One night in November 1968 two goods trains collided at Trent Junction and 15 wagons were derailed, blocking the main Nottingham to London line, such that Nottingham to London trains had to be diverted through Sheet Stores junction. One of the guards was treated for cuts to his face. In the early hours of the same day, a goods train had derailed at Codnor Park, blocking the Erewash Valley line and Longmoor Garage in Long Eaton had been called to provide floodlighting for the scene.
In July 1971 an 8-year-old boy got his arm caught on a footpath crossing near Attenborough. As a diesel engine running light from Beeston to Trent Junction approached, a man ran towards it to warn the driver while his wife stayed with the boy. But the engine didn’t stop in time and the boy was killed.
In November 1984 the badly injured body of a woman was found on the main line at the southern end of Trent Junction. She was a 25-year-old trainee midwife from Nottingham. It was thought she may have fallen from a train.
On 1st January 1990 the body of a local man was found beside the line at Trent Junction. He was found to have committed suicide, while suffering from depression.
In December 1994 a rail worker was hit by a train at Trent Junction. He was a lookout for a track maintenance gang. It took 25 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, by which time he’d died.
In October 1999 Railtrack announced that section of line between Trent Junction and Nottingham would be one of the first in the country to be fitted with Train Protection Warning System, which automatically slows a train if it passes a red light. It replaced the Automatic Warning System, installed in the 1940s.