The investigation into the train crash in Cumbria which killed one passenger and seriously injured eight is focusing on a set of points that were more than 20 years old.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch will issue a preliminary report today which is expected to give details of when the points were last inspected and adjusted.

Network Rail declined to comment on reports that nuts were seen to be missing from bolts on the points after the crash, but a spokesman said that the condition of the points was a “central element of the investigation”.

Margaret Masson, 84, of Glasgow, died after the crash. Eleven people remain in hospital, including Iain Black, 46, the driver of the London to Glasgow Virgin train, who suffered a broken collar bone and a broken bone in his neck.

The locomotive of the train is believed to have derailed at 90mph at the points but to have continued upright for a few seconds before falling down an embankment. The locomotive, which suffered the worst damage, is thought to have hit a trackside stanchion, used to support electric wires that feed power to the train. The impact caused it to jackknife back on to the other carriages.

Network Rail checked 700 similar sets of points over the weekend and found no problems. It said that the points at Grayrigg, near Kendal, were installed 20 to 30 years ago.

They were rarely used but should have been visually inspected once a week and serviced every 13 weeks. Network Rail said late last night that an inspection had been carried out on February 3. The process should have involved checking that the points were in good working order and making any necessary adjustments.

Network Rail said that every action taken should have been logged on an information recording system set up after the Potters Bar crash in May 2002.

Badly maintained points were the cause of that crash and safety inspectors criticised the absence of guidance or instructions for inspecting and maintaining the points.

Stan Hall, former head of operational safety at British Rail, said that the failure of the Potters Bar inquiry to establish the exact cause of the crash had meant important lessons may not have been learnt by the industry.

“It was clear that better checks needed to be carried out on points but, without knowing the root cause, it was difficult to ensure it never happened again. This is the first serious challenge to Network Rail’s safety regime, which had been unparalleled.”

The company said it had recognised that points were a critical part of the network from a safety point of view and had more than tripled the rate of replacement undertaken by Railtrack.

Police and firemen expressed amazement that there had not been more deaths after carriages were strewn on their sides across fields. Unlike in previous crashes, none of the windows broke and carriages remained intact.

The three-year-old Pendolino train has small, double-laminated windows, a reinforced shell with roll cages and carriage couplings designed to absorb impact.

The line between Preston and Carlisle is likely to remain closed, with coaches replacing trains, until early next week.

Chief Superintendent Martyn Ripley, of the British Transport Police, said that heavy duty lifting equipment would not be on site to begin moving the carriages until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Two train data recorders, similar to the black boxes found on aircraft, have been recovered and will be analysed today.

Mr Black is expected to remain in hospital for several weeks. Last night he was heavily sedated and in a serious but stable condition.

Mrs Masson’s daughter, Margaret Langley, 61, and her husband Richard, 63, of Southport, Merseyside, who were in the same carriage, were seriously injured. They remained at the Royal Preston Hospital with other passengers, including Richard Blakemore, 54, from Reading, and Graeme Stewart, 28, an IT consultant living in London, both of whom were in a comfortable condition last night. A sixth patient faces neurosurgery.

Andrew Curran, a consultant in emergency medicine at the Royal Preston Hospital, said: “Mr Black is conscious at the moment. He’s obviously very shocked and upset about what’s happened.”

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