Sheerness horror train crash remembered 50 years on
Published: 06:00, 26 February 2021
It was the story which shocked Sheerness and put the Isle of Sheppey on the front page of every national newspaper.
A runaway train packed with 80 passengers ploughed through the buffers, demolished the ticket office and burst out of the railway station before coming to a halt on a taxi.
Sheerness train crash photo taken by John Gamble
Incredibly, only one person died in the rush-hour disaster but 11 were injured.
We sift through the cuttings and meet some of the survivors who remembered the night the train didn t stop at Sheerness 50 years ago this week.
This is why German author Uwe Johnson spent the last years of his life in Sheerness
|
Updated: 07:14, 22 January 2021
Towards the end of 1974, a stranger arrived in the small town of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey.
He could often be found sitting on a favourite stool at the bar of the Napier pub, drinking Hurlimann lager and smoking French Gauloises cigarettes while flicking through the pages of the local paper.
Portrait of German writer Uwe Johnson in 1974
âCharlesâ was the name he offered to new acquaintances but the mystery man with a German accent never encouraged probing questions about where he was from and why he was there.