Young driver has a miraculous Boxing Day escape after his car collides with a Swanage Railway steam train at an isolated but clearly signed farm crossing.

News report from: Andrew P.M. Wright, Swanage Railway Press officer, dated 26th December 1999 - all photographs are copyright Nick Hanham - driver of 80104.

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A YOUNG Dorset man is lucky to be alive after his car collided with a Swanage Railway steam train on Boxing Day as the motorist used an isolated but clearly signed gated farm crossing near Harman's Cross while on his way to visit his girlfriend.

The accident happened at the isolated Quarr Farm crossing as the second train of the day, the three-coach 11.40 am from Swanage, was steaming between New Barn and Harman's Cross; heading for Corfe Castle and Norden park and ride on Sunday, December 26th, 1999.

The driver, David Richards, 23, a mechanic from Utrecht Court, Christchurch, Dorset, was the only person in the car. He was visiting his girlfriend at Quarr Farm, which is south of the Swanage Railway's relaid Purbeck Line while the main road access to the farm is north of the railway line. Luckily, none of the 40 train passengers was injured.

The driver of the steam locomotive was veteran Swanage Railway volunteer driver Nick Hanham of Parkstone near Poole in Dorset, the steam railway's former health and safety officer, while the fireman was Mike Jackman of Wimborne, Dorset.

But, had the motorist been using the crossing in the other direction, he would have been killed as a buffer of 1955 Brighton-built Class 4 Standard Tank No. 80104 smashed through the passenger side of the Vauxhall Cavalier motorcar as it headed south across the crossing.

The car was pushed by the steam locomotive some 100 yards along the track. Fire, police and ambulance crews raced to the scene and the young car driver was released from the wreckage of his vehicle by firemen from Wareham and Blandford Forum using hydraulic cutting gear.

David Richards, the car driver, was airlifted to Dorchester Hospital by Dorset Police's £2.5 million helicopter. He was back at home after being released from Dorchester County Hospital by Thursday, December 30th 1999, after treatment for a damaged collar bone and bruised ribs.

The only damage to the steam locomotive was its buffer beam steam heat pipe - and a signal and telegraph train treadle for the eastern approaches to Harman's Cross station - which were both ripped off.

Harman's Cross station is half a mile to the west of the Quarr Farm crossing which was bought back into use in late 1988 when the line between New Barn and Harman's Cross was reopened.

The Quarr Farm crossing accident meant that two timetabled trains out of the ten on the Purbeck Line on Boxing Day were cancelled - the 12.15 pm from Norden and the 12.50 pm from Swanage - trapped passengers being ferried back to their cars at Norden park and ride by taxi.

The Quarr Farm accident happened a couple of hundred yards west of where a Swanage Railway volunteer from Devon committed suicide in front of Thomas The Tank Engine in late October, 1999.