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Trains in Trouble Vol 1 Railway Accidents in Pictures by Arthur Trevena SoftCovr
Trains in Trouble Vol 1 Railway Accidents in Pictures by Arthur Trevena
Soft Cover
46 pages
Copyright 1982
CONTENTS
CEST LA VIE-La Gare Montparnasse in Paris
Hereford 1858
Tottenham 1860
Problems with Boilers-Blow Up
Newham 1868-Trouble on the Broad Gauge
Norton Fitzwarren 1890-Boat Train Wrecked
Thirsk 1892-The Tragedy of Signalman Homes
Creech Cutting 1894-Floods in Somerset
Doublebois 1895 Penryn 1898-Engine Defects in Cornwall
Snowdon 1896-Disaster on Opening Day
Heathfield 1897-Unhappy Anniversary
Trouble with Carriages- Runaways on the LSWR
Mountain Ash 1899-Taff Vale Tribulations
Harcourt Street 1900-Too Far, Too Fast
Cleator & Workington 1900 Earlestown 1900-Fire and Water
Lonesome Gap 1900-Trouble at Lonesome Gap
Waterloo 1903-Too Fast at Waterloo
Gomshall 1904-Lucky Escape on the SE&CR
Cocking 1904-Recovery Cranes in Action
Brocklesby 1907-Devastation at Brocklesby
Shrewsbury 1907-Mystery of the Night Mail
Torside 1913-Overcome by Smoke
Burnham 1914-Easter Monday Incident
Minor Derailments-Off the Road on the LB&SCR
Quintinshill 1915-The Worst of All
Penistone 1916-Miraculous Escape for Enginemen
Barking 1923-Failure to Stop
Lytham 1924-Broken Tyre Kills 14
Diggle 1923-Red Flag Confusion
Plymouth 1924- Buried by Coal
Tunstall 1925-North Staffs Runaway
London Bridge 1926-Loco Rams Brewery
Euston 1928-Thorugh the Buffers
Shepreth 1928-Hazardous Crossing
Ashchurch 1928-Disaster at Ashchurch
Wormley 1934-Obstacle on the Line
Hither Green 1934-Trouble with Trucks
Kings Langley 1935-Four Lines Blocked
Shrivenham 1936-A King is Downed
Langley 1937 Hampstead 1937-Moguls off the Road
Ealing 1937-Renegade Railcar
Hatfield 1939-Bad Day at Hatfield
Bletchley 1939-Engine in the Waiting Room
Norton Fitzwarren 1940-Wrong Line from Taunton
Ashcott 1949-Into the Mud
Harrow & Wealdstone 1952-Multiple Crash at Harrow
Barnes 1955-Fail-Safe Failure
Welwyn Garden City 1957-Express Rams Local
Highworth 1958 Plymouth 1959-Trouble on Western Region
INTRODUCTION
In the early rapid expansion of Britain's railways, the ever increasing weight and speed of the trains outstripped the primitive methods of traffic control. The inevitable accidents that occurred brought a realisation that supervision of this new method of transport was essential. Thus was the Railway Inspectorate formed. From 1840 to today its Inspectors, recruited from the Royal Engineers, have been responsible for investigating and reporting on railway accidents. They could make recommendations only for the safer conduct of the railways, but had no powers to enforce measures which they felt should be taken. Undivided responsibility for safety was to remain with the railways themselves.
Very few railway accidents have been unavoidable, and these arose perhaps through Acts of God - the storms and floods which destroyed bridges and embankments with unpredictable fury. The causes of those which might have been avoided are few.
Material failure was an early problem - and there have even been examples in this century. Flaws in welding of tyres or in the casting of bridge girders went undetected until failure occurred, sometimes years later.
Mechanical faults were frequently the causes of derailments and minor collisions - broken cranks or waggon axles and failure of brakes on both engine and train. At Weedon in 1915 a taper pin, only a few inches long, locking the screwed collar of a coupling rod dropped out. The collar unthreaded itself, allowing the rod to come off the crank pin and to push the adjoining track out of alignment, derailing the speeding Irish Mail. Other parts of locomotives, such as the ash-pan or spring suspension link, have caused derailments by becoming detached or broken.
A boiler explosion is now a thing of the past. The early ones were chiefly due to material failure or corrosion, or attempts to increase pressure by tampering with the safety valves. Frequent and regular boiler inspections and testing under hydraulic pressure became. standard practice towards the end of the nineteenth century and the risk of accident was greatly reduced.
Derailments have been caused by faults in the permanent way, sometimes aggravated by the tendency of some engines running at speed to punish the track by their excessive swaying and pitching. There have been lapses by permanent way gangs to detect early signs of track misalignment or subsidence. Occasionally the strict rules governing the replacement of rails, bridge timbers and ballast have not been fully observed and drivers of approaching trains have been given insufficient warning, by flag and detonators. One train was derailed after it collided with a sleeper left across the main line.
The heaviest casualties usually occurred in collisions between two trains, either head on on a single line or rear-end where the track was doubled. It was essential that a driver had an early and positive warning of any obstruction ahead of him, and we find that at an early date the Railway Inspectorate were strongly urging that any such signalling system should fail safe; in other words, should a fault develop the signal should automatically show a danger indication, not an all clear - or none at all.
The early practice of allowing trains to follow one another on the same line at pre-determined time intervals was dangerous. If the first train came to a stand where visibility was poor, for example, in fog, in a tunnel or even on a sharp curve, and no railside signalman was present, the risk of collision was high. With the introduction of the electric telegraph and the 'block' system such risks were considerably reduced. By dividing the running line into blocks, or sections, and by controlling each through a signal box and fixed signals under its control, with direct communication between adjoining blocks, it was possible to ensure that no block up or down line could be occupied at any one time by more than one train. Again, on a single line the use of a staff or token coupled with the telegraph meant that occupation of the track between passing stations could be restricted to one train, the staff being the driver's authority to enter that section.
However, errors on the part of drivers and signalmen - or even other railwaymen - could render these safety measures ineffective. There was a particularly high risk of a rear-end collision should a signalman forget that he had halted a train in his section because it had not immediately been accepted by the next block post ahead. In these circumstances, after standing at a danger signal for a specified time, the driver was obliged to send either his fireman or his guard to the box to remind the signalman of his presence and to check that collars were in place over those levers controlling signals in his rear to preclude them being pulled off by mistake. Furthermore, there was no way in which one could ensure that drivers did not run through signals at danger. Even with Automatic Train Control the driver could unconsciously cancel the cab warning of a distant signal at danger before the brakes were automatically applied.
The safety of the passengers, therefore, lay in the hands of the railwaymen, and the reader is reminded that the number of accidents, and particularly those in which there was loss of life and injury, is infinitely small in proportion to those rail journeys which ended without incident. The lessons learned from railway accidents such as those illustrated in this book, with the searching enquiries by the Inspectors and the sometimes grudging co-operation of the railway companies, have made a seat on British Rail one of the safest places in the world.
The photographs which follow have been chosen to illustrate some of the basic types of accident, and fuller details have been given of those incidents which, in the opinion of the author, are characteristic of a particular type.
All pictures are of the actual item. There may be reflection from the lights in some photos. We try to take photos of any damage. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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