A train carrying more than 50 people crashed after a tractor driver left gates open and failed to use a level crossing properly, an investigation has found.

The collision with the tractor on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in September was also put down to the railway not giving adequate briefings to the farm and farm workers about how to use Young’s Crossing, a user-worked crossing, near Dymchurch.

Five passengers on board the train, which was being pulled by the Green Goddess, were treated for minor injuries. The train and tractor drivers were not injured.

The miniature steam engine derailed and crashed on to its side, coming to rest 23 metres after the crossing.

The train was pulling 13 carriages and the first coach derailed but fortunately remained upright.

Railway bosses said they were extremely proud of driver Zac Clark who helped get people to safety before emergency services arrived.

A report into the crash by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch published this week concluded the tractor driver did not use the level crossing properly.

The report reveals the tractor driver – employed by a farm contractor to carry out work on the land – was unfamiliar with the crossing and had only started using the crossing the day before the crash on September 10.

It said: “The tractor driver neither opened and closed the gates each time he crossed, nor telephoned the railway before using the crossing.

“Neither this driver nor any other farm worker had contacted the railway for permission to cross while harvesting was in progress during the week leading up to the accident.”

Investigators added the railway “had not briefed the authorised user” of the crossing “in recent years and had no record of doing so earlier”.

Their report said: “The method described on the sign had not been briefed to the tractor driver by either his employer or by the farm occupier.

“The train driver did not realise that the front of the tractor was partly blocking the line until it was too late to stop the train before hitting the tractor.”

"Neither this driver nor any other farm worker had contacted the railway for permission to cross while harvesting was in progress during the week leading up to the accident." RAIB report

The investigation proposed three safety recommendations for railways and the use of user worked level crossings (UWCs).

Inspectors said there should be proper briefing to authorised users of UWCs about the “correct method of use and importance of passing this information on to employees and subcontractors”.

They added there needed to be consideration of the need for “suitable risk mitigation” when a crossing is being used constantly such as during harvest season.

The final recommendation was for implementing measures to prevent risk when railways realise level crossing gates are left open.

The Green Goddess ploughed into the tractor’s front counterweight at an estimated 15mph, despite the train driver applying the locomotive’s full brakes.

The gates were left open after the tractor driver had used the crossing several times in the day. Shortly before the accident he drove over the railway to collect a trailer loaded with straw and parked up near the tracks.

After hitching up the trailer, the tractor moved towards the crossing and when the driver saw the train in the distance he pulled up to wait for the train to pass.

The report said: “Having entered the crossing and seen the train, the tractor driver incorrectly judged his stopping position, such that the tractor was partly blocking the line.

“He was not able to move his tractor away from the line quickly enough to avoid a collision once he realised his mistake.”

Inspectors added “some railway staff” knew the crossing was being used for harvesting work and the railway’s controller had warned drivers earlier in the day the gates had been left open but “had not taken any other action” to deal with the open gates or increased risk.

The report said the train driver saw the tractor and sounded the Green Goddess’s whistle. This prompted the tractor driver to start reversing but it was too late to avoid the collision.

In 2003, a train driver was killed when a steam locomotive and a car crashed on a crossing near Dymchurch.

The train had derailed after it struck the vehicle. Two years later, train driver Suzanne Martin, 43, was killed when her locomotive hit a car on a crossing near Dungeness.