Three decades since Staffordshire rail crash caused by train fault left one dead, 20 injured and a gas leak in the air
It has been 30 years since a serious rail accident left the wreckage of two trains scattered across tracks in the Stafford area and led to the death of a man.
The Rickerscote rail crash took place on March 8, 1996 on the West Coast Main Line about two kilometres south of Stafford station south from the point where the West Coast Main Line diverges at Stafford into its Birmingham and Trent Valley routes.
It happened around 11.08pm when a southbound Transrail freight train travelling from Mossend in North Lanarkshire to Willesden in north London derailed after an axle on one of its wagons fractured.
The freight train was carrying tanker wagons filled with liquid carbon dioxide when the axle failure occurred, with the broken axle causing the wagon and several others to derail and foul the adjacent line.
The collision then occurred immediately afterwards as a travelling Post Office train approached on the neighbouring track at speed and collided with the wreckage.
