Train fire that took twelve lives remembered 40 years on

Today marks the 40th anniversary of one of the worst losses of life on the region's railways. 11 people died in a train fire near Taunton on the 6th July 1978. A twelfth person died later at hospital.

They were all passengers on the Penzance to Paddington sleeper train. They died when piles of bedding caught fire as they slept.

Thousands of passengers travel daily over the rails where 11 people lost their lives. How many can know of the tragedy that unfolded?

As the sleeper headed towards Wellington and Taunton at 2:30 in the morning it was almost certainly carrying the dead as well as the living. Passengers already overcome by that invisible killer carbon monoxide.

Flames eventually erupted from linen which had been placed next to an electric heater. The communication cord was pulled and the train screeched to a halt a mile from Taunton station, but it was far too late.

Even then, passengers were trapped, the doors - against regulations - had been locked. Firemen couldn't get in.

Journalist Richard Briers was quickly on the scene.

Photographer Alan Lockyer was sent to the tracks by the Sun newspaper.

Michael Rose was the Deputy Coroner at the inquest. He said passengers were anaesthetised and then killed as they slept by carbon monoxide and cyanide as the linen and plastic went up, but not everyone. A doctor managed to get from his sleeping berth next door to his wife and child but he couldn't save them or himself.

Safety measures were hurriedly introduced. Safety measures that are in place today.

Flammable polyurethane mattresses were replaced and lethal gases, which unbelievably were funnelled into sleeping compartments, can't now make that deadly journey through the ventilation system.

The lessons learnt here have doubtless saved lives since but they were painful lessons. 11 dead on the train. A twelfth died of heart failure at Musgrove Park Hospital.