TODAY marks the 50th anniversary of a rail crash which killed seven people in North Yorkshire.

At 3.13pm on July 31, 1967, the London to Aberdeen express train crashed into derailed cement wagons at Sessay.

Six coaches were torn apart in the collision, which happened at a speed of about 50mph, as the driver braked from 80mph in an effort to prevent the crash. 

The impact was so severe, that the diesel engine and the tracks beneath it were forced sideways, before coming to a halt two feet deep in stone ballast.

The goods wagons jack-knifed across the track, with eleven of them toppling into a neighbouring field.

Seven people were killed and 45 injured, 15 seriously, and special trains were used to take the dead and injured to hospital in Newcastle, on a section of undamaged line.

The damaged trains were moved from the site late on August 1, and the line was reopen following emergency repairs on the afternoon of August 2, with a temporary limit of 20mph.