Bridlington author to publish 1927 Hull Rail Disaster book

Richard M Jones has written 28 books covering a wide range of subjects, and this time he highlights an incident at Hull Paragon railway station in 1927.

Mr Jones said: “It was the morning of February 14, 1927, that a train was heading into Hull Paragon railway station full of children and commuters that had come all the way from Withernsea as they did every day, but a signalling mistake near where Hull Royal Infirmary is today led to it being on the same track as an outbound train heading to Scarborough.

“With both trains now on a head-on collision course the drivers attempted to stop the trains but at around 10mph the two trains collided. While the locomotives were fairly undamaged, the first carriage of the Withernsea train telescoped into the solid mass of the train itself killing eight people instantly and leading to another four others dying of their injuries in the coming days. Several of the people on the train, including one of the drivers, were from Bridlington.

"In 2021, I featured this disaster in my book Britain’s Lost Tragedies Uncovered and for many years there had been a memorial behind Hull Royal overlooking the crash site but this was removed due to construction of the heli pad for the air ambulance.

"It was during a discussion with a train driver friend of mine that he mentioned that I had put a memorial up and written a book about Burton Agnes and the Lockington rail crashes so why not get the last one documented properly.

"So I got to work gathering information together and support for a new memorial, this was unveiled on the 98th anniversary of the disaster in February this year by Richard Kitching, grandson of one of the victims and son of one of the child survivors.

"After the final interviews, photographs and details were gathered, the book was put together by Juliette Jones Editorial Services and is available in paperback, hardback, and Kindle formats from Monday, November 3.

"This has been a fascinating journey into a slice of Hull and railway history that has never before had the story properly told. I am highlighting the heroes of Hull who broke the wall nearby in order to evacuate casualties and those who stopped at nothing to extract injured survivors from the wreckage of the train carriage.

"I wanted everybody who has emailed me about this to receive a copy of this email just to know how grateful I am for their support and help during the last few years.

“I’d like to say a personal thank you not only for myself but on behalf of the people who lost somebody in this disaster that has led to the story being told and the memorial being placed.”

For more information or to order signed copies contact Mr Jones at [email protected]