It is sixty years ago this month that Derbyshire witnessed one of the most selfless acts of heroism in British railway history, as Steve Brown reports.
AT THE TOP OF A STEEP LITTLE ROAD snaking up from the town, Chapel en le Frith railway station has a sleepy air, the daytime quiet only punctuated by the passing of the hourly train service between Manchester and Buxton and the cackling of the jackdaws in the surrounding trees. Yet sixty years ago this was the scene of a tragic crash, probably the most well-known railway accident in Derbyshire, and witnessed one of the most selfless acts of heroism in the long history of the railways in Britain. For his actions, engine driver John Axon was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the highest accolade for courage that a civilian can possess, and was immortalised in song by a ballad broadcast on the radio by the great folk singer Ewan MacColl. This is the story of that day and how the events became so well known to the listening public…