Southall Rail Crash, 1997

On the night of 18th September 1997 I had a dream, more of a nightmare really. It was one of those truly realistic dreams where every detail is precise.

I saw a passenger train travelling at high speed collide with a freight train just outside of a station. It happened in slow motion and although I wasn't actually there, more viewing the incident from afar, I could feel the terror of the passenger train driver as his train raced towards a very heavy freight train. The two trains collided. The front carriages splintered as the carriages at the back drove onwards pushing the middle carriages off of the track. It all happened in complete silence. When the two trains finally came to a complete halt there was debris everywhere. Then sound began to filter in and I could hear people screaming. Suddenly I saw a massive nuclear-like explosion and I felt, for certain, it was the end of the world (which, in hindsight, I suppose it was for anyone that died there). As the explosion raced out to my position I woke up.

I was so convinced there would be a train crash that day, the first thing I did was tell my flat-mate exactly that. "There's going to be a really bad train crash today! I just had a dream. A passenger train is going to crash into a freight train."

We discusssed my dream and to my surprise he actually took it seriously. We discussed the pro's and con's of phoning the police or British Rail and informing them. In the end we decided not to tell anyone because if it was a terrorist attack I could be implicated and, if it was a genuine accident there'd probably be nothing anyone could do about it, besides I had no idea where it was going to be. There was also the possibility it was just a terrifying dream.

Later that day, 19th Sept 1997, at 13:20 in Southall, West London an InterCity 125 High Speed Train failed to stop at a red signal and collided with a 22-tonne freight train that was crossing its path. Miraculously only seven people died but 139 were injured.

I have never had an experience like this, before or since. I recently spoke to my mother about it and she told me she used to have dreams like this a lot when she was a girl but, she didn't like it so she made it go away. (I don't know how she "made it go away" I didn't press her on it.) She also described an experience like "a nuclear holocaust coming down on top of me". I guess that's the cue that it's a premonition?