The hero driver who battled to save a high-speed train described the terrifying moment the engine leapt in the air and careered down an embankment.
Iain Black said the train was like a "violent bucking bronco" as the carriages hurtled off the tracks.
He was hailed a hero by Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson after he stayed at the controls, despite suffering multiple injuries in the crash, which killed an elderly woman.
But Mr Black, 46, insisted he was just doing his job. He said: "I don't see it as an act of heroism. It's my job to drive the train and that is where I should be."
Margaret Masson, 84, from Cardonald, Glasgow, was killed and 22 others injured when the Glasgow-bound Virgin train derailed in remote countryside near Kendal in Cumbria last month.
Speaking from his home in Dumbarton where he is recovering from his injuries, Mr Black described the moment the nine-carriage train left the tracks.
He said: "It started out a normal day but then the train derailed. It was apparent that we were in serious bother because the train took off.
"The wheels came straight off and it was as if it leapt into the air. I don't know how high but it was a couple of feet. I knew immediately without a doubt I was in serious trouble.
"It's all very sketchy but at some point I put the brake on. It would have been an automatic function. As a driver you are trained to react to these things.
"The train came down and I knew when it came down that it had derailed. It was like a violent bucking bronco and it was bouncing up and down and there was a lot of noise."
