This evening our Team Leader became aware of a developing possible major incident involving a train crash in the Congleton area of Cheshire.

Aware of the mountain rescue involvement which had taken place during the Greyrigg train disaster in Cumbria our Team Leader Garry Rhodes contacted his counterpart Joanne McClure in Cheshire Lowland Search & Rescue team to determine whether the team may become involved as the incident developed.

At this stage Cheshire LSAR had already made contact with Cheshire Constabulary and further contacts resulted in a request for Cheshire LSAR to go to standby at the forward RVP of Congleton Police Station.

In turn Cheshire LSAR had suggested to Cheshire Constabulary the involvement of Buxton MRT and Bolton MRT as two MRTs with excellent direct road links to the incident location should they be required.

Cheshire LSAR then requested our team to go to immediate standby at our Ladybridge Hall base / HQ in case of need.

Our full team callout page at 20:10 hours following our standby page at 19:43 hours resulted in 35 team callout list members assembling at our Ladybridge Hall base / HQ to await possible deployment.

Our 4 Landrover mountain rescue ambulances were made available complemented by team members 4 wheel drive vehicles.

Our control trailer, our brand new catering trailer and our aireshelta plus its trailer were also made available including full food stocks to mass-cater for the team in the field.

At 21:21 hours put team was stood down by Cheshire LSAR who had in turn been stood down by Cheshire Constabulary as thankfully not required.

At the time of this report (23:25 hrs) we understand the following resources were involved with this incident,

• NWAS (Merseyside & Cheshire)
• Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service including Urban Search & Rescue Team
• Cheshire Constabulary
• British Transport Police
• 17 x Cheshire Lowland Search & Rescue Team (on standby, Congleton Police Station)
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team (on standby, Ladybridge Hall, Bolton)

Thankfully in the event unlike the Greyrigg train disaster there was no requirement for the specialist resources of LSAR and the MRT service, however it does demonstrate that a large number of personnel and specialist equipment and resources from the joint LSAR and MR service can be made immediately available for incidents of this nature should they ever occur again in the Cheshire area.

Webmaster – What a wonderful way for Joanne McClure to finish off her birthday – a Major Incident. From all in the Team MoJo Happy Belated Birthday