Mr Martin had worked on the railways for 39 years

Stanley Martin, who was 54, was remembered at a private church service in Torquay, where he lived with his family, followed by a cremation.

Mr Martin was at the controls of the 1735 Paddington to Plymouth First Great Western service when it hit a car on a level crossing on 6 November.

The driver was among a total of seven people who died.

Earlier this week, Mr Martin's widow, Deborah, 43, said her husband had never expressed any fears about level crossings.

She said: "Knowing that people had died on his train would have been devastating to Stan, particularly the children who died."

She described her husband as "one in a million".

Mr Martin also left children James, 15, and Louise, 13, as well as 21-year-old daughter Sian from a previous marriage.

Messages of support have provided the family with some comfort

On the day of the accident, as the train approached, an off-duty police officer saw Brian Drysdale's car on the level crossing making no attempt to leave.

The officer tried to call for help on the emergency trackside phone to stop the train, but it was too late.

With the train travelling at 100mph, Mr Martin had just two to three seconds to apply the brakes.

The train ploughed into Mr Drysdale's Mazda and derailed leaving wreckage spread over a quarter of a mile.

An interim Health and Safety Executive report cleared both rail staff and the level crossing equipment for the blame.

Police are still investigating the possibility that Mr Drysdale was trying to commit suicide.

An inquest which was opened and adjourned in Reading last week heard that Mr Martin had died of "traumatic asphyxia".

Also killed in the crash were passengers Anjanette Rossi, 38, and her daughter Louella Main, nine, from Speen, near Newbury; Barry Strevens, 55, of Wells, Somerset; Emily Webster, 14, of Moretonhampstead, Devon; and Leslie Matthews, 72, of Warminster, Wiltshire.