In January 1960, during blizzard conditions, the Glasgow-to-London express collided with a Leeds goods train on a railway embankment near Settle, claiming the lives of five people. Here, reporter Lesley Tate looks back at the Herald’s report on the crash.

In the middle of a blizzard, in the early hours of a January morning 50 years ago, a Settle man was woken by a massive explosion outside his house.

George McGoldrick looked out of his bedroom window, close to the railway embankment at Settle, and saw part of a train directly over his head.

Mr McGoldrick was lucky to escape the aftermath of the collision between the Glasgow-to-London express and the Leeds goods train, but five died and a further nine were seriously injured.

Among the four who died at the scene and a fifth who died on the way to hospital – all from Scotland – there was a 23-year-old man on his way to join the RAF and another who was travelling with his wife to start their retirement in Dorset.

The injured included Frederick Atkinson, of Moorview Road, Skipton, the goods train guard.

He told the Craven Herald the collision had “thrown him about like a shuttlecock”.

“I was just going for my snack when the train hit us. It was like a bomb going off,” he said.

He was thrown to the floor and suffered injuries to his face and head, but managed to get off the train and battle through a blizzard and high winds to the nearest signal box.

As he looked back into the darkness, all he could see was a “pile of coaches”. On his way to the signal box, he was overtaken by the fireman of the goods train who took over the job of informing the signalman of the disaster.

Speaking from his bed at home, Mr Atkinson told the Herald: “I don’t know what happened; it was all over in a flash, but it seemed as though a bomb had hit us. I was thrown all over the van and smashed my head against the walls.”

He said it could have been much worse as, at that point, the line was built up with a high embankment, with houses far below on one side.

Locals hurried to the scene of the crash, which happened between Settle and Langcliffe. The greater part of the side of the first coach of the express was ripped clean out. The second coach was caught at the front corner and windows were smashed but it escaped serious damage. The third coach suffered badly. The side of the first five compartments was torn out and the interiors wrecked. It was in this coach that there were several casualties.

The train had slowed considerably and its speed was estimated at around 15mph at the time of the accident.

Mr McGoldrick, whose home in Northfields Crescent was 30 yards away from the railway, told the Herald: “I was in bed when I was awakened by a terrific noise like an explosion. I looked out of the bedroom window and saw an engine directly above me. I ran out to see what had happened and to see if I could give any assistance.”

He then ran a quarter of a mile to Settle Police Station to give the alarm. Three doctors, brothers Dr David Hyslop and Dr Tony Hyslop and Dr O’Connor, of Settle, attended to injured passengers.

After notifying the police, Mr McGoldrick went back to help the injured. He heard a baby crying and lifted 16-month-old Karen Mansfield out of the coach and helped carry the injured to waiting ambulances.

Fire engines from Settle, Skipton and Keighley were standing by.

Supt L Wilson, depot chief of Settle Ambulance Service, said: “When I received the call I turned out the Settle ambulances and took a field car full of rescue gear and lights to the scene. I drove through blinding snow and then scaled a steep embankment to get to the scene.

“All was in darkness and I rigged up powerful pothole rescue lamps which lit up the scene. I saw to my horror that the first carriage past the guard’s van of the express had been ripped open like a sardine tin and other carriages had been damaged as well.

“Men from 11 ambulances fought their way through the blinding snow and began to explore the wreckage. In the wrecked carriage we found four dead and another man seriously hurt and, despite all we could do, he died on his way to hospital.

“By this time, by some miracle, the lights of the train came on and shortly afterwards the fire brigade brought powerful search lights to the scene. We found more casualties, all of whom were taken to Skipton General Hospital.”

Supt Wilson said the rescuers had come across a woman who was desperately looking for her husband.

“The elderly woman was travelling south with her husband to enjoy retirement in a home they had bought in Dorset and, although she herself was injured, she would not leave until they found her husband. We did find him, but he was dead.

“Another incident that seemed like a miracle occurred when we entered one of the damaged carriages and found a baby, on whom a door had fallen and who was covered in glass. We picked the child up and it started to cry, much to the mother’s relief.”

Supt Wilson’s son, Don, who played cricket for Yorkshire, was one of the volunteers who helped at the scene.

A spokesman for the railway said at the scene of the crash that at the time there was no explanation for the collision between a 10.40pm Leeds-to-Carlisle freight train and the 9.05pm St Enoch to St Pancras express, via Leeds.

An Edinburgh-to-London train was diverted to pick up London-bound passengers.

Two pairs of sisters, Dorothy and Florence Bradley and Winifred and Dorothy Cockshott, who lived in Mains View, next to the railway embankment, kept passengers and rescuers supplied with hot drinks.

For four hours, they made tea for a constant stream of people who they invited into their homes.

Florence said she had heard a “terrible hissing of steam” and had called out to her sister. In a very short time, the emergency services and the three local doctors arrived, followed by a steady stream of injured passengers making their way to the sisters’ house.

Miss Bradley believed about 100 passengers were given a warming cup of tea before being ferried to Settle Railway Station by ambulances.

The sisters even managed to save three cats. The animals had been travelling with their owner, who had been injured in the collision and taken to hospital.

At the opening of the inquiry into the accident, the driver of the Glasgow-to-London Express, 60-year-old Fred Waites from Leeds, said he had braked after seeing sparks and ballast flying past his cab.

The inquiry heard there had been problems with the passenger train and Mr Waites had stopped to examine it before continuing at a much slower speed.

At the conclusion of the inquiry, held at Skipton Temperance Hall by Craven coroner Stephen Brown, a jury recorded verdicts of death by misadventure on all five people.

The inquest called for more care on the inspection of engines and said records should be kept of previous faults discovered on engines.

The driver, Mr Waites, was exonerated of all blame.

The inquiry revealed the two trains had come to a violent stop at the point of the accident. The goods train had become derailed and collided with the side of the passenger train.

In his summing up, Mr Brown said there was clear evidence the railway line to the north of the freight train had been “out of alignment”. It was also known that motion gear on the passenger train had become disconnected, because of a fractured piston rod.

Mr Brown said there had been loose bolts on the passenger train engine that had been repeatedly tightened in the weeks before the accident.

He said despite reassurances from experts that the tightening had been safe, it had clearly not been.