61264 B1 Locomotive hits the buffers at Norwich

Hammond! You’ve crashed the B1 into the Buffers!

Might not seem like a major incident to some of you but the shear amount of metal involved in that impact is very substantial. The locomotive alone weighs over 70 ton alone, add the tender at 50 ton then consider all the coal and water aboard, then take into account its moving and you can see why even small accidents can result in pretty severe damage for both the locomotive and track equipment.

My grandfather prided himself in just "kissing" the buffers and never being so heavy on the regulator as to spin the wheels and cause railburn.

It was his plan to use the bounce for a speedy reverse with just a touch of wheelslip to put on a show

Onlookers taking photos: "I can't see a thing" "Look through the eyepiece" 😆

Okay so I think I've read every comment in this thread. Nobody has mentioned what happens INSIDE a boiler with a sudden 'stop'. The water surges forward [boilers don't have baffles in them]. This exposes the CROWN SHEET [flat steel plate above the firebox]. The crown sheet will have at least one, most likely two FUSIBLE PLUGS fitted in it. These are designed to melt very quickly if not kept cool by the [usual] water above them. Fusible plugs are designed to protect a boiler from irreparable damage caused by an overheated crown sheet. They do this by discharging steam downwards onto the fire. The whole process works well - but... If the firebox door happens to be open at the time [highly likely in this incident as the fireman is trying to cool the fire down a bit after steaming into the station with a full load, but now just light engine for shunting] then this sudden steam discharge blows back into the cab, sometime including hot coals. NOT healthy for all those on board the footplate at the time. [This is why footplate crew attire is mandated as long sleeves, long legs, cotton, NOT polyester material - in most parts of the world, anyway. A.K.A. a boiler suit!] The other reason I call bollocks on the whole premise that this was all planned, 'to use the energy imparted into the buffer springs to rebound the loco for a quicker reversing', is that any 'extra persons' standing in the middle of the footplate would be thrown onto the very hot backhead of the boiler by the sudden stop. More injuries! So, no, not an acceptable practice in anybody's book, very dangerous, and I expect the UK's rail safety body would have had quite a bit to say to that driver :-( My two cents worth, from a tourist railway steam driver on the other side of the planet ;-)

This beautiful and unique example of a steam train is a credit to the great people who work to keep it in such a marvellous condition. I thank each and everyone of them because when I was working on the railway back in the 1960’s this lovely engine I’ve personally cleaned lots of time and later driven as well. Thanks for the memories! Ashley Cheatle, COLWICK SHEDS.

I'm sure the station manager was well impressed with all that soot

“Granville, fetch a mop this footplate is swimming and it isn’t from the tender.”

Driver: "I thought pressing those big buttons changed the points!"

I would say that they had brake failure and the driver was trying to get it into reverse to stop it hitting the buffers. Sadly a bit too late. This would account for the reverse wheel slip after the collision. Also, it is highly likely that the abrupt stop would cause the boiler water to surge and be picked up throught the regulator valve. This would then flow into the superheaters and flash to steam with no control as it is being generated after the regulator valve.

Aside from all the comments about what happened, why it happened and what the driver should and shouldn't have done, I just wanted to say something about the locomotive itself. 61264 was the only LNER locomotive to be sent to Barry Scrapyard. Thankfully (as is quite obvious here) it was saved along with many others that were sent there. Hopefully if it returns to the mainline one day it will never be treated like this again.

It was supposed to go on to Lowestoft and back to London on the East Suffolk. It eventually turned up behind a 67, much to everybody's disgust! The engine wasn't allowed to go home in view of the mishap, but a few days later it was permitted to go to Dereham at reduced speed under its own steam and was transferred to a lorry there.

When Network Rail are probably finding excuses to take steam off the the UK rails this isn't exactly the best example to set 😳

Plenty of room between buffers and points no need to go any where near the buffers

Good to see that people are on the safe side of the platform

Bet that was a nasty jolt for the footplate crew and hope it didnt do any damage to the engine.

Bet his mates take the pess over it, naughty. Lol Nice to know the buffers actually work anyway, probably the only time they get tested.

Finally, the camera doesn't face the ground!

As Harry Enfield would say ‘you didn’t want to do that’