User talk:Fireman1974

As a former fireman that went to the Moorgate tube disaster, and then later a guard that did a small stint on the Northern line, as luck would have it the driver I was paired with should have been the driver of that train and what he told me what actually happened.

I was told of an unofficial practice at that station was that the entrance to that station was downhill and the tunnel was only long enough to hold 3/4 of a carriage, although the actual train went in to the over run and three and a half carriages where in that space, the practice was for the driver to close his end of the train, which would have drained the air from the trains brakes causing the train to have no brakes at that time and the guard would then open the system at his end of the train and brake the train in to the station, how ever the for some reason closed his end of the train down again, the driver seeing this quickly tried to re-open his end of the train again, knowing the train would not stop in time, this is where eye witness said the driver had a blank frightened look on his face.

the official statement given out by london transport stated that the driver was depressed and had been drinking, however my driver who should have been driving that train told me that the reason for the change of shift was that the driver of the crashed train shift would have ended later than he wanted as he had drawn a sum of money to bye his daughter a birthday present and he was in fact in very good spirit.

all I can say is this is what I saw in the fire brigade, and some severn years later was told by a driver I worked with for a very short time on the london underground.

Ex Fireman and london transport underground train gaurd.