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This page shows photographs of the fire brigade and other emergency services reacting to a train crash exercise. The situation is that a laden train has crashed at speed into the buffers at the end of a platform at Leeds station.
S801 EUB This West Yorkshire F&RS Volvo appliance is the first to arrive at Leeds railway station. The crew don't know what to expect as they leave their appliance and enter the station concourse.
VE02 YLG  YB05 FVD Very soon afterwards, senior fire officers begin to arrive at the scene in marked and semi-marked vehicles. On the left here is a Vauxhall Frontera and on the right a Renault Megane.
YK03 JVV At another entrance to the station fire appliances are joined by ambulance crews in a Mercedes Sprinter - WAS in readiness for a major operation to remove casualties.
Ambulance paramedics and technicians don protective headwear as they may be working in confined spaces or amongst metal debris.
YJ04 ATF Police vehicles from the city centre also arrive to assist. The police's main aims are to make the scene safe where ambulance and fire personnel are working, as well as controlling people movements and communication.
The rear view of the Mercedes Sprinter video van.
Transport police officers survey the train that has crashed. They attempt to gain access and get an idea of how many casualties there are.
Meanwhile the fire brigade are working at the other side of the train. They are attempting to rescue people from doors that have not been broken in the smash.
YD54 UHB More emergency vehicles continue to arrive at the scene. This fire brigade Volvo V70 is being used as a temporary control unit. It has a red flashing light as well as the usual blue lights on the roof. Fire brigade control vehicles are allowed to show a red and white checkered light to all sides.
The front view of the Volvo. This car can quickly get to a major incident and assume a command position until a dedicated command and control appliance attends. Most counties have only one such appliance and it may have to travel some distance to get to where it is needed.
WY 1    Not long afterwards the full-size control unit arrives. This Volvo unit carries blue and red flashing lights and takes over from the Volvo car above.
The rear view, showing the windowed office and briefing area. Small red flashing lights can be seen along the checkered band. The valuable personalised registration plate WY1 has been handed down from vehicle to vehicle over the years.
Back at the trackside a mix of emergency service personnel are in a short briefing to decide how best to proceed. A fire service camera man films the meeting which will later be used in the debrief.
Firefighters are then briefed by their officer in charge as to what they should do now as part of the coordinated response.
Other fire fighters lay out tarpaulins and place cutting equipment on them. The 'jaws of life' that are often used at road accidents can be used here to open train doors and remove mangled metal from the carriages.
Fire brigade personnel use ramps to get injured people off the train. It is quite a long way down when the train is not alongside the platform. The walking wounded are helped off the train while paramedics treat people inside the carriages.
T738 VWT  YD52 TVP  Due to the number of casualties the ambulance service have sent two control units to help coordinate the casualty treatment. Both vehicles are Mercedes Benz Sprinters but are different ages and carry different liveries.
The rear view of the T-registration ambulance ISU.
The rear view of the 52-registration ambulance ISU.
YJ05 AEB A West Yorkshire Police Vauxhall Astra is parked up a short distance from the station. Officers are assisting the transport police with accident scene management. The car is left a short distance away so fire and ambulance vehicles can park closer - giving better access to equipment and medical aid.
The rear view of the same police car.
YE03 XJV heads a row of five fire appliances near the crash site.
A closer look at the front of the engine reveals that it is equipped with cctv. This is primarily to capture images of people attacking fire fighters and vehicles.
L728 EJX arrives at the crash site. It is a West Yorkshire Volvo FL6.18 prime mover.
The rear of the same vehicle shows that it is liveried as a major rescue unit.
It is revered into place and the equipment pod demounted from the chassis.
Fire fighters wheel in additional equipment that will help get to passengers in the mangled train.
An unusual piece of equipment is this manually operated rail trolley. It is used to transport equipment to train incidents when they are not easily accessible from the road.
Once all of the casualties have been extricated, the fire brigade continue to work to make the area safer for people to work in.
BG55 ZPS Two British Transport Police carriers were the only vehicles that didn't have to travel to the scene as they were already based at the train station!

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