Fri | Sep 5, 2025
The Classics

Photo Flashback: Kendal train disaster, September 1957

Published:Friday | September 5, 2025 | 7:05 AM
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The Daily Gleaner front page of Tuesday, September 3, 1957 reporting on the tragedy.
Survivors and spectators picking their way through and around the wreckage of three telescoped coaches after the Kendal train crash in September 1957.
Death in the yam field: part of an overturned rail car in the background. In the foreground, a piece of tarpaulin is used as a stretcher for one of the nearly 200 who died on the spot.
Wedge for the Line - This picture shows one of the 12 coaches wedged between the ridge on Tobaco Hill after the accident.
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On the night of September 1, 1957, Jamaica was shaken by its worst rail tragedy and one of the deadliest train disasters in the world at the time. The Kendal crash in Manchester claimed close to 200 lives and left hundreds more injured, leaving the nation in mourning. These archival images capture the horror and aftermath of that fateful night, as survivors, rescuers, and grieving families confronted the devastation.