Four people were killed, including the train driver Joseph Barnshaw and Firefighters George Masters and Josiah Stanton, and four more people were left with significant injuries as a result of this crash which occurred when a Great Central Railway express newspaper train veered of the tracks as it approached Aylesbury railway station at about 3.40am on 23rd December 1904.
The Bucks Herald reported the incident as: “a terrible disaster, the train being completely wrecked. The engine fell across the down platform and the carriages were dashed with terrific force against the brickwork of the platform”. In fact at least three of the carriages attached to the train clattered into Aylesbury Railway Station and reports state that most of the train smashed into small pieces and propelled out as far as 50 yards from the station.
The official investigation uncovered that a driving error was responsible for the crash as the train was moving at too fast a speed, other secondary factors which led to the accident included: poor visibility in foggy conditions, inadequate signage, the driver’s lack of knowledge of the route, potential fatigue and stress and the track layout.