In the early hours of Tuesday morning, October 13, 1914, a train of fifty trucks, filled with goods destined for the London shops and markets, and pulled by the latest pattern engine from the Eastleigh works, crashed headlong into a stationary line of trucks on the same line near Andover Junction.

The engine had been detached from its line of trucks in order to pick up a wagon from Andover, the guard superintending the job and collecting his weigh bill for the contents.

The crash happened in the section between the Weyhill Road and the Millway Road bridges.

Coming up from Exeter, the oncoming train had stopped at Salisbury and then embarked on what was supposed to be a continuous run from there to the Nine Elms goods station in Wandsworth.

As the train passed Grateley it slowed to 50mph to allow for the falling gradient, and in reaching the outskirts of Andover at Gallagher’s Copse, the whistle was engaged and it picked up speed, oblivious to the obstruction on the line in front, ploughing straight into it at full pelt.

Any on-track red warning signs must have been ignored.

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The result can only be imagined as the 160-ton engine ran into the blockage of trucks.

Not only were those trucks thrown all over the line but the impact caused the train to topple over, with some of its own trucks virtually flying through the air and landing on other rolling stock standing nearby.

Truck after truck, some completely shattered and holed, spilled its contents onto the track.

There were meat carcases, hams, apples, radishes, potatoes, baskets of fruit, hampers, crates of eggs, lamp glasses, pheasants, partridges, rabbits, butter, cream and cheese.

One truck was filled with blackberries and those contents were strewn all over the track, staining it dark red.

More tragic was the deaths of the livestock the train was carrying.

Eighteen cow and bullocks were either killed from the direct result of the collision or were humanely shot soon afterwards to put them out of their misery, while another 11 were unharmed.

This included two cows who had walked out of the trucks after the crash and seemed to wonder what all the fuss was about.

Although there were seven train lines, including sidings and the line to Swindon, all but the main down line was filled with vehicles before the crash occurred.

There had been observations beforehand that it was like ‘doing a quart of work in a pint measure’.

It was eight weeks into World War I and beside the normal traffic of a mainline station, there were the added encumbrances of troop movements and the considerable transport of food and supplies to the camps on Salisbury Plain.

There was very little physical space between the steep chalk sides of the cutting, west of the station itself and this made clearing the tracks of the wreckage more difficult, which had to be done by cranes brought in from elsewhere.

For almost three days, Andover Junction was closed to traffic in order to clear up and make the railway track serviceable again.

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It was a mammoth task that took every employee the railway company could muster, as well as the specialist breakdown gangs, working continuously day and night.

After the most serious crash Andover had experienced, everything was up and running again by late Thursday afternoon; it had been 60 hours of high drama, forever immortalised by photographer Fred Wright, who published a series of postcards recording the scene.  

If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at www.andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk