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Press Releases & Press Packs

04.02.04

WEST MIDLANDS TV

Inside Out - Train Mystery, Way of the Gun and Pink Weddings

Inside Out, Monday 9 February 2004, 91热爆 ONE West Midlands, 7.30-8.00pm

Ashley Blake presents the popular features and current affairs show - and turns detective to solve the fascinating mystery of the railway children...

Train Mystery

It was just another day for commuters at New Street station, Birmingham.

But 76 years ago a late night mail train stopped on its way to the West Country and sadly, never arrived at its final destination. It's a mystery that's remained unsolved to this day.

On that fateful day 16 people died in one of the worst train disasters of the 20th century.

And two of the victims are still unknown; two young children who were never claimed by their families.

The 100 ton locomotive, drawing eleven carriages, was heading through Gloucestershire just before dawn.

As the passengers slept, the driver and engineers were keen to make up the seven minutes it was behind on the long haul through Gloucestershire.

But at Charfield station, there was a problem. A goods train had stopped on the main track to draw water and was blocking the track.

The locomotive ploughed head-on into the stationary goods train.

Dick Goscombe is one of last remaining witnesses to the aftermath of the terrible disaster.

He says: "We lived in a bungalow which was 100 yards from the scene of the accident.

"We heard a loud bang and everything was on fire. We heard people calling for help and we realised it was a major railway disaster.

"It gave me nightmares for weeks and afterwards. It's a memory I've got for the rest of my life."

Among the burnt-out debris, rescue workers discovered the remains of two children. But incredibly, to this day, their bodies have never been claimed.

For 15 years after the crash, a woman in black would visit the communal grave. Each year, on the anniversary of the disaster, she'd arrive in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, until she disappeared into folklore.

Villager Ken Kingscote says: "No-one seems to know where she came from, but she used to go down to the grave and not stay long and then get back into the car and go back."

So who was this woman, and did she know the identities of the two children? Find out on Inside Out.

Way of the Gun

Gun crime has doubled in the Midlands over the past six years. There are now more criminals than ever using illegal firearms.

What can be done to crack down on gun crime?

In Birmingham, Alabama, USA, people are hit with a five-year sentence if they're found with an illegal gun.

Inside Out's reporter Peter Wilson goes on patrol in America's south with the team whose motto is "one hundred per cent enforcement".

Sergeant Ed Bussey fights gun crime on the streets of Alabama every day.

He says: "In the US you can't buy a handgun till you're 21, so kids buy rifles all they want."

He works on Project ICE, the operation police hope will put red hot gun crime into deep freeze for years to come.

And it's working. Gun killings in Alabama have been halved.

Inside Out asks how much longer will it be before the police methods employed in Birmingham, Alabama, will be used on the streets of Birmingham, England?

Pink Weddings

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something... pink?

Local authorities in Telford and Dudley already recognise same sex commitment ceremonies and the City of Birmingham is about to make it official too.

Inside Out reporter Suzie Norton meets the couples preparing for their big day.

Kerry and Donna have been engaged for eight months and are getting married next year. Suzie caught up with the girls at an Elizabethan mansion near Stratford-upon-Avon, a possible venue for the biggest day of their lives.

For Donna it's not where they want to get married that's the most important, it's why.

She says: "We love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together. We want to be registered as a partnership and be recognised as a partnership. It just makes it feel right."

So what about the church in all this?

Inside Out thought it would be a good idea for Leicester-based pastor Marvin Hector, who thinks gay marriage is a sin, and Reverend Chris Dowd, who's setting up a branch of the Metropolitan Community Church in Birmingham for gay Christians, to meet.

So was it love at first sight or should the divorce lawyers be called in immediately? Find out on Inside Out聟

For more about Inside Out visit .

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