On the morning of 28 February 1975 a train on the Northern City Line failed to stop at the Moorgate terminus and hit the end wall of the tunnel. Spooky Isles gives 43 dead and 74 injured, making it the worst peacetime accident on the London Underground. The inquiry put the cause down to the actions of the driver, Leslie Newson, who was 56. A post mortem found no medical reason, the brakes had not been applied and the dead man handle was still held down. It is thought that his actions were deliberate, but the real reason has never been established.
The ghost story is about the weeks before. In the winter of 1974 to 1975, workmen repairing the station reported often seeing a man in blue overalls walking towards them in the tunnel at night. They took him for a fellow worker until they saw his face, which wore a look of indescribable horror, and the figure carried on along the track and vanished into the tunnel wall. Another workman had seen the same figure, and it is thought to have been a maintenance man killed by a train on that stretch of line many years before. Londonist's tube map repeats the tale.
After the crash, newspapers that learned of the sighting suggested that the driver might have seen the figure and lost concentration. Spooky Isles says this is speculation and notes that the premonition idea is arguable. It adds a documented detail: a week before the crash, Newson failed to stop at another station, and witnesses said he seemed to be in a trance, looking straight ahead.
The accident is a real tragedy with named victims and an official report, and the link to a ghost is an after-the-fact story told by the press and ghost writers. The entry is kept factual, and no suggestion is made that a ghost caused the crash. The sighting accounts are second hand and the maintenance worker's identity is not given.
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