GRIEVING widow Christine Tindall has spoken of her family's devastation over the loss of a husband and father who was killed in the Tebay rail crash.

The funeral of Gary Tindall, 46, took place on Saturday at St James's Church, Tebay. He was one of four men who died when a runaway wagon crashed into a team working on the tracks just south of Tebay on February 15.

Mr Tindall lived with his wife and son, Darren, in a cottage overlooking the railway lines where generations of Tindall men have worked over the last 100 years.

"Gary was a loving family man," said Mrs Tindall and even though he worked long hours on the railway he would obligingly help out with the housework after poor health led to her reduced mobility.

Tebay born and bred, Mr Tindall was a popular figure at the village's Sports and Social Club where he was captain of the darts team and organised social activities such as trips to the races. He was also a keen footballer and had played for Lunesdale United in his youth.

The Tebay-based team called off Saturday's Westmorland League match with Coniston as a mark of respect to Mr Tindall.

He took up his job on the railway in 1984 after spells working at Goodacre Carpets and K-Shoes in Kendal.

Mrs Tindall did not wish to comment on the circumstances of the accident in which her husband lost his life.

The other men killed were Chris Waters, 54, from Morecambe, and Carnforth men Colin Buckley, 49, and Darren Burgess, 30.

The deaths on the track at Tebay have prompted calls for a public inquiry and could lead to criminal prosecutions.

British Transport Police and the Health and Safety Executive are jointly investigating the incident and say they will be presenting their findings to the Criminal Prosecution Service to decide who, if anyone, should be prosecuted.

Investigations will focus on how a maintenance trolley at Scout Green began to move and why the compulsory automatic braking system apparently failed to stop it.

Braking systems have been required on all such vehicles following a similar incident with a runaway wagon at Culgaith, on the Settle to Carlisle line east of Penrith in January 2003.

No-one was injured at Culgaith, but Network Rail's internal investigation decided, in the interests of safety, that all such road/rail trolleys must be fitted with a brake designed to come on automatically when the vehicles are decoupled.

Network Rail said it understood the trolley in question at Tebay had been fitted with the braking system.

The RMT's Andy Boyack said the system failed at Scout Green, forcing workers to use two-inch blocks of wood placed under the wheels to keep the trolley in place on the track.

According to him, the vehicle - laden with 15-tonnes of 20-feet long track sections - had been jolted during unloading, splintered the wooden chock-blocks and trundled down the one-in-74 gradient towards the workers on the line at Tebay.

To make matters worse, he said, five different companies were working at Scout Green but no-one was aware of the other workers down the line. Control was alerted to the runaway trailer, but no-one knew to warn the men at Tebay.