Box People and Places
Latest Issue 47 Spring 2025 
  • This Issue
    • Millers of Box
    • Vezey Wall
    • Jesse Smith
    • Pauline Gibbons' Story
    • Great Quarry Trade
    • Rose, Rustic and Undercliffe
    • Kate Bull
    • Very Long Day
    • Roman Roads
    • Where Is This?
    • Who Are We?
    • Times Past
    • Recalling Mill Lane Halt
    • Wolf Hall
    • Canoeing and Caving
    • Dirty Arch Myth
    • Brook Northey Children
  • Previous
    • Issue 46 - Box Hill
    • Issue 45 - Moleyns Lordship
    • Issue 44 - Viking Hazelbury
    • Issue 43 - Late Medieval
    • Issue 42 - Beautiful Box
    • Issue 41 - Becket Plays
    • Issue 40 - Selwyn Hall
    • Issues 30-39 >
      • Issue 39 - Modern Box
      • Issue 38 - Railway Workers
      • Issue 37 - Mill Lane Halt
      • Issue 36 - Box Rec
      • Issue 35 - Inter war
      • Issue 34 - Fogleigh House
      • Issue 33 - KIngsdown Post Office
      • Issue 32 - Chapel Lane
      • Issue 31 - Saxon Box
      • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issues 20-29 >
      • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
      • Issue 28 - VE Day
      • Issue 27 - Northey
      • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
    • Issues 10-19 >
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
    • Issues 1-9 >
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • FULL Series
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Sherman Tank Disaster, 1945
Colin G Maggs
Suggested by Mike (Jake) Jacobs
November 2019
 
It never ceases to amaze me how much information readers have seemingly at their fingertips. I mentioned to Mike Jacobs recently that I hadn’t found the details of a Second World War train crash involving a trainload of tanks passing through Box Tunnel. Quick as a flash, he brought Colin Maggs’ marvellous book The GWR Swindon to Bath Line where the details that Colin discovered were on page 80.[1] I can do no better than reproduce Colin’s amazing research as no other record of the crash exists as far as I am aware.
Picture
Mill Lane Halt 1936 (courtesy Patty Baldwin and Rose Ledbury)
West of Box Mill Lane Halt a catch point was situated on the Up line. In 1945 a train carrying twelve Sherman tanks was proceeding through Box Tunnel when Guard Fred Payne sensed something was wrong. In the dark he was unable to see whether the train was going backwards or forwards, so he felt the wall with his shunting pole. Discovering that it was running backwards, he leapt off, knowing that his van would be derailed at the catch points and perhaps crushed.
Reference
[1] Colin G Maggs, The GWR Swindon to Bath Line, 2003, Sutton Publishing Limited
Back to Issue 27