The
Lewisham Train Disaster 4th December 1957
Vernon
Henry William Newland 1899 -1957
Vernon Newland was Stanley Newland’s brother. He was the
eldest of Henry & Sophie Newland’s five children. He worked as a civil servant
in London and married Annie Manser in 1926. The couple lived in Beckenham and
had one son, whose name was Alan.
On the early evening of the 4th December 1957,
Vernon caught the train for home from London Bridge Station. It was a foggy
evening with bad visibility and trains were delayed and out of their usual time
slots. Vernon was travelling in the last carriage of an electric train, which
was bound for Hayes, Kent. The train was brought to a halt at Parks Bridge
junction, just outside Lewisham, due to a red signal.
A steam train headed for Ramsgate was approaching the same
junction, travelling at about 35 miles per hour. It is believed to have passed
two warning signals without slowing down. The driver probably missed these due
to the poor visibility at the time. By the time that the steam train’s fireman
noticed that the next signal was at red, it was too late to stop the train and it ploughed into the back of the stationary electric train. The impact
was made worse by the fact that the electric train had engaged its brakes because
it had stopped on an incline. The back two coaches of the electric train were
destroyed.
The engine and first coach of the steam train were crushed
together and thrown sideways, dislodging a bridge support and causing part of
the bridge to collapse onto the steam train’s second and third coaches. A train
approaching the bridge slowly on another line spotted the damage to the girders
and was able to stop in time.
All three trains had been packed with City & West End
workers and Christmas shoppers. It is estimated that there were nearly 1,500
passengers in the electric train and about 700 in the steam train. Ninety people,
including Vernon, lost their lives in the accident and about two hundred people were
injured.
This is a link to a video explaining how the accident
happened https://youtu.be/ZxKRNkBr8Vc?si=auGrDOHdz4bnN9ei
This is a link to a Pathe news report about the accident https://youtu.be/zB4as3sCn_Q?si=HBkYj9gL0Rylppg4
