Published on 17th August 1986
The 17th August 1986 was an rare railway accident which happened at Cogload Junction.
A south bound overnight cement service left the rails just south of Cogload Junction causing one of the largest derailments Taunton has ever seen. The major incident closed the mainline between Taunton to Bristol and Westbury. The four-track mainline was closed while the clear up operation took place, with single lines later reopened to traffic once wagons had been cleared from the running lines and track had been repaired. Locos reported in the clean-up operations are as follows: 33004, 33010, 37304, 47015, 47144, and 50046. The derailment was caused by the train having run from Westbury with a wagon handbrake on, the impending wheel flat got so deep that hit a check rail at Cogload Junction and derailed the train.
Information from David Smith (Western Rails Consultancy) & Barry Stephens (Arlington Fleet Services): Barry was a member of the Eastleigh breakdown crew in 1986 and the fixed jib crane (featured in the photos below). Eastleigh's 76 Tonne crane ADRC96707 (which is now preserved on the East Lancashire Railway at Bury). In order to get the crane to the derailment site it was routed via the southern mail line from Salisbury to Exeter. It was then propelled on Cogload Junction from Exeter. From the pictures it's noticeable that the other crane was able to pick up the loaded wagons and put them on to the far line down road but due to not having such a long reach the fixed jib 76T Crane from Eastleigh had to put the wagons behind on the up road.
David Smith was the Operations and Train Crew Manager at Westbury until the takeover by the AM Bristol in April 1986. He has told Taunton Trains that they had a "train prepared" procedure in place prior to the takeover. The train which derailed was involved in that procedure. Simply stated, the procedure involved a member of the yard staff inspecting the train prior to departure to ensure its fitness to travel. If the locomotive was attached, the train handbrakes were taken off, leaving the locomotive brake to secure the stationery train. The reason for this procedure was to reduce the time in the main line traincrew's diagram in that they could simply walk to the train, start the locomotive, carry out the brake continuity test and proceed, the train having been prepared by the member of the yard staff. Each train involved in the procedure was detailed in an instruction to the staff involved that was updated and re-issued at every time table change. The incoming "team" of the AM Bristol saw fit to discontinue this procedure but failed to put anything else in its place so the train which actually derailed was left with a wagon parking brake on. The brake was not checked or released before departure with the consequences pictured on Taunton Trains.
We can collected and collated a large selection of previously unseen images relating to the derailment hosted in the below gallery.
