IN DECEMBER 1953 residents of Longniddry were woken by the sound of a train crashing off the tracks at the village station as the Edinburgh to London King’s Cross service was derailed.

The accident happened shortly after midnight as the special service headed south, laden with Christmas mail.

Two hours earlier a set of Decauville points had fallen from the wagon of the 9.45pm express goods train from Heaton as it passed through the station.

The temporary tracks had been overloaded on to the wagon and had not been adequately secured.

It was reported that the guard on the express spotted sparks being thrown up as the train passed under the road bridge to the west of Aberlady junction and tried to attract the driver’s attention by applying and releasing the brake on his van, but his actions went unnoticed.

Desperate to raise the alarm, he then displayed a red light to the signalman at Longniddry box as he passed.

The signalman immediately threw his signals to danger, sending a stop and examine bell code to Prestonpans signal box.

However, the parcels train had already passed the warning signs and been given the all-clear.

A short while later, tragedy struck when the midnight train struck the points, which lay across the track.

The train was travelling at around 60 miles an hour at the time and was immediately derailed by the impact.

The locomotive was thrown across the ‘Up’ platform, smashing through boarding and ending up lying upside down on the road below the station, facing back towards Edinburgh.

Sadly, fireman Robert McKenzie was killed in the impact and driver D. Drummond was badly injured.

The locomotive tender and the leading vans piled up between the platforms.

In the cold light of day the damage was clear to see and was captured in photographs.

Police and railway investigators examined the wreckage at the platform where the crumpled carriages had piled onto each other and been torn apart in the impact.

The advertising boardings on the road under the platform promote Goodyear tyres and Younger’s beer while the wall behind is demolished and part of the train can be seen strewn on the embankment.

It is perhaps fortunate that the accident involved a freight train with no passengers and happened late at night when residents were not on the streets, as the images show it could have been a lot worse.