Violet Town railway disaster

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The Violet Town railway disaster, also known as the Southern Aurora disaster, was a railway accident that occurred near the McDiarmids Rd crossing, approximately 1km south of Violet Town in Victoria, Australia on February 7, 1969.

1 Overview
2 Memorial
3 Similar accidents
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Overview

The accident involved the head-on collision of a passenger train, the southbound Southern Aurora, and a northbound freight train travelling in opposite directions on the new single line standard gauge Sydney to Melbourne main line, opened seven years earlier. Nine people were killed, including Lawrence Rosevear, the driver of the northbound freight train.

The trains were supposed to cross at the Violet Town crossing loop (where there are two tracks), but because the driver of the passenger train had died of an apparent heart attack approximately 5 to 6 kilometres north of the crossing loop, the train did not stop at the red signals and kept on going until it collided with the freight train which was headed in the other direction. At the time of the accident, neither ATC nor AWS nor ATP were fitted, although a vigilance control system was fitted to both locomotives. This required a member of the train crew to press a button every 60 to 90 seconds; either the driver or fireman/second person could press the buttons.

According to an inquest held into the accident, the fireman of the Southern Aurora, M. Coulthard, had been recorded on the Hasler speed recorder as pressing the vigilance control button as the train passed through the Danger signals at the crossing loop.

The northbound train had seen the oncoming passenger train approaching, and slowed their train down and attempted to flick their headlights to warn the crew of the approaching Southern Aurora. The fireman (Arnfreid Brendecke) jumped clear of the cab moments before impact; a burning car missed him by approximately 1 metre. The driver of the northbound train sought safety in the engine room, however he was killed as a result of a fire and explosion in the locomotive's engine room.

As a result of this accident, improved vigilance controls were fitted to ensure that firemen as well as drivers remained alert, though as the later Beresfield rail disaster in 1996 showed, these were not foolproof.