The derailed locomotive at Clough following the New Year’s Eve train crash in 1975.

Relatives of the dead and injured in a railway accident at Tubberneering on New Year’s Eve, 1975, 40 years ago, are expected to attend a commemorative ecumenical prayer and plaque unveiling ceremony on the spot where the tragedy took place, on Thursday morning.

Five people died and 41 were injured when the early morning Rosslare to Dublin careered down an embankment and overturned at Clough Bridge which had been damaged by an excavator on a low loader two minutes earlier.

Despite the determined efforts of a local man who ran along the track in an effort to warn the driver and get the train stopped before it reached the bridge, it was too late to prevent the train being derailed.

A full scale emergency plan was implemented by the Gardaí at Gorey and emergency services from all over the south-east and Wicklow rushed to the scene.

The train had 94 passengers on board and was on time. It was raining, but according to a report published afterwards, weather conditions played no part in the crash.

All of the people who died, with the exception of a young Dublin employee of CIE, were from Wexford.

Wexford County Hospital was put on stand-by and all of the injured were treated at the hospital.

Iarnrod Éireann, in response to a request from some of the relatives of the five who died, have erected a plaque to commemorate the tragedy, at the site of the accident.

Story this week in The Gorey Echo.