The Eltham Well Hall Train Crash. A Disaster Documentary.

48 Comments

1. A couple of the images shown are from a different rail incident and is not from the Eltham Well Hall crash. Apologies for any confusion. Accuracy and respect for those involved is always a priority.

2. I witnessd aftermath of crash on ex GT Central, between Lutterworth & Rugby , Feb 11/ 12? 1961 . : Late Nite parcel/ passngr train Shefld to Swindon deraild after hitting rekage of part detaild N bound fret ( hot axlebox) . Hall' loco badly damgd,, driver kild, fireman bad injured, no serious pasngr casualtys, as front 4? vehicles wer bogie vans, , front 2 went into field but stayed uprite. They had to bring Swindon brkedown crane to lift loco. We cycled ther on th Sunday morn ,,tender still on th embankment. They quikly repaird th Trak. Cud hav been far worse if 3/4 mile S : at the birdcage bridge over th W C ML.

3. That is crazy how much he drank.

4. Such a tragedy. Thank you for the history and for remembering these beautiful people.

5. I was a 19 year old Dartfordian at that time. I commuted to London regularly on this line from Dartford for work and for getting to music gigs. I remember this accident very well. It was shocking then as now.

6. First station I worked at, started in the Ticket Office in 1974. Lots of memories of my time there.

7. The Railwayman mentioned RT Akehurst was my dad I was 5 at the time

8. Driver Wilsdon alone was responsible for this accident. No he wasn't, the failure to sack him was terrible.

9. The driver should have been sacked after being arrested by the police.

10. I lived near Well Hall station and remember walking down to the station after hearing about the crash. I was stunned by what I saw. Will never forget the carnage. 😢

11. stupid annoying music

12. Paul Stokes not Peter Stokes

13. I have the dubious honour of having made it through 2 train wrecks. One in France where a mechanical failure resulted in the train crashing violently against the buffer at the end of the track inside the station. That was many years ago while I was still a young man. I got off lightly with only a fractured ancle, a heavy concussion and scrapes and bruises. Regretfully, a passenger seated nor far from me sustained a fractured spine and was paralized from the waist down. I never met or talked to her while in hospital, but I still think of her and how she is managing on occasion. Others got injured too, but thankfully all of them with only somewhat lighter injuries like my own as far as I was able to learn.And some passengers, most thank god, walked away with only scrapes and bruises or perfectly ubharmed. That was a terrifying experience because nobody knew what had happened and everybody had been thrown around like rag dolls if they weren't lucky enough to be seated with their backs to the direction of travel. In all honesty, it might have been more terrifying because my concussion made me groggy and slow in understanding. Because my memories after the crash itself was of most people, even those injured, were rather calm and helping out as best they could through it all. A BIG praise to both passengers and people just coming to help and rescue personel in France. (Marseilles area)
    The second wreck was some 12 years ago and almost laughable in comparison. A 2 or 3 carrige and locomotive train derailing just after starting to move away from a train station in Odsherred Denmark, not even turning over, but just coming to an abrupt and rather bumpy stop halfway of the track. And as far as both I and others were able to make out, the worst injury was a black eye, making a young girl look as if she had been in a fist fight which actually resulted in a gaggle of jokes about never being able to persuade other people that it had actually been from a light train wreck and a lot of relieved laughter.
    In the first accident, I never really learned what the actual nature of mechanical breakdown was, but it was not the driver of the train who was at fault. It was just bad luck all around. And the French railways did all they could to help and compensate the passengers affected, it also has to be said in praise. Even Air France went out of their way in order to fly me back to Denmark when I was discharged from Hospital when learning that I was in need of passage back home as a result of a train wreck.
    The Danish accident turned out to be the bolts securing the tracks to the ground being of poor quality that had somehow slipped through quality control and then gave way as the train passed over them, resulting in the derailment. So again, just a case of bad luck all around and nobody to actually blame for anything.
    But I do remember the scare we experienced in the France accident, and the initial feeling of chaos. So I do feel really sorry for the people who lived through this train disaster even if so many years ago and the families of those killed still living with the loss of someone dear to them. May they all rest in peace.

14. Yes I've just subscribed too I'm incredibly interested in British history…cheers from Australia (with initial family from Kent and Cornwall who emigrated in the 1840s to South Australia. Looking forward to watching more videos.

15. Celebrity train crash victims. Hither Green was Maurice Gibb. That’s quite a coincidence really.

16. A comment for the algorithm Gods

17. I remember seeing a movie about Mussolini which had the part about "getting the trains to run on time." A train was two days late getting to Rome from Naples which should have taken only a few hours, because the train crew had been drinking. The railway management said they couldn't do anything about it, because the labor union would strike. Mussolini went to the station with police and media in tow, pulled the train crew out of the locomotive and beat them with bats. A lot of the problems with the railway stopped after that.

18. I lived in Arsenal Road, just half mile from Eltham Well Hall station, and won't forget the noise the train made as it derailed, then the complete silence.
    Very sad event.

19. Excellent video, I really like the factual accuracy of your reportage and the measured tone of your narration. You’ve got yourself a new subscriber, thank you x

20. What a terrible event. Thanks for your empathic story telling. I've hyped the video so I hope that helps bring more attention to your channel.

21. Zero tolerance, ever, for drunk drivers, and no second – or third, or fourth – chances. If the very real, and well known, risk of killing people isn’t enough to dissuade you from drinking before taking charge of a train and its passengers the first time, what makes anyone think that these despicable, selfish people won’t do it again?

    Unfortunately their “promises” are worthless. Even if a drunk genuinely becomes a teetotaller, I’m sorry, statistically society cannot take that risk with you ever again; this career, with the responsibility for countless lives, just isn’t for you.

22. My mother saw the train go past the kitchen window. She said at the time the train was going too fast. She and my aunt were both nurses and went to help . They took a large bucket of sweet tea for those in shock. She lived in Dunvegan road and the garden backed on to the railway line.

23. Measurement of blood alcohol after death is notoriously unreliable – particularly where there has been major trauma to the body. Rupture of the stomach (if the gastric contents contain undigested alcohol) can contaminate blood samples taken after death. Autodigestion of the body (very early decomposition) can also result in the generation/production of ethanol (alcohol as commonly known) as well as the metabolic products of alcohol breakdown – acetaldehyde and acetic acid. Back in 1972 there were no tests (blood urine, hair etc) that could identify problem drinkers before they became physically unwell. Chronic alcoholics who chose not to seek help for their drinking usually went undetected until accidents, criminality, family breakup supervened. Additionally, this was the heyday of the 'Tranquilliser Era' – doctors were persuaded by pharma companies that the key to society's problems lay in 'anxiety of the soul' and literally millions of people in the UK at some stage received Valium, Librium, Ativan and similar along with longer acting benzos such as Mogadon to promote sleep. Many people, particularly alcoholics and problem drinkers, became addicted to long term tranquillisers – the combination of alcohol and benzodiazepine(s) was both mentally and physically impairing and extremely habit forming.

    Measurement of blood alcohol after death has remained problematic. Henri Paul, the al-Fayed employee who drove recklessly to shake off the paparazzi pursuing the car containing Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed had been drinking (Pernod/pastis and water) minutes before the crash – and quite possibly over a number of hours previously too. M. Paul was known to be a heavy regular drinker, (possibly beginning to become problematic). CCTV of the party leaving the back entrance of the Ritz Hotel, Paris doesn't suggest that Paul was drunk although alcoholics can become extremely resistant to the physical effects of alcohol. Some precise blood toxicology was possible; traces of Prozac were found, (irrelevant to the accident, but suggesting that Paul was not being entirely honest with his employer regarding his (Paul's) health). However it proved impossible to measure Paul's alcohol level. Samples from the abdominal cavity, femoral artery, liver tissue and jelly fluid of the eyes produced absolutely no consistent results. Despite absence of proof, the Investigating Magistrate ruled that the accident was caused by Paul's drunkenness – a finding that was later largely overturned after a legal challenge by Paul's family. So, despite all the 1990s high tech employed by the cream of French forensic pathology, we'll never really know if alcohol caused the death of our Princess 'Queen of Hearts'.

    There are now blood tests (or a panel of blood tests) which can identify problem drinkers with reasonable accuracy. One of these is called carbohydrate deficient transferrin which is very specific for excess alcohol consumption.

24. I am not sure if you are aware of this, but you kept showing photos of the 1975 Nuneaton accident.

25. I work for the southern Pacific railroad for 32 years. And I was involved in a bad training derailment, which was a faulty signal and a defective sighting, which almost ended me in my Grandpa's life. Thank God, we're still alive today.The SD40 southern Pacific we were running was totally destroyed.I do not know how we got out of that train wreck.The lord was looking after us🚦🛤🚦

26. Good video but why show photo's of the Nuneaton accident ?

27. I was living in the Eltham Park area when this accident occurred, and remember seeing the locomotive on its side as my commuter train passed by on the up-line. A most distressing sight. Peter A

28. British Rail absolutely should have been prosecuted for not dealing with their alcoholic driver! He was a vehicular manslaughter charge waiting to happen. He belonged in prison after the other incidents. Can we also assume that the 18yo young man trainee was also killed? His family deserved a large settlement from BR if he was. The company had known drunk to not only drive passengers while blindly intoxicated, they put their own employees’ lives in grave danger.

29. a similar story to the Hither Green tragedy

30. I’m fairly sure Wilsdon booked on for duty by telephone and was not actually seen by a train crew manager so no one was able to assess his fitness for duty. When I started driving in 2000 we always saw someone face to face when signing on, although this practice is gradually disappearing once more. One of the things I sign for every day is that I am in compliance with the drug and alcohol policy.

31. i was on duty at Weiilng that night I remember it well

32. I lived at Bexleyheath by the station. I remember the noise a train made as a train passed through louder than usual. Then later we heard there had been a train crash at Well Hall.

33. A good summary of a disaster that should not have happened: well done. On a personal note, my late uncle was then the parish priest of St. John's Church, Eltham, and I subsequently found out that he took part in the rescue effort that night – although he never spoke about it whilst he was alive.

34. Don't drink and drive, kids.

35. my grandparents lived in the flats on strongbow cresent in eltham, they were on the 4th floor and i was told by my grandad about this crash.

36. If you consider this is the context of 2026 – one in nine generic workers fail drug tests – usually by abusing cocaine or cannabis. As this example shows, no matter how professional those charged with looking after the safety of the public, it only takes one to slip through the net to create such tragedy. It's always too late to say sorry after the event…..

37. Great video sir. 🇺🇸🇬🇧

38. Thanks

39. Thank you for a well researched video.
    I've been a subscriber for a while and enjoy your content.
    This one was so unnecessary and tragic.
    It was very nice of you to be sympathetic to the injured and dead.

40. It was well knownat least 100 years before that drink was a problem and there were laws in place

    I'd argue BR were at fault,but so was the driver for being too good at being able to appear sober while not,though and there'scontradiction and confusion over what happened. No matterif he did or didn't drink in the cab along with the train crew,which is a point of contention. THe track layout arguably did not help matters,and nor did BR's procedures though

41. Kindest regards 😊🌼💙

42. Eltham Well Hall station nolonger exists. That and Eltham Park Station were closed and Eltham Station was created. I always wondered why they did it, maybe the accident made this happen although reduced cost as more likely the reason

43. Thats a definite "Can't park there mate"

44. I remember this accident being reported at the time and that the driver was drunk. Twenty years laler and another accident at Purley, brought in random drink and drug testing of railway staff as part of the new Transport & Works act.

45. I lived in Eltham with my grandmother when this happened.
    My parents lived in Sittingbourne. I used to use this line from Well hall to Sittingbourne to see mum and dad and back again to Nans in purneys Road. I was 13 when this happened. My Nan never let me use the railway ever again, and at 66, I still haven't used the railway. This crash scared the life out of me. I wasn't in the crash, but all the same, it affected me and my nan.
    My grandfather used to drive me down the A2 after that 45 miles in a Wolsley 1500 and back.
    I miss my grandparents 😢 god bless them.

46. I've done some extensive research on this disaster. It's always struck me as a tragedy slowly unfolding – starting, as you point out, in a pub on a normal Sunday lunchtime, then escalating during the afternoon and evening and culminating in a horrific crash which was entirely preventable – but for human weakness. RIP to the victims and heartfelt sympathies to those innocent people who were injured, and those left mentally scarred.

47. Excellent documentary but quite harrowing at times. I was 10 in 1972 and have no memory of this so thank you for filling a gap for me.

48. What an asshole.

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