The Wales & Borders Railway, story 25: The Slurry Slide!

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Based on the Aberfan Disaster that happened in 1966

It was a wet and soggy day on the Wales & Borders Railway, all the crew were working hard trying to get their jobs done on time in this freezing cold weather, but the main location of this story is Maesteg Quarry. Oliver with tipper number 1 had bumped into the ballast hopper and spilled ballast everywhere, all over the workmen they were most annoyed, Oliver and Michael were sent to the top of the hill to tip number 7 to transport some old rubbish like wood and coal from the pits and the mines, and to dump it on the tip so it's out of the way. "Ooooh!" groaned Ian, his truck was straining up the hill, their trucks had been overworked, they had no choice but to go up the shortcut. It was dangerous and only cars went up there, not trucks. "This is too dangerous" muttered Michael to Oliver, "Oh come on, come on" said Oliver to Michael, the rain was getting worse and worse it was getting into the trucks' engines, it made its drivers very unhappy, "My engine is overheating" complained Oliver, "Mine too" answered Michael, soon the top of the hill came closer and closer, and so did tip 7. At the exact same time there was a local school called Pantglas Junior School it was the students' last day before half term, the deputy head Mr David Beynon, he and his class had just finished an assembly, it was a little boring, the students were about to sit down and do the register when the rain came down hard.

Oliver was still at tip 7 whilst the others were back at the quarry, he had to finish emptying his load, when CRAAACK! The ground started to crumble, the rain made the ground wet and couldn't handle number 1's weight, as it was a very heavy truck. He was so worried, he sped straight to the quarry, the sound of the ground cracking was heard all over South Wales, the school could hear the cracking of the ground too, also the rain didn't help, as it made all the coal waste and rubbish all soggy which turned into a dangerous black liquid similar to molten plastic, called slurry, which tumbled down the mountain straight towards the village, the school children and the villagers were scared stiff, when they looked out the window and saw a huge river of black rushing towards them, the school, on the other hand, was in most danger the Pantglas Junior School was right in front of tip 7. The slurry came rushing down the mountain at a tremendous speed, it crashed right into the corner of the school where David Beynon's class had just started work, it covered the whole of the class and then and most of the village. It was one of the most saddest incidents in Welsh history. Oliver, Ian, Michael, Mr Moore and Mr Griffiths, the railway director, and his crew all went rushing to the scene, to try rescuing the buried people.

"Come on, come on!" shouted Mr Moore, "if you hear a sound of a potential person buried, everyone be completely quiet" Mr Griffiths heard a cry, "Everyone be quiet" he said "I can hear someone shouting for help!" Everyone was quiet and the person was found, they ended up finding a small number of people. Unfortunately 5 teachers and 116 children were killed in this dreadful accident. The people were taken to hospital but sadly didn't survive. David Beynon, the teacher, is known in Wales and throughout the UK as one of the heroes of the Aberfan disaster of 1966, dying in the disaster as he attempted to shield the children in his class.

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