THE MOORGATE TUBE TRAIN DISASTER. 28th February 1975.

On Friday 28 February 1975 the 08:38 service from Drayton Park on the London Underground Northern line (Highbury Branch) left one minute late. It was formed of two three-car units of 1938 LTE rolling stock. On arrival at Moorgate station the train failed to slow, passing through the station platform area at 30–40 mph before entering the 66 feet (20 m) long overrun tunnel with a red stop-lamp, a sand drag and a hydraulic buffer stop. The sand drag only slowed the train slightly before the train collided heavily with the buffers and impacted with the terminal wall. 

The smaller diameter of the tube train involved allowed the first car to ride up over the hydraulic buffers with the second coach driving under the first leading to significant damage at this end. The leading driving car buckled at three points into a V shape and was crushed to less than half its length between the wall and the weight of the train piling up behind it. The third car was damaged at both ends, more significantly at the leading end as it rode over the second car. Approximately 300 passengers were on the train; 42 passengers and the driver died and 74 passengers were treated in hospital for their injuries.

It was declared a Major Accident by both the Brigade and the London Ambulance Service. It was the LFB’s most difficult special service incident in over a decade. It was London’s worst-ever Tube disaster. The crash left the station in total darkness and threw up a huge amount of soot and dust.

Only one journalist was allowed down into the tunnel in the early stages- Gerard Kemp of the Daily Telegraph. He reported; "It was a horrible mess of limbs and mangled iron," he said. "One of the great problems [for the rescue teams] was the intense heat down there. It must have been 120 degrees. It was like opening the door of an oven." Twelve hours after the tragedy, a young policewoman was brought out of the front carriage after her foot was amputated. The last known survivor, a 26-year-old man, was brought out at 2200 GMT on the day of the accident.

 

The Department of the Environment report on the collision was published on 4 March 1976 and tests showed no equipment fault on the train. Post-mortem evidence indicated that at the time of impact the driver's hand was on the brake handle, rather than in front of his face to protect it. Witnesses were interviewed; some passengers on the train reported that the train accelerated when entering the station, and some witnesses standing in the station reported that the driver, 56-year-old Leslie Newson, was sitting upright in his seat and looking straight ahead as the train passed through the station. The state of the motor control gear as found after the accident indicated that power had been applied to the motors until within two seconds of the impact.

The six day rescue operation involved 1324 firemen, 240 policemen, 80 ambulance men, 16 doctors and numerous voluntary workers and helpers. The last body to be brought out of the tunnel was that of the driver, Leslie Newson, a 56 year old husband and father of two children.

Mystery has surrounded the cause of the accident, and to this day no-one has been able to explain why it happened. The Official Department of the Environment Report on the accident reveals that the train was old, dating from 1938, but it and the braking system were all in good working order.

Despite all the investigations, the eye-witness evidence and the various theories, no conclusive reason has ever been given for the cause of the crash, except ‘driver error’. Was Newson suicidal, was he taken ill or was he simply distracted by something? Nobody will ever know what the driver of train 272 was thinking as he drove into Moorgate Station at 8.46 that terrible morning.

A SECOND plaque in memory of 43 people who died in the Moorgate Tube disaster in 1975 was unveiled in 2015, to commemorate the 40^th Anniversary of the disaster. The black granite memorial at Finsbury Square has the names of all those killed. Its installation was organised by historian Richard Jones with support from Islington Council. 

Chief Officer Joe Milner talking to his crews.

Among those at the ceremony was retired fireman Brian Goodfellow. He had been stationed at Clerkenwell fire station and was part of the initial crews that attended the Moorgate disaster. This is his story of the shocking events 43 years ago:

“I was driving the emergency tender that day. We went downstairs with all our gear, thinking it was a ‘train into buffers’ situation, but we soon got the call saying it was a major action procedure – this meant there were multiple casualties and at least 50 walking wounded. We went inside what we thought was the first carriage, assuming the driver would be in there, but it was actually the third – there were two more carriages up ahead. 

What really sticks in my mind was the human jigsaw puzzle of casualties... if you imagine a fully-loaded, underground carriage at a 45 degree angle, in the shape of a W – everyone had been catapulted into the end of the carriage. The rescue situation was very arduous, a lot of images still stay with me. We were there from nine to five that day, with only glasses of water for relief. The Salvation Army brought some food but no one wanted to eat because of the atmosphere. And when we went back to the fire station there was an icy cold silence. I wanted to keep cleaning my teeth, someone else kept washing their hair, and someone else was washing their hands. Back then we didn’t understand what it meant, but we were trying to wash away the memories.

But in every tragedy there are gems of human recovery and happiness and one thing I remember is a man who was walking injured. He was being asked to leave the station but he said: ‘No, my wife’s in there. I’m not leaving till I see her.’ Then a woman came out from behind a pillar who was also just walking injured, and when they were reunited, the only way I can describe it is love and happiness going up that escalator... with all the tragedy going on behind them. 

That’s the image that I remember so well. It gave me a second wind to go back in there and do what needed to be done.”

Steve Gleeson is a retired London fire officer. As a fireman in 1975 he was part of Lambeth's Emergency Tender (Blue Watch) crew that day. In the London Fire Brigade’s 43rd anniversary account Steve gave his memories of that tragic incident. He arrived at Moorgate Underground station around 1000 hours on the Friday morning of the incident.

Steve recalled: "We were immediately told to get our spreading and cutting gear and take it down to the platform level. As we were taking our gear down, firemen were guiding casualties, covered in dust and grime, up the other escalators to safety, as well as to grab more equipment. We quickly began to get an idea of the size of the incident but we didn't really know what to expect until we got to the platform.

Once there we found a carriage half at the platform and half into the tunnel but on a slant up into the ceiling. Our brief was to go further into the tunnel and start rescuing the trapped people. At the time, we didn't know how many people there were or what condition they were in."

He made his way through a 2ft gap between the tunnel wall and the side of the train. As he advanced past the first carriage, Steve found crews had already started working to release people trapped in the wreckage.

Steve continued: "A crew from Clapham had already cut a hole in the end of the train carriage and we used that to go through to the next carriage. In there we met a senior officer who asked us to get into the roof of a carriage. We were right at the very front of the train – about 10 to 12 feet behind the driver's cab. While we were working on the roof of the cab, Paddington's crew were working on freeing a woman below. Crews worked tirelessly in the dark, dusty tunnel, which was illuminated by only old style battery ‘box’ lamps to rescue the trapped people. 

In order to fit through some of the gaps in the carriages – and to avoid heat exhaustion, as temperatures reached up to 33C Steve, and the other firemen, removed their helmets, tunics, belts and axes. None of the crews working down there wanted to leave. They all wanted to stay and help the casualties they were with. We had to all be ordered out by senior officers to allow fresh crews to come in and to give us a break from the ever increasing temperatures we were working in." 

Hook Ladders...Love 'em or Hate 'em?

To some old firemen they are the stuff of myth and legend. Another piece of defunct fire brigade kit, along with the 50 foot escape ladders, that the old 'hands' around the fire station would go all dewy eyed about when referring to them. But for those of a certain era they were a regular companion, and for a few, a companion they were not overly keen to keep company with. But regardless, if you weren’t testing them, checking for their incipient flaws, you were polishing the reinforced steel ring with a tiny bit of emery cloth normally kept in the back pocket of your overall trousers, especially if the Sub Officer was on the prowl looking for anyone striving out of doing station work!

There were the hook ladder drills; one man-one ladder, two men-two ladders, from the head of the extension ladder, from the head of the escape, from the head of the first floor ladder-tied onto the head of escape, even from the top of a TL. The combinations were as versatile as the ladder itself. Of course the hook ladder was, like other ladders, a rescue ladder. So rescue drills were frequently incorporated into its use; carrying a lowering line aloft and lowering underfoot. Be they station drills, divisional combined drills or the Brigade's annual reviews, a regular constituent was always the hook ladder.

It was a ladder that demanded the utmost respect. Tragic losses had resulted from its use in training however, never operationally. As tragic as these deaths of London firemen were (they were not termed firefighters then) it was never because of a defective or a malfunctioning ladder.

We would all train with then. We got to know every square inch of its ash (free from knots) timber construction, its metal reinforcing rods, the pianoforte wire, the strengthened top three rounds, the shroud, the steel ring and not forgetting the hook itself with its eight teeth and six inch bill. That said relatively few would bring that training into play and use the ladder operationally, despite the secret desire of many to do just that.

Hook ladders also had their own companion, the hook-belts. You could tell a lot from the hook-belt, or rather the wearers of the said belt. No’s 3 & 4, who sat in the rear of the pump escape crew, should always have worn the belts any 'turn-out' (call) to a fire call (and you could bet that at least one of those wearers was the stations junior buck!). Station watches that took a lax approach towards such rules would frequently raise doubts in the discerning eyes of others as to what else they were lax about? 

 The hook ladders demise was hotly debated. Its withdrawal from service was lamented over by most at station level, barring those that were less than confident in its use. I was one that thought the removal for the ladder a grave error of judgement, a judgement made on the back of economic considerations and pressure from the Fire Brigades Union (who had a national policy them for the ladders removal). It was an area where the Union and I agreed to differ-not that they listened to me much.

So this blog not only recalls the ladders checkered history but many successes in the hands of ordinary people doing an extrodinary job. 

But first things first, the hook ladder was introduced at the begining of the Twentith centruy because people (young women) died on the upper floors of a City of London blaze that the escape ladders couldn’t reach! Its introduction, along with the first horse drawn turntable ladders, became a life saver. Sadly its final demise was, in part, due to the historic loss of firemen’s lives training with the ladder. Its a debate that continues between the detractors and the supporters of one the special pieces of kit in a fireman’s tool bag.

Those that perished.
17th September 1913. (Died 18th September-Fell from hook ladder)
Fm William H.E. Martin. Knightsbridge fire station.

3rd January 1933. (Died 5th January- Fatal injuries performing hook ladders.)
Fm Arthur J. Stillman. Southwark HQ.

13th June 1935. Fatal injuries performing hook ladder drills.)
Fm Arthur J. Putt. Edgware Road fire station.

1st June 1956. (Fatal fall whilst at hook ladder drills)
Fm Ronald Stiles. Downham fire station.

Those that were saved since 1950.(There were many before that date too.)

 
1950. Fireman Dan Ival (Soho). Awarded a Chief Officers Letter of Congratulation for his actions in rescuing a badly burned man from the second floor by hook ladder at a fire in Gerrard Street.W1.

1955. Leading Fireman Dan Ivall and Fireman Beer (Knightsbridge). Were both awarded a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for the rescue of a woman from the rear fourth floor window using hook ladders and carrying a lowering line.

1961. Fireman Richard Errington (Holloway) was Commended by the Chief Officer for the hook ladder rescue he performed at a fire in Holloway.

1964. Sub.O Tony Lynham (Kentish Town) received a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for his actions in performing a hook ladder rescue and bringing to safety 5 children and a large woman.

1966. Sub Officer Leonard Tredwell, Leading Fireman Leslie Hone, Firemen's Norman Long, Colin Oliver, Christopher Richardson, Colin Wyatt and John Wyatt (Hendon) were each awarded a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for their actions at a fire in the Hendon Hall Hotel. A man was rescued by means of an escape and hook ladder.

1968. Fireman Robert Arrowsmith (Shoreditch) received a Chief Officers Letter of Congratulation for performing a hook ladder rescue of a man from a fire at Grimsby Street, East London in September.

1969. Leinster Tower Hotel fire. Leading Fireman Gerald Fuller and Fireman Peter Mars (Paddington) for rescuing at least 15 people between them and using hook ladders to bring people to safety from the third and fourth floors. Both men were subsequently awarded the Queens Commendation for Brave Conduct. Leading Fireman Richard Ellicott (Euston) for the difficult hook ladder rescue of a man trapped at a third floor window. Firemen John Hughes and Paul Stephens (Manchester Square) for a hook ladder and line rescue of a man from a fifth floor and lowering the man to safety. Both men were subsequently awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct.

1969. Leading Fireman Robert Fielder, Fireman Michael Ruffell (Paddington) and Sub Officer Roger Winter (Westminster) received Chief Officer's Commendations for a hook ladder rescue at the St Ermin's Hotel fire in Caxton Street. Victoria in June. Using the hook ladder they brought with them they climber to the sixth floor and entered the room where the elderly man was suffering from heat and smoke. Sub Officer Winter was also searching for the man and had reached the fifth floor. Seeing the hook ladder he climbed to the sixth. The three men lowered the elderly man by line to ground level where he was treated and removed to safety. Leading Fireman Fielder and Fireman Ruffell were subsequently awarded the British Empire Medal for Gallantry.

1969. Temporary Station Officer Charles Dixey (Dockhead) was Congratulated by the Chief Officer for his part in rescuing two men from a fire at Rotherhithe New Road in August. On arrival the Brigade found the upper two floors of the building alight and two men, at different windows, were trapped at the rear of the building. Using an extension and hook ladder so as to reach the men they helped one man to climb down to safety. Whilst reaching the second man Station Officer Dixey was burned when a lower window shattered and a heat blast caught him and the hook ladder, undaunted he carried on and helped the man down to safety.

1970. Fireman Keith Wheatley (Barnet) received a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for rescuing a man from a block of flats in Margaret Court, Barnet in May. Using a hook ladder Fireman Wheatley gained access to the flat via a rear window. Although there was dense smoke and very hot he searched the flat and found a heavily built man, overcome on the floor, by a burning settee. With considerable difficulty he managed to drag the man to the window and lift his head and shoulders so they were outside. The man was then carried down an extension to safety.

1970. Fireman Donald Maclean (Belsize) was awarded a Commendation and Sub Officer Colin Brum (Belsize) a Letter of Congratulation for rescuing a girl trapped by hook ladder at a house fire in Glenilla Road, Belsize Park in December. The operation was particularly difficult because of the nature of the windows, which were set back of a flat roof. Sub Officer Brum had to hold Fireman Maclean by the hook belt so the ladder could be pitched to the next level. A precarious climb but Fireman Maclean managed to reach the girl and assisted her back down the ladder to safety.

1971. Sub Officer Douglas Horsman (Kentish Town) received a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for the part he played in performing a hook ladder rescue of two women and one man at a fire in Maiden Road, Kentish Town in April. One of the women was pregnant and in considerable distress.

1971. The Chief Officer issued TEN Commendations following the serious and fatal fire at Hill's Hotel, Kensington in May. Temporary Station Officer Ellis, temporary Sub Officer Levitt and Firemen Cannon and Austin, using hook ladders together brought down a woman trapped on a window sill difficult to reach at the rear of the hotel and who had collapsed and had to be carried down.

1971. Temporary Sub Officer Colin Livett (Kensington). In less the 3 weeks Colin Livett earned a second Chief Officer's Commendation for his actions in rescuing a man from the a hotel fire in Inverness Terrace, Bayswater in June. Arriving at the scene of the fire Temporary Sub Officer Livett and two other firemen went with hook ladders and lowering lings to the rear of the hotel. A man was seen trapped at a third floor window and the rooms below and above, together with the only staircase leading to the room, were alight. He used a hook ladder, through extremes of heat, to reach the man in a hazardous rescue operation. He persuaded the man to get on the hook ladder and guided him to eventual safety. Temporary Sub Officer Colin Livett was subsequently awarded the British Empire Medal for Gallantry.

1973. Fireman Derek Simpson (Ealing). Awarded a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for reaching a woman, trapped at a third floor window, by hook ladder at a fire at Fairlea Place, Ealing in October. He then calmed the woman down sufficiently so she come be assisted down an extension ladder.

1974. Station Officer Keith Hicks (Soho) and Temporary Station Officer Roy Dunsford (Knightsbridge) were both awarded a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for their efforts at a fire in Rathbone Place, off Oxford Street in April. A fierce fire was in progress on the top floor of a four storey building. A woman was seen shouting for help on the roof outside a top floor dormer window at the rear of the building. With access for other ladders impossible and the internal staircase impassable Temporary station Officer Dunsford, assisted by Station Officer Hicks and other firemen took a hook ladder to the rear of the building. Working from the flat roof of an adjoining building they managed to pitch the hook ladder to the parapet where the woman was trapped. Station Officer Hicks climbed the ladder, through considerable smoke and heat, and reached the woman who he discovered was in her late seventies. Shielding her from the heat he persuaded the woman, who was also in shock, to return to the ladder where Temporary Station Officer Dunsford was waiting to assist the woman down the ladder and back on to the adjoining building and safety.

1978. Acting Leading Fireman Christopher Shaw (Kentish Town) was Congratulated for his actions at a fire at Rectory Road, Stoke Newington in February. Called to a three storey terraced house fire, thick smoke was coming from the top floor and one person was believed trapped. Joined by two other firemen, who had brought a hook ladder with them, Acting Leading Fireman Shaw climbed the hook ladder and reached the man, but only after a difficult climb. The man was removed to hospital suffering from burns to his head and feet.

1981. Fireman Peter Bailes (Willesden) and Fireman Robert Webb (Wembley) were Commended whilst Station Officer Lionel Galleozie and Fireman Michael Walker (Willesden) received Congratulations from the Chief Officer for their actions at the fire at Redcliffe Walk, Chalkhill Estate, Wembley in February. A severe fire was affecting the fifth and sixth floors of a block of flats. Access to the fire was severely hampered by vehicles blocking the way and sloping and muddy grassed areas. Station Officer Galleozie and his crew together with Wembley’s TL and crew went to the rear of the flats and saw a number of people, cut off by fire, screaming for help from their flats' balconies. The fire was getting much worse the Station Officer ordered another escape pitched to the fourth floor and a hook ladder pitched to the fifth floor. Fireman Webb took a hook ladder to climb to the fifth, reassuring people as he went. Now assisted by Fireman Bailes they passed three children and two adults out from the fourth floor to other fireman on the escape. The escape was pitch for the third time and Firemen's Bailes and Webb went aloft carrying a lowering line. Fireman Bailes grabbed a hook ladder on the way up and pitched it from the head of the escape and climbed to the top floor. He and Fireman Webb lowered a woman and child to safety. With fire now affecting the balconies Webb and Bailes came down the hook ladder again to the fifth floor. In the meantime Fireman Walker had climbed and escape to the fourth floor and hook ladder to the fifth where he found a family trapped by fire. Station Officer Galleozie had followed him to the fourth floor was now sat astride the fourth floor balcony parapet. With the father placing one of his children on Fireman Walker's back he went down the hook ladder where the child was taken by Station Officer Galleozie. The operation was repeated for the second child before the wife was assisted down followed by the father.

1982. Fireman Stephen Colman (Westminster) was Commended and Fireman Ian Nivison (Chelsea) received a Chief Officer's Letter of Congratulation for their actions and rescues at the Shelavin Hotel fire, 98-100 Belgrave Road, Pimlico in March. A severe fire was in progress when the Brigade arrived at the hotel. With some 80 guests residents and debris flying from the upper windows firemen were told people were trapped at the rear of the hotel and children were on a small flat room, also at the rear. Using the short extension ladder on the flat roof and hook ladder from the head of that ladder Fireman Coleman, followed by Fireman Nivison climbed the ladders. Thick smoke and flames poured from a window overlooking the flat roof totally obscured the boy who was now screaming he was alight. With complete disregard for his own safety lunged through the smoke and flames and whilst reaching for the boy was completely enveloped in a ball of flame but still managed to retain his grip on the boy and pull him to the top of the hook ladder. Despite the intensity of the fire Fireman Nivison remained at the head of the hook ladder and took the boy from Coleman before carrying the boy down to a waiting colleague. He then returned to assist Fireman Coleman down the hook ladder. Fireman Coleman sustained severe burns to his hands and right knee during the rescue, was taken to hospital and detained. Fireman Stephen Coleman was subsequently awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct.

There were undoubtedly other examples too. Some went unreported, others attracted congratulations from the local Divisional Commander. Howeverm by the mid-1980s all hook ladders were withdrawn from the London Fire Brigade. Now just an item in the Brigade's own history book.