Community to come together to remember those lost in rail disaster [Video]

The village of Hixon in Staffordshire will come together at St Peter’s Church on Friday to dedicate a new stained glass window representing the strong connections between the local community, the railway and the nearby RAF base at the church.

It will be another lasting memorial in the village to the events of January 6, 1968, when in clear visibility, the 11.30am British Rail express, travelling from Manchester to Euston, collided with a heavy transporter carrying a 120-ton electrical transformer over an automatic crossing in Hixon.

The train, running at 75mph, was carrying 300 passengers and as a result of the collision the train driver, the second man and a spare driver in the locomotive were killed as well as eight passengers.

Forty four passengers and a restaurant car Attendant were also injured, six of them seriously. The incident led to an enquiry which saw changes made to level crossings …