A RAILWAY disaster which claimed the lives of ten people 75 years ago will be commemorated during Evening Prayer at Durham Cathedral today.

The accident happened two miles south of Durham early on January 5, 1946, when the night express from King’s Cross to Newcastle collided with a derailed goods train by Browney signal box, having just crossed the Wear on the Croxdale viaduct.

The first three coaches of the 15-coach train were completely destroyed, while the crash was heard up to two miles away.

The dead were nearly all young service personnel, most of them from the North-East. The Home Secretary Chuter Ede, who was on a sleeping carriage, escaped unhurt.

Eight small children lost their fathers that day, including Sunderland-born Michael Burnett, whose father Flight Sergeant Arnold Golightly died.

The tragedy had become all but forgotten until Mr Burnett, 79, set out to rectify that by arranging for a commemoration during a Choral Evensong at Durham Cathedral five years ago.

Among those who attended were people involved in the rescue operations and residents who witnessed the aftermath.

Mr Burnett said: “ I feel the event five years ago was such a positive one in that it brought together such a large group – about 70 people – who were connected to the tragedy.

"Clearly it was the result of an unexpressed need for those people to have some form of identity to the event itself. It is certainly personalised it enormously for me, as a young child who was involved in it."

He added: "There was a tremendous sense of relief. Having realised that five years have gone by and that it would not be possible to bring all those people back again, I approached the cathedral and asked if it could be marked in some way.

"It has been agreed the events of the day will be mentioned, and the names of those who died be read out at the online Evening Prayer at 5.15pm.

"The knowledge that it will be remembered on the day itself seems a positive thing rather than a negative thing.

"It's not a question of reopening a terrible tragedy, but is confirming that it has been given some dignity by being remembered in that wonderful building, which is just a few miles from the crash."

Mr Burnett said: “My father, who was a founder member of 607 Squadron at Usworth Aerodrome, was on active duty and was returning home to Sunderland when the crash happened.

“I was four-years-old at the time and vividly remember hearing activity downstairs at home. I sensed that something was seriously wrong.

“But no one told me anything then or subsequently about what happened. It was of the age when someone died there was no point of going on about it you moved on.”

Mr Burnett’s mother, Isabella, remarried and moved to Chelmsford, in Essex, where he grew up. It was only later that it filtered through to Mr Burnett that his father had died in a train crash.

Evening Prayer is livestreamed on Durham Cathedral's Facebook page.