DMU Accident

Newcastle Station, ER - 30/6/77

A Newcastle to Newcastle (out via Benton and returning via Wallsend) 2-car Class 101/2 DMU (51525* & 56081) travelling under clear signals was running into unoccupied Nº3 Bay Platform when it failed to stop and collided at 4mph with the buffer-stop, after which it rebounded about 1 foot. The guard and twenty-three passengers preparing to alight were injured although no damage was caused to either the buffer-stop or the train.

* 51525 was a DMC so couldn't (or shouldn't) be running with a DTC, this was perhaps 51425.

The accident was primarily attributed to incorrect braking technique on the part of the driver which led the train to approach the platform too fast after which an emergency brake application caused the train to skid. As a result of this accident and a number of similar buffer-stop collisions involving two-car DMUs (e.g. Stourbridge Town on 2nd April 1977), tests were carried out in 15 cases where trains had either passed a signal at Danger or a stopping point and where brake failure had been alleged. Examination revealed that four of the fifteen cases involved units with one or more defective brake cylinders and a further four involved DMU sets where the units failed the ‘slow application test’. Such Brake defects may therefore have been a contributing factor in this accident.

DOT; b/c; 5pp; f/o location diagram; station track diagram (A.G.B. King).