'I was very lucky

Survivor made his first trip back to the station 50 years after the train he was on crashed

- CLAIRE HARRISON News Reporter

HE had not been back to Nuneaton Railway Station since the fateful train trip he was making to a friend's wedding led to Alan Murray being involved in the town's worst rail disaster.

But on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, which left six people dead and 38 injured, he felt compelled to make the three hour journey.

It was the first time he had stepped on the platform since he did the very same - 50 years earlier - dazed, confused and unable to take in the sight that greeted him.

The London to Glasgow sleeper train the then 26-year-old was travelling on board to a friend's wedding in Scotland had derailed and crashed.

He has a photograph of the very carriage he was in that was taken in the wake of the crash and the huge operation services operation that was undertaken in the wreckage afterwards. Mr Murray admits, had he been in another carriage, things could have been very different.

"I was very lucky," said Mr Murray, who is now 76. "I remember trying to help on the platform. Then I was taken to a St John's ambulance place just down the road, then the next morning they got us on the bus to Coventry, then we got put on another train to Crewe and then another to Glasgow."