After reading this horror story, I wonder if there is something I should look out for. If the prop breaks from the gearbox end it could cause the car to catapult! really not good!
We had a prop break on our landrover twice in close succession, first time it broke completely, second time I recognized the vibration before it broke free. I realized the reason for the failures was the handbrake, the rear wheels would lock solid overnight or if left several days especially if there was a bit of rain. Pulling away after starting up often resulted in a big clunk at start. This caused huge stress on the UJs. The fix was to change the brake shoes!
After getting my 3000 back on the road, I drove about 30 miles before it developed a clunk, coming from the rear of car when I pulled away or braked. I was worried it might be the propshaft, it turned out to be the 2 screws on the rear of the diff had become loose so I was relieved to fix it in 10 mins and a ratchet spanner.