TV news reports of Eccles rail crash December 1984

[@philquine]

I travelled behind this locomotive that very morning. Class 45 No. 45147 worked the stopper train from Manchester to Liverpool, which was basically a stock working, but used as a passenger service. I picked it up at Roby travelling to Lime Street.

[@grahamallen1970]

Set off a few mins before from Liverpool..(crash near Manchester).. bloody fast loco! Never let the facts get in the way of a good story😊

[@Eric_Hunt194]

Those other news stories are quite the time capsule, especially that robot! 1:29 It's quite astonishing that in 1984 a Peak could get from Liverpool Lime Street to Eccles in "only a few minutes" with 8 coaches behind it! 😂 Also, the hospital spokesman being called Frank Burns. Oof!

[@laszlofyre845]

When the reporter spoke to Mr.Burns I expected 'Exxxcelent. Release the hounds'!

[@AndreiTupolev]

Not a good year, with Polmont and Wembley. (And Morpeth, where there were miraculously no fatalities.) RIP 45147.

[@theredraven]

I get that this was pre 24 hour news and would be focussing primarily on domestic stuff but it still seems made the 1000 people being dead in India is almost a footnote to the bulletin!

[@JohnDavies-cn3ro]

The driver, who was, I think new to the route, missed two signals at danger; one possibly obscured by being set against a red brick wall. (The wall was painted white after the inquiry.) A tragic accident, in which he died. Try not to mock the reporters - usually they don't know the area too well, and have to go on the gen available at the time. We had a major disaster at Colwich, where I lived, and every single national paper the next day had mistakes of geographical fact.

[@PaulOldfield-ne6rg]

Oh and by the way, over 1000 dead in India….

[@Bungle-UK]

Two fatal train crashes in two day in the Manchester area….people who want British Rail back need to remember how bad it was.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@eightiesmusic1984 oh dear….hit a nerve have I? There have been 2 fatal rail accidents in the past 20 years. In the days or BR they were a regular occurrence. If you can’t see the safety improvements, you’re clearly blind or thick.

[@laszlofyre845]

@@Bungle-UK Bottom line. If BR had the money, resources and government insistence on implementing the safety infrastructure, training, and was told to get on with it, it could have made the BR network as safe as it is now, back then. Tech limitations of the 80's notwithstanding, and todays stuff is not that much more advanced or capable, just smaller and less costly than BITD.

[@Bungle-UK]

@@laszlofyre845 So, you concede that BR was short of cash….the reason being that it was state controlled and subject to the financial constraints that come with it. BR only really started to move forward in the late 80s when it began to operate as a business, not a cash cow.

[@cam43002]

I mean… do you remember railtrack?

[@Bungle-UK]

@@eightiesmusic1984 Oh dear. When you’re throwing insults at the person it means you’ve lost the argument.

[@davidsnapebrcrosslane8782]

Passenger wagons , we put people in wagons now do we ?

[@JB-ek4yx]

Presenter had to hild the rotary phone handset up to his head, no such technology as speakerphone

[@StArGazEr11713]

First.

[@fatwalletboy2]

First what?

[@StArGazEr11713]

@@fatwalletboy2 first in comments.