The Millom train crash caused by slippery metals as crew escaped death

Last week a Northern train, with four passengers and four staff members on board, was travelling towards Barrow when it came off the tracks near Grange.

Investigations are still under way however it is now a 'real possibility' that heavy rain contributed to a hole that formed underneath the tracks.

READ MORE: Barrow's worst disasters of the last century captured by the Sankeys

Historically, extreme and sudden weather has always posed a danger to railways lines, which was the case in 1913 in Millom.

Thanks to research by Stephen Cove at Signal Film and Media, a newspaper article was uncovered by the Millom Gazette which detailed the cause of a horrendous crash.

In February of that year, the 6.26am passenger train from Barrow was being shunted into the coach shed when a goods train from Whitehaven crashed into the last coach.

The engine was derailed with the carriage crashing over into the signal-box and was described as 'being splintered like matchwood'.

The structure was practically demolished and its signalman, Mr Holmes, narrowly escaped being killed outright.

He was saved due to the fact that he was pinned to a chimney by a piece of wood and only received cuts about the head.

Wheel examiner Mr Jones also had a miraculous escape as his cabin was also totally wrecked.

The engine driver and stoker of the goods train escaped without a scratch.

The wrecked signal-box and overturned coaches completely blocked the line and without today's technological resources and aids of mass transportation, a 'breakdown gang arrived' to clear the debris

They worked through the night with just a crane at their disposal and the workmen, dignitaries and a policeman are pictured in the photos. 

The locomotive was eventually gotten back onto the track by noon the next day.

The cause of the crash was determined to be a sudden onset of thick dense fog which caused a 'slippery state of the metals'. 

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