The recent train derailment at Salisbury has resulted in many people reminding me of the terrible railway disaster which occurred at Salisbury Station in 1906.

However, our photograph this week shows another derailment which happened in 1967.

This accident happened when ten railway goods trucks being taken from Salisbury to Eastleigh in the early hours of a cold January morning, crashed at the mouth of the Salisbury Railway Tunnel – on the Laverstock side – blocking one line.

Nobody was hurt but the derailed trucks caused slight delays to passenger trains from London. Single-line working was employed the following day and the track was cleared by late afternoon.

The freight train was being hauled by a diesel/electric locomotive and just as it entered the lone tunnel outside Salisbury Station, the trucks became derailed. All ten trucks twisted and fell across one track – some finished up against the steep embankment.

This was at 12.25am and shortly afterwards breakdown crews were on the scene and worked throughout the night and day removing the trucks and clearing the track.

At 9am all but five trucks were removed and London-bound trains and Southampton trains were allowed in and out of Salisbury.

At the time of the derailment no other train was passing, although there was a second freight train carrying crude oil approaching on the Southampton line. This train was not involved in any way.

Just a few weeks later a Salisbury railway engine driver was taken to the Infirmary after a three car diesel train, weighing 100 tons, over-ran the stop-blocks at the Motive Power Depot, Cherry Orchard Lane, and crashed into the foot-plate staff mess room.

Twelve men were in the room at the time and it was very fortunate that there were no fatalities.

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