British Railways locomotive 60123 "H A Ivatt" was built at Doncaster in February 1949. On the 25th October the engine was pulling a fast goods train from King's Cross to Doncaster. However, it was diverted along the Lincoln Avoiding Line due to a broken rail at Claypole. The express goods collided with some empty goods wagons travelling in the same direction at the Skewbridge end of Coulson Road. The A1 Pacific locomotive fell down the south side of the 30 foot high embankment taking a blazing brake van with it. Four railwaymen were injured and were treated by residents of Coulson Road while waiting for ambulances.
The scene on the Lincoln Avoiding Line
60123 was repaired and continued to work until 1962.
On 7th September 1962 60123 again on express freight duties, leaving King's Cross at 8:50 p.m. for Leeds, at Offord near Huntingdon collided with the rear of the 8.25 p.m. King's Cross to Gateshead express freight which was stopped at signals. Fifty wagons and a steam locomotive, blocking the southbound track, were derailed. Four of the six crew on the two trains were injured and taken to Huntingdon County Hospital.
 |
| 60123 at Doncaster following collision at Offord. |
60123 was scrapped at the Doncaster Works in October 1962. The rest of the class, numbered 60114 to 60162, was scrapped between 1962 and 1966, a total of 49 engines, none were preserved. In 2008 a completely brand-new engine of the same class was completed, 60163 Tornado.
Henry Alfred Ivatt (16 September 1851, Wentworth, Cambridgeshire – 25 October 1923) was an English railway engineer, and was the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Northern Railway from 1896 to 1911. -- Wikipedia