THIS week marks the 50th anniversary of a major train crash which claimed the lives of two passengers from East Lancashire and injured scores more.

The accident happened at Singleton Bank, Weeton, on the Sunday morning of July 16, 1961, when the 8.50am express from Colne to Fleetwood collided with an engineers’ ballast train.

The express was packed with people from Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington and Oswaldtwistle, who were all headed for a day out by the sea.

The impact caused the leading coach to plunge down a 15ft embankment and the third to rear up on to the one in front.

The train driver and six passengers in the first coach died, while 116 — 75 from our East Lancashire towns — were injured.

Eighteen were detained in hospital.

Among those who were killed was Mrs Jennie Heap, of Birtwistle Street, Great Harwood, who was travelling with her husband Leonard on a trip to Douglas.

He received head injuries.

A cotton operative at Fieldings Mill in Great Harwood, she was later buried in Great Harwood cemetery.

Elizabeth Binns, of Cleveland Street, Colne, a weaver in Salterforth, was also killed and her funeral was held the following week at Kelbrook Parish Church.

A number of other families from Blackburn, Darwen and Accrington were also sitting in the packed first coach when the crash occurred, but survived.

The first ambulance was on the scene within six minutes and within half an hour nine more arrived, with the last casualty taken to hospital just an hour after the crash.

Some of the walking wounded were taken by a fleet of buses.

There were more than 350 passengers packed on to the six coach express, for the Wakes week trip and looking forward to either a day out in Fleetwood, or travelling on to Douglas, some for their annual holiday.

Among them were a 10 members of the Holden family, who lived in Darwen and Blackburn, and it was the youngest among them, 13-month-old Jane Hesketh, who had an amazing escape.

Being bottled fed by her mum Marlene at the time of the impact, she was hurled through a window and landed, without a scratch in a field, next to her aunt, Alice Holden.

Alice later told the Telegraph: “I felt myself rolling over and over and when I came to my senses, I found that little Jane and I were alone in a field.”

Jane’s father David a junior technician in the RAF was flown home from the Persian Gulf to comfort his young granddaughter.

Some of the passengers were still able to have a day on the coast, including a group of folk from the Burnley area, who met up in the pub after being checked over at hospital.

An inquest held the following month found the victims died due to a misunderstanding of, and the non compliance with, signalling regulations and an inquiry carried out by the Ministry of Transport, the findings of which were revealed later in the year, also concluded that the accident was caused by signalman and staff error.