I know my father was on the Dartford line train immediately behind the Ramsgate steam train that crashed into a Hayes line train at St John's, Lewisham, in thick fog in 1957. The Dartford electric, driven by a young driver, was able to stop just short of the wreckage. 50 people died in that crash. I remember that evening, aged 9 and waiting at home with my (never well) mother, wondering where my father, always home by 6.30 p.m. could possibly be: no immediate news of anything like that in those days, in fact I think it was only radio news at 9 or 10 p.m. that stated the bold facts that there'd been a fatal crash. I think it was midnight or later when my father's key was heard in the door, and the tears flowed, but not from my cool as a cucumber father who, in his usual understated way, said there'd been a few problems getting home, or words to that effect. He went off to work again a few hours later, and the accident was never, ever, mentioned again in my house, despite my father's interest in railways and steam engines in particular. Later on, years after his death, I found out why he'd always seemed to hate Italy and anything Italian, even though I'd thought he'd never been there. He'd actually been involved in the Battle of Montecassino in WW2 as a tank commander, I discovered. Family secrets!