A goods train hauling vacuum-braked wagons, left Low Fell in Gateshead at 4:30 am, southwards for Doncaster, on 5 January 1946.

The relief operator for the signal box at Ferryhill, 7 miles (11 km) south, got on the train telling the driver of his destination and informed him that this was an official journey.

[7] However, whilst the fireman was leaving the train to talk with the signaller about why they were halted, they saw the lights of the broken free wagons approaching at speed, and the driver did not have time to start his engine to get out of the way.

[11] The crash caused the deaths of ten people on the passenger train, and additionally, one soldier died after the event from alcoholic poisoning.

[12][13] The then home secretary, James Chuter Ede, was on the wrecked express, but he was uninjured and managed to go to his constituency in South Shields for work that same day.