as part of the holiday traffic. At 5:20 am, the last two northbound light engines (rebuilt Midland Railway Class 2 4-4-0 Nos. 448 and 548, under drivers Scott and Bath) had been turned and coupled together, and were waiting on the "lie-bye" road alongside the down line. After a down special express passed, Sutton signalled them onto the down main line where they halted at the advance starting signal, waiting for the express to clear Aisgill. Normally, this took between four and six minutes. However, Scott and Bath were still waiting twenty minutes later. Sutton had been busy handling two express up goods and trying to dispatch three light engines to the south between them. At 5.39, Sutton was offered the midnight sleeping car express, St.Pancras-Glasgow, which he offered forward to Ais Gill. It was accepted at once and at 5:44 he pulled all his signals "off" i.e. set them to clear. Scott and Bath briefly "popped" their whistles and set off. Barely two minutes later the express passed through. It consisted of four timber-bodied coaches, two sleeping cars and two brake vans, hauled by "Kirtley" 2-4-0 No. 48 and rebuilt Class 2 No. 549, under drivers Oldcorn and Wadeson. It was running sixteen minutes late due to signal and other delays at Leeds and Skipton, but was running at and accelerating before making the final ascent to Ais Gill. The two light engines were running at only an easy . They had cleared Moorcock tunnel just over a mile north of Hawes Junction and were running across the Lunds viaduct north of the tunnel when driver Bath glanced back and saw the express as it emerged from the tunnel. He opened his regulator and whistle. At the same time, driver Oldcorn on the leading engine of the express saw the red tail light on Bath's tender and applied the express's continuous brake. Driver Oldcorn estimated that the distance between the speeding express and the light engine was only , so neither measure had time to take effect, and the express struck the light engines from behind. Bath's locomotive was derailed and lost its front bogie, but his and Scott's locomotives carried on for over before Bath's locomotive came to rest against the side of a cutting. The two locomotives of the express were also derailed, and the coaches piled up behind them. The first two coaches were badly telescoped,