Cowden rail crash

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On October 15, 1994 a fatal train crash occurred around 350 yards from Cowden Station. There was a head-on collision between two trains in heavy fog after the driver of a northbound train ran past a red signal and entered a single line section.

Five people were killed and thirteen were injured. The guard of the northbound train, who had ambitions to become a driver, was in the driver's cab at the time of the collision, in defiance of the regulations. It is thought that his presence may have contributed to the accident and there were even suspicions that he may have been at the controls. This will never be known, however, as he and both drivers were killed in the collision, along with two passengers.

There were several other contributory factors; the AWS may have been inoperative, the signal was dirty and the light intensity was low, and there were no catch points to prevent a train wrongly entering a section against the signal. The official report, however, placed the blame on the driver.

The accident was exacerbated by the age and design of the trains involved. The separate-chassis construction of the British Rail Mark 1 stock led to overriding of one carriage by the next. These trains, unpopular with users of the line because of their antiquated nature and unreliability, were replaced in 2005.

A plaque on the station buildings at Cowden commemorates the accident.