Polmont Train Station
Train Service From Glasgow Queen Street To Edinburgh Waverley Calling At Polmont
Polmont Rail Crash 30th July 1984
The Polmont rail accident, also known as the Polmont rail disaster, occurred on 30 July 1984 to the west of Polmont, near Falkirk in Scotland, when a westbound push-pull express train travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow struck a cow which had gained access to the track through a damaged fence from a field near Polmont railway station. The collision caused all six carriages and the locomotive of the train to derail, killing 13 people and injuring 61 others. The accident led to a debate about the safety of push-pull trains on British Rail.
On Monday, 30 July 1984 a westbound express train, the 17:30 service from Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street – consisting of a British Rail Class 47/7 diesel-electric locomotive pushing five Mark 3 coaches, and fronted by a DBSO (no. 9706)– made a scheduled stop at Linlithgow station and accelerated to approximately 85 mph (137 km/h), passing through Polmont station shortly afterwards.
To the west of Polmont the track curved left and passed the junction for Stirling, then curved right with a steady gradient towards Falkirk High station. After passing the junction the train driver, John Tennant, spotted a cow on the line in the cutting on the approach to Falkirk High and made an emergency brake application; he had only between six and twelve seconds to react to the obstruction and apply the emergency brakes because of the curvature of the track. The dynamics of the train, with the locomotive pushing from behind, meant that when the brakes were applied from the DBSO at the front there was a delay in transmission of the signal to the locomotive brakes to prevent a sudden backlash to the carriages in front; this caused the train to decelerate only slightly. The train hit the adult Ayrshire cow weighing 700–1,000 pounds (320–450 kg), at 17:55 (BST).
The impact of the collision destroyed the animal, but a significant part of the carcass, later thought to be a leg bone, became trapped under the leading bogie of the DBSO, lifting it off the track and derailing it. The DBSO ran derailed for approximately 100 yards (90 m) and then veered to the left, before running up the edge of the cutting into trees at the top. It then turned on its side as it was pushed round by the force of the train behind. The second vehicle, after climbing over the rear end of the DBSO, somersaulted end over end, eventually hitting the fifth vehicle as it ran past it, and the third vehicle was hit by the DBSO as it fell back down the wall of the cutting after rebounding from the trees. The DBSO and third vehicle were so badly damaged they had to be cut up on site.
Casualties were mainly in the two leading vehicles, and most fatalities were due to passengers being ejected through windows or hit by other passengers or objects as the vehicles were thrown about. The possibility of trains being fitted with seatbelts was raised and rejected, as it was again 20 years later after the derailment at Ufton Nervet in 2004.
The main focus was that the light axle-loading of the DBSO had led to its being more easily derailed than a heavier vehicle would have been, and modifications were put in place to lessen the chances of a recurrence of the derailment. This problem was to be revisited in the Great Heck accident in 2001, where a leading coach of a train being powered from the rear was again derailed by an object (this time a motor vehicle) on the line.
It was theorized that the use of the locomotive in the rear further added to the severity of the crash, as the locomotive continued to push forward into the train after the derailment took place. This is a common situation found in accidents where push pull consists are used, and would turn up as a factor in future accidents both in the UK and abroad.
Polmont Train Station
Train Service From Glasgow Queen Street To Edinburgh Waverley Calling At Polmont
Trains at Polmont
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Includes:
Class 158
Class 170
Class 365
Class 380
Class 385
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Trains at Polmont 16/08/19 Episode 11
A few 385's at Polmont
(HD) Trains at Newton, Glasgow Queen St, Falkirk High, Polmont & Gartcosh | 24/11/2018
A few clips from a trip to Scotland on the 24th November 2018. Traction featured includes classes 314, 365, 385, 158 and 156. These videos were recorded on my recently purchased iPhone 8 Plus and are primarly test clips. Enjoy!
Polmont Tour... 2006!
A Tour of Polmont in 2006.... revised version coming soon
Previous version removed due to copyright infringement... :( x
Polmont Rail Crash 30th July 1984
The fatal rail crash caused by a cow on the Edinburgh to Glasgow Line
Trains at Linlithgow 20/04/19 | S1 E5
This week’s video comes from Linlithgow located on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line between Edinburgh Park and Polmont. It is served by trains to and from Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Queen Street and Dunblane.
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Class 385
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Polmont - 25 April 2013
Just a quick stop at Polmont to see a couple of trains. I was hoping to see EC Power Cars running light but they didn't show.
Trains at Polmont (22/11/2014) (HD)
An hour and a half at Polmont station with a lot of Class 170 Turbostars passing through from Edinburgh to Glasgow/Glasgow to Edinburgh, as well as 170s and 158s on Edinburgh to Dunblane /Dunblane to Edinburgh runs. A light grid makes an appearance towards the end as does the 1200 East Coast HST from London to Inverness
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44871&45407 The Lancashire Fusilier&47854 at Polmont | 1Z58 Fort William-Polmont.
44871 & 45407 The Lancashire Fusilier & 47854 Diamond Jubilee Polmont 24/10/15.
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Flying Scotsman - Polmont Station - 19 May 2019
Sadly problems with the Flying Scotsman meant that it had to be headed by a diesel engine on its third run of the day. Glad I got a decent photo on its second run though.
Trains at polmont
Hello everyone scotland transpotter here and welcome the final part of my video of trains at polmont were you will continue to see services by scotrail and LNER and so you know we're i am going next I will put my station plan in the comments down below
My next station will be linlithgow
37219/37116 1Q79 Polmont & 37800/37884 0Z37 Duke Street
Filmed in FULL HD.
1. Colas 37219 TnT 37116 pass through Polmont working 1Q79 Inverness - Mossend on the 15th of May 2017.
2. Europhoenix/Rail Operations Group 37800 & 37884 pass Duke Street working 0Z37 Shields TMD - Bo'ness on the 16th of May 2017.
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alpha over polmont
me chaos flying along contented that im up almost every day enjoying the flight then all of a sudden fliightrage this loon in a plane peeps his horn flashes his light behind me then proceeds to cut me up well thats him reported again skyhog
Trains at polmont part 2
Hello everyone scotland transpotter here and welcome back to part 2 of trains at polmont were you will continue to see services by scotrail and LNER if you want to know what I think of polmont and were all the services you will be seeing in this video then I recommended you watch part 1 first
My next station will be linlithgow
60007 Sir Nigel Gresley at Polmont East
GWR Azuma at Polmont.
Azuma 800303 in elegant GWR livery passes Polmont en route to Inverness on 5X71 test run during a snow flurry, Feb 27 2018.
Steam @ Polmont 13-05-2011
61994 and 45231 top and tail their support vehicles en route Stirling - Bo'ness GF 13-05-2011