KENDAL, Manchester — As children in 1957, travelling by train from Kingston to Montego Bay was no doubt a great thrill for Beverley Giscombe, Earl Clarke, and Woodrow Patterson.

Except that ride is now shrouded in darkness. The train derailed at Kendal, close to Mandeville, Manchester, on the return trip to Kingston in what became known as the Kendal Crash, leaving close to 200 people dead.

Giscombe and Clarke, who are cousins, and Patterson were among the survivors 61 years ago.

They were part of an outing from Kingston to Montego Bay and back, organised by St Anne’s Catholic Church in Kingston, when the train crashed on the night of September 1.

The Manchester Municipal Corporation and Kendal Missionary Church collaborated for the first official memorial church service in the parish earlier this month.

Giscombe, Clarke, and Patterson were among relatives of victims and survivors, community members and others at the inaugural event.

“I thank God for saving me. As a survivor, I would not feel good if I did not come out [to the service at Kendal],” Giscombe told the Jamaica Observer.

She said that she slept through the ordeal and so was unaware of what was happening, and found herself standing on the outside of the train after it was over. She was not injured.

Giscombe reflected on how close she came to death after learning that a woman with whom she had exchanged her window seat had perished.

She said she was only 10 years old at the time and so would not have put up any resistance in giving up the seat to an adult.

Giscombe said that 10 members of her family were on the doomed train. Four survived, including herself and Clarke who was a teenager then.

Clarke, who now resides in England, is still emotional about the accident. He told a rapt audience at the memorial service in Kendal how he remembered feeling the train getting out of control and how helpless he felt at seeing the carnage afterwards.

“We could feel the train getting out of control. As young people, train going fast was excitement, but we didn’t know what awaited us at the end,” said Clarke.

“I remember that track very well. As I walked up, I could see people… begging for help which I couldn’t offer. As I continued to walk, one man grabbed my trousers and pulled at it. I couldn’t help; I was just a young boy. The (radio) news said that ‘it was pointless… to return to the site because of what we would see. There were body parts; you would not recognise anyone.’ Everybody was thrown together and buried together.”

Prior to all that, Clarke said that preparation for the trip was with much enthusiasm because he was going on a long journey and would be travelling on the railway that they had learnt about in school. He and his peers recited the stations as they went along, he said.

He recalled that they were getting anxious as they felt that they were not reaching Montego Bay soon enough.

“I was fortunate (to survive). I was in the very last coach,” said Clarke.

Patterson said he was five years old at the time.

He said that 18 of his relatives were on the train and all, except him, sustained varying degrees of life-scarring injuries. His older sister and a cousin later succumbed to their wounds.

“The same way I went on the trip, [I returned]. I didn’t even get a scratch. I thank God as I reflect on that,” he said.

Patterson said amidst the weeping and wailing, he was found on the lap of a strange woman who told one of his family members that she was prepared to adopt him.

As people tried afterwards to rationalise how as a young child he ended up far away from his relatives, Patterson said he told them that “angels” had assisted him.

To date, the Manchester Municipal Corporation knows of at least eight survivors of the Kendal Crash who are still alive, and has been reaching out to them as plans are made to develop the area where the accident occurred.

The aim is to annually commemorate the tragedy, which had a major impact in and outside of Jamaica.