One Drunk Train Driver. Fifteen Wagons. One Devastated Station | Maidstone East Train Crash

On 6 September 1993, a drunk train driver approached Maidstone East at excessive speed, triggering a derailment that overturned a locomotive, crushed freight wagons and tore into the station buildings. In this on-location railway documentary, I visit Maidstone East in Kent to reconstruct the crash involving Class 47 locomotive 47288 and freight train 6M57, the Dover Town Yard to Willesden Brent Sidings service. Using the surviving provisional HM Railway Inspectorate report, contemporary photographs and reporting of the subsequent court case, we follow the train’s approach through Wheeler Street and Week Street tunnels, examine the speed restrictions and warning systems, and uncover the extraordinary damage left behind. How did the train reach the station at such excessive speed? What could its safety equipment actually prevent? And what did investigators discover in the wreckage? Subscribe to Tom Macklaw for more British railway history, historical documentaries and forgotten stories filmed where they happened. ► You can help support me and the channel by giving a little each month: Patreon/Tom Macklaw 🔗   / tommacklaw   Sources and further reading: • HMRI provisional accident report: https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/doc... • Parliamentary answer, 18 October 1993: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-ha... • Contemporary sentencing report: https://www.the-independent.com/news/... #RailwayHistory #MaidstoneEast #BritishRail #TrainCrash