There was a big jolt, the lights went dark, and the sound of grating metal and splintering wood echoed in the surrounds.
It was May 6, 1990 and the historic 3801 steam passenger train was returning from the Morpeth Jazz Festival, which is held around 40 kilometres from Newcastle.
But it was no ordinary train ride back to Sydney.
The journey was brought to a halt when the 3801 was struck at the rear by the City Rail inter-urban passenger service around the Cowan area.
The force threw passengers through the air and six people were killed, 100 injured.
There were screams and then an eerie silence. I know, because I was there.
Friends on the train
My boarding school friends Brigette Thorn and Briony Blackstone were also on board alongside me.
"I had visions of you, Giselle, flying through the air," Ms Thorn said.
"The carnage of bodies was full on and to see people with broken bones; there was this terrible panic. That terrible shock and panic has lived with me."
Ms Blackstone said her memories of that day are clear.
"I remember all the power was off, it got really really hot and all the lights on the train had gone out. I clearly remember a lady yelling out that her leg was stuck behind a seat." she said.
"It was [also] getting really hot and people started to kick the windows out."
Live wires were strewn across the crash site, which meant we had to stay on board inside the smashed up carriages for some time until it was deemed safe.
Once we were finally allowed to disembark, we started to walk.
We travelled through a tunnel, along the tracks and down the steep terrain to the riverside village of Brooklyn.
"Anyone who had a lighter, lit the path up, the stones were really big on the railway track and I had this big suitcase," Ms Thorn said.
"I have memories thinking that we could have been walking out of a war zone."
Ms Blackstone also recalled the trek.
"I remember walking in the dark through a tunnel, carrying our bags and I remember wondering how we knew what to do," she said.
"When we got on awaiting buses I too remember a sense of exhaustion and calm, before getting to Sydney's Central Station and sobbing as I used a pay phone to call my mum."
Early model mobile phone crucial in response
Retired Salvation Army chaplain Don Woodland was seconded to the New South Wales fire service when he responded to the crash.
Just days earlier colleagues had chipped in to buy him an early model mobile phone and it was the first time such a phone was used in a response to a New South Wales emergency.
"It was one of those old large mobiles that you really needed a wheelbarrow to carry," Lieutenant-Colonel Woodland said.
"It happened to be the only source of communication that the brigade had back to fire brigade control in Sydney.
"People then began to see the value of mobile phones even though they were so big and cumbersome in those days."
How did it happen?
A coronial inquest found that the steam train had stalled while attempting to climb the steep gradient from the Hawkesbury River to Cowan.
It was later found that sand applied to the rails to regain traction had interfered with the signals and given the City Rail train a false clear indication.
The coroner also found that it was likely that a passenger on the 3801 had applied a handbrake on the third carriage that prevented the steam train from restarting.
The New South Wales Transport Minister at the time was Bruce Baird.
He said even today, it was a "tragic" event to look back on.
"The fact that we had the 3801 involved was even more distressing because they were a flagship of the railways and people enjoying the outing and so to have this happen is quite tragic," he said.
"The first question I asked was, 'How on earth can this happen'. The fact that one had rammed into the back of another was just very distressing."
As a result of the crash, an interim ban was placed on the use of steam locomotives on the state's railway system.
This ban was lifted nine months later.
But it took longer than nine months for me to take a ride on a train again.
