This is the venerable class 455.

It was a vital backbone in London's

metro and suburban routes for the best

part of 40 years. A common site up until

just a few months ago at the point of

writing this script in May 2026. One of

the train stomping grounds was along the

new Gilford line. This is the

excruciatingly leisurely journey from

London Waterloo all the way down to the

Big G.

A rather mundane line with usually not

much in the way of excitement until

there is. Clearly something has gone

wrong here as trains aren't meant to be

this deformed. So what happened? Well,

that's what today's video will be

looking into. When something goes under

a train, usually a person, drivers call

it a oneunder. Our little tale from the

Surrey suburbs is of a one over. And it

wasn't like something like a person

falling on a train. Instead, a massive

cement mixer. Welcome to Trainly

Difficult. My name is John and today

we're examining the Oxshot train

disaster. This video wouldn't have been

possible if it wasn't for my YouTube,

Patreon, and Kofi members. If you want

early access to the channel's videos,

when you can from just £1 per month, and

as always, the links will be in the pin

comment below.

the location.

So, this is the small town of Oshot in

Surrey. It's around here on a map of the

United Kingdom. It's nestled in between

London to the northeast and the M25

motorway, aka Europe's biggest car park,

towards the south.

It's also not too far from Chestington

World of Adventures, which is cool. as I

went there just a couple of weeks ago.

Thank you, Tesco Club Card Vouchers, but

I forgot to cash in.

The town goes back to its first

recording in official records in 1179

with the name Boxshet.

Over the years, it would morph into what

we know it today as Boxshot. By in the

modern day, it has roughly a population

of 5,000 people, but that is about as

far as I'll go into the background of

the town. Instead, we're looking at the

railway line that connects it up to the

London laundromat.

This is the new Guilford line. It is a

slow meandering commuter line heading

towards London Waterloo. It opened in

1885

and is a pretty typical commuter route

with stations along the line serving

everywhere and anywhere along a rough

straight line between its two main

terminuses of London Waterloo and

ultimately platform one at Guilford. As

a side note, Guilford can bugger off

with its A and B platforms. Many times

in my early 20ies, I got on the wrong

train here, hoping to go towards say

Farum, only to end up going in the wrong

direction. Anyways, Oxshot is roughly

equidistant between the lines two ends.

I know technically the new Guilford line

doesn't actually officially end at

Waterloo and instead technically at

Hampton Court junction where trains join

the main line but as a commuter you're

not going to know or even care about

this. So Oxshot is a two platform

twotrack affair with an upline towards

London and a downline running towards

Guilford. is powered by third rail at

750 volts DC and for our time at least

the route is plied by the venerable

class 455 train. Movements are

controlled via free aspect colorite

signals under the supervision of the

Guilford panel box and the woking panel

box depending on the location of where

the train is along the line. The station

is in a cutting. As such, access to the

station is via a road that runs down to

the main building, this car park, and

the local cab office. The road that

joins the station approach road is the

A244.

This runs perpendicular to the railway

line. In order for cars to cross said

railway line, a bridge is provided. It

is named very creatively bridge number

11. This is a free arch brick structure

explaining the railway cutting with a

total length of around 50 m. built when

the line opens. It is a fairly tight

crossing at 7.8 m wide at road level

with a 1.2 m wide footpath provided on

the west side. The wall of the bridge to

stop vehicles going on an extra roadway

excursion is around 350 mm thick and

varies in height, but at its lowest, it

is around a meter high. Oh, and the

bridge's maximum weight was 26 tons,

which limited it from the heaviest of

vehicles, but a significant number of

lorries, vans, and cars are still

allowed to travel over the crossing

every day. The bridge falls under the

purview of Surrey County Council as well

as a local highway authority. They were

in charge of all inspections and

maintenance, including control of

vegetation, where this may create a

hazard. Signs and reflective marker

posts are also provided by the council

which leads us onto the disaster.

It is the 5th of November 2010 and at

around 15 28 hours a Londonbound train

is departing Oxshot station.

It is an 8 carriage 2 unit class 455

train. The train is essentially going

against commuter traffic at this time

and only has about 36 passengers on

board. plus the train's guard and

driver. The train departs and starts

accelerating, reaching around 30 mph.

Little does anyone know on the Class 45

or even really care, but above the

roadway, a DAFF 75 CF3 axle rigid

chassis cement mixer lorry is

approaching bridge number 11. The driver

of the lorry or truck for use, not of

the British, Irish, Indian, Singaporean,

or Malaysian persuasion, is very new to

the job, only having their license for a

few weeks. The vehicle's front end

reaches the northern end of the bridge,

driving at around 30 mph. The rear of

the lorry clips the parapit end. This

caused the driver to lose control of the

vehicle, crashed its front into the

bridge wall. The 350 mm of brick work is

not much for the just under 26 tons of

Laurian cement. It fractures and the

wall fails. Some 14.3 m long section and

the HGV tumble over the bridge side,

plunging down 10 m or 35 ft. This was

just as the movement of carriage 5 of

the train was passing under the bridge.

Brick work smashed into the train's

roof, followed by the lorry striking the

upper leftand corner of coach 6 ahead of

its leading doors. Don't forget the

train was accelerating at the time. This

meant that multiple carriages would

receive damage as the train passed under

the bridge. The roof of carriage 6 caved

in. This deformationation allowed the

lorry to fall off the train to the left

and onto the cess along the trackside. A

secondary impact happened to coach 8,

the last carriage of the formation. This

also resulted in damage to the passenger

compartment. This impact was enough to

actually dislodge the tracks underneath

the train, moving them by 350 mm, just

over a foot to the right.

The train continued on for 14 more

seconds before the emergency brakes

mysteriously were applied.

No one was able to actually find out why

the brakes were applied, however, but it

would turn out to be a good thing. The

train driver heard the loud bang and

concerned as to what it was and the fact

the train had stopped, contacted the

guard. Following this, he then went and

made an emergency call to the Sigler,

who stopped any movements of approaching

trains on the affected lines. The driver

looked back along his train and saw the

lorry on the cess. He then requested the

signal put a block on both lines as well

as take an emergency switch off of

traction current and contact the

emergency services. The guard made an

announcement to passengers and then

contacted Southwest Trains control.

Passers by made their way down the track

to try and help out the lorry driver who

was seriously injured and stuck in the

lorry's cab. Emergency services arrived

on the scene shortly after and helped

with the evacuation of the train and

providing medical attention to the lorry

driver.

The passengers were evacuated finally

from the train to Oxshot station at

around 20 5 in the evening. Five

passengers were taken to hospital and

eight more received on-site treatment

for minor injuries. The lorry driver was

removed from their cab at the same time

and also whisked off to hospital where

they spend a few days there. Although

many people were seriously injured, no

one died, which means I can smash the no

one died button. The line would be

reopened a couple of days after the

crash once inspections and repairs to

the bridge and tracks were undertaken.

The driver, once recovered, was charged

with driving without due care and

attention and was given a fine of £100

and five penalty points added to their

license, which doesn't really seem that

much for causing this.

regardless. But what was the cause?

Well, long-term friends of the channel,

the RAIB, would be the one to come along

to the rescue and head up the

investigation report, the investigation.

So, this section will actually be rather

short as we know what the cause was. The

lorry driver misjudging the crossing,

banging the rear of the truck, and

crashing through the wall. But could it

have been prevented beyond the bad

driving? Well, maybe as the bridge had

been struck a few times before, although

not with such catastrophic results. In

2003, it was noted that the capstone of

the bridg's wall was knocked off by some

passing vehicles. This hinted that the

parapit end was not sufficiently visible

or protected from vehicles

and especially to the lorry driver on

the fateful day. Network rail wasn't too

interested in parapit visibility as it

was not part of any regular checking

routine. The RAIB would recommend in

their reports with recommendation for

highlighting this. The Department of

Transport with highway authorities

should prepare guidance for highway

authorities on identifying local safety

hazards at bridges

over railways which could be mitigated

by measures such as signage, hazard

marking, white lining or safety barriers

and include consideration of previous

accident history and the causes of those

accidents. the bridge would be repaired

and that would pretty much be it. But I

can imagine the task of trying to

highlight and repair and prevent any

type all of the bridges and crossings

over the UK is a bit of a tough ask

there are just so many that litter the

UK's railways. So that's my video on the

Oshot train crash. At least it added

something to the station's Wikipedia

page. There's going to be a two on my

scale and this is what I've got for my

root cause analysis card. Do you agree?

Let me know in the comments below. This

is a plain def production. All videos on

the channel are creative commons

attribution share like licensed plort

videos produced by me John and the

currently wet corner of sound UK. All

that's left to say is thank you very

much for watching and Mr. Music play us

out please.