After the crash, Driver Pritchard Jones of the express train was desperately concerned that he had made an error, until his fireman, Owen, retrieved both their own correct tablet for the section, and the tablet for the Montgomery-Abermule section, from the wreckage. The tablets were handed to the Traffic Controller for the Cambrian Railways, who had been travelling on the stopping train, and the Chief Traffic Inspector, who had been a passenger on the express. The Inspector (George) took the Montgomery-Abermule tablet on foot to Abermule station and replaced it in the correct machine in the presence of witnesses, to allow a breakdown train from Oswestry to reach the scene of the crash and assist with freeing the injured.