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The Witham Rail Disaster
How three heroic Essex signalmen saved hundreds of lives when a train derailed.
On the morning of September 1st, 1905, a train leaves London Liverpool Street for the Norfolk seaside town of Cromer. An hour later, as it approaches Witham station, disaster strikes when most of the fourteen carriages of the Cromer Express leave the tracks.
It remains one of the worst railway disasters in the east of England, but it’s the heroics of three Essex railwaymen that would help prevent an even greater tragedy.
Picture credit: Fred Spalding.
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From Essex—BBC Essex
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