Rail worker exposed to deadly asbestos while restoring Orient Express

A RAILWAY engineer who claimed he was exposed to deadly asbestos dust while restoring carriages for the iconic Orient Express, has won up to £495,000 damages.

- By Richard Gittins

Malcolm Gelsthorpe said he developed incurable cancer after being poisoned while working on vintage carriages for the luxury sleeper train at the Steamtown Railway Museum, in Carnforth, Lancs, in the early 1980s.

Mr Gelsthorpe, 68, was an electrical engineer restoring the 1920s carriages of the train the setting for Agatha Christie's famous murder mystery.

But after being given the tragic news that he is suffering from mesothelioma - affecting the lining of the lungshe launched a legal claim.