British Rail Class 47 - Incidents

Incidents

• 11 January 1965: D1734 was severely damaged after the freight train it was hauling ran out of control near Shrewsbury, eventually demolishing a signal box. It was withdrawn two months later, becoming the first Class 47 withdrawn after a working life of only eight months.
• 17 December 1965: D1671 THOR was derailed near Bridgend whilst hauling a train of empty coaches. Shortly afterwards, a freight train collided heavily with the wreckage, killing the drivers of both locomotives. D1671 was withdrawn some four months later. Its nameplates were salvaged, and transferred to No. D1677.
• 8 April 1969: D1908 was badly damaged when, while hauling a freight train at Monmore Green, it was struck head-on by a passenger train that had passed a signal at danger. D1908 caught fire after the accident and became the third Class 47 withdrawn.
• 13 March 1971: D1562 was wrecked after its power unit, which had been experimentally uprated, exploded at Haughley Junction while the locomotive was hauling a Liverpool Street to Norwich express.
• 11 June 1972: D1630 was involved in the notorious Eltham Well Hall rail crash in which six people were killed. The locomotive was repaired, but much later in its life when numbered 47849, it was withdrawn from the Class 57 rebuilding programme after damage was discovered which was thought to have dated back to the accident.
• 22 October 1979: 47208 became the fifth Class 47 to be withdrawn after suffering severe damage in a fatal accident at Invergowrie in Scotland. 47208 was hauling a Glasgow to Aberdeen service which collided with a local train which had stopped in front.
• 9 December 1983: 47299 (formerly 47216) was involved in a serious accident at Wrawby Junction in Lincolnshire, when whilst hauling an oil train, the locomotive collided with a local train resulting in the death of a passenger. It later emerged that the locomotive's renumbering was allegedly due to a warning given to BR by a clairvoyant who claimed to have foreseen a serious accident involving a locomotive numbered 47216.
• 30 July 1984: 47707 Holyrood was propelling the 17:30 express from Edinburgh to Glasgow from the rear, when the train collided with a cow near Polmont and was derailed, resulting in 13 deaths. The accident raised serious concerns about the safety of push-pull operation where the locomotive was at the rear of the train.