who would normally investigate all aspects of railway safety, were also in charge of the introduction of automatic Continental-style, level-crossings into this country. At Hixon in Staffordshire, one of these newly installed 'robot' crossings on British Rail's flagship Euston to Glasgow mainline, was the scene of a fatal high-speed collision between a packed express train and an enormous, heavily laden low-loader. For once, the 'Railway Detectives' were the ones having to explain their actions, in the full glare of media attention, to an expectant and increasingly worried nation. (There was another awful, fatal collision at an automatic crossing at Beckingham, Lincolnshire, in April of 1968). Using previously undisclosed information, the author has been able to cast fresh light on to not only the Hixon Disaster, but also the extraordinary story of the largely successful attempts, by British Railways and the Railway Inspectorate of the time, to hide the truth of just how close we came to having dozens of 'Hixons' right across the rail network.

New & Used

Seller Information Condition Price
-New£15.06
+ FREE UK P & P

What Reviewers Are Saying

Be the first to review this item. Submit your review now