> David i need to know times and circumstances for the accident and also some
> trivial information about this
This is from memory, but I'm sure that other will give you the full
chapter and verse on detail. I don't recall the exact day and time,
but the accident occurred in January 1977.
It involved a morning commuter train made up of older style,
locomotive hauled carriages from the Blue Mountains. The carriages
immediately behind the 46 class electric locomotive hauling the train
derailed on the western approach to Granville station and knocked out
a steel pier supporting the concrete road bridge over the railway at
that point. The bridge collapsed without any central support and
crushed two of the carriages, one completely and another for most of
its length.
83 passengers were killed and over 200 were injured, some very
seriously The rescue of some passengers took many hours and was the
subject of intense media coverage while it was in progress. Some of
the rescues can only be described as miraculous, and were comparable
in many respects the rescue of Stuart Diver (sp?) in the recent
Thredbo ski lodge disaster.
The were much speculation as to the cause of the accident but it was
eventually determined through both Coroners and other "official"
enquiries that it was primarily due to poor standards of track
maintenance.
At most other locations, a derailment of the type the carriages
experienced would have been a non-trivial accident but it unlikely
that anyone would have been killed, or even seriously injured. The
proximity of the derailment to the particular type of road bridge
turned out to be a fatal combination of circumstances.
The accident had a big impact on Sydney, as it seemed that many people
knew, even if only in a light way, at least someone who was killed or
injured on the train. I was in the process of negotiating the
purchase of electronic test equipment at the time and the local
manager for the Melbourne based company that I was negotiating with
was killed in the accident. I was unable to proceed with the deal for
several weeks until the company had sorted out what it was going to do
to replace its Sydney representation.
Ask away, if there's anything else I can help with.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bolton
Sydney, Australia