Irish Mail rail crash at Penmaenmawr

Description

The Irish Mail crashed at Penmaenmawr, August 1950, into a stationary light engine with 6 dead and 37 hurt. A much worse accident was said to have been prevented by a Llandudno train guard, Mr. W. J. Davies, who knew that an ammunition train was only minutes away from the collision spot. He ran to place warning detonators in its path and it managed to pull up just outside the station. 37 people were injured, many of them seriously, when the speeding London bound Mail Train hit the engine at 3.02 a.m., but miraculously about 480 others in the crowded express were unhurt. What happened was, the Mail Train, half an hour late from Holyhead after the passengers had crossed from Ireland, was speeding at 60 m.p.h. into the long straight section along the sea to Penmaenbach Tunnel. It had been given a clear road. Then it is understood, the signals were switched against it at Penmaenmawr. Driver William Williams of Holyhead slammed on the brakes. The train lurched and swayed but it was impossible to stop it in time. The front of its engine, the 115 ton 'Lancashire Fusilier', mounted the back of the standing light engine and the two sped for hundreds of yards down the track locked together, tearing up the rails.

• http://calmview.conwy.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=CP395%2f10%2f79&pos=1 (link opens in new window)