Saturday the 4th of March 1989 was a day I will always remember, I was Chief Clerk at Hove ticket office at the time and had just got home from my usual Saturday morning shift when the news broke on the radio about the accident at Purley.
The 1250 Horsham to Victoria service was crossing from the slow line to fast line at Purley when it was struck by 1217 Littlehampton to Victoria service which had departed Hove at 1250. Many passengers had boarded the train at Hove. Full details of the accident can be found at the excellent Railway Archieve.
http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=155 These photos are taken on subsequent days and chart the difficult recovery of the trains, several coaches of the service from Littlehampton ending up in back gardens at the bottom of a steep embankment.
