A railroad switch (AE), turnout, or [set of] points (BE) is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off.
In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially serious hazard.
A signal passed at danger (SPAD), known in the United States as a stop signal overrun and in Canada as passing a stop signal, is an event on a railway where a train passes a stop signal without authority. In the United States and Canada, this may be known colloquially as running a red, though this idiom principally refers to automobiles passing red traffic signals.
The town of Morpeth in Northumberland, England, has what is reputed to be the tightest curve of any main railway line in Britain. The track turns approximately 98° from a northwesterly to an easterly direction immediately west of Morpeth Station on an otherwise fast section of the East Coast Main Line railway. This was a major factor in three serious derailments between 1969 and 1994. The curve has a permanent speed restriction of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h).
The Colwich rail crash occurred on the evening of Friday 19 September 1986 at Colwich Junction, Staffordshire, England. It was significant in that it was a high speed collision between two packed express trains. One driver was killed, but no passengers died because of the great strength of the rolling stock involved, which included examples of Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3 coaches.
The Nuneaton rail crash occurred on 6 June 1975, on the West Coast Main Line just south of Nuneaton railway station in Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom.
The 2005 JR Amagasaki derailment occurred in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, on 25 April 2005 at 09:19 local time, just after the local rush hour. It occurred when a seven-car commuter train came off the tracks on West Japan Railway Company's Fukuchiyama Line in just before Amagasaki Station on its way for Dōshisha-mae via the JR Tōzai Line and the Gakkentoshi Line, and the front two cars rammed into an apartment building. The first car slid into the first floor parking garage and as a result took days to remove, while the second slammed into the corner of the building, being crushed into an L-shaped against it by the weight of the remaining cars. Of the roughly 700 passengers on board at the time of the crash, 106 passengers, in addition to the driver, were killed and 562 others injured. Most survivors and witnesses claimed that the train appeared to have been travelling too fast. The incident was Japan's most serious since the 1963 Tsurumi rail accident.
The Sutton Coldfield train crash took place at about 16:13 on 23 January 1955 in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, when an express passenger train traveling from York to Bristol, derailed due to excessive speed on a sharp curve.
The Salisbury rail crash occurred on 1 July 1906, when a boat train from Plymouth to London failed to negotiate a sharp bend at more than twice the speed limit, and crashed into another train, killing 28 people. It is believed that the driver was trying to demonstrate the speed of the service, in competition with a rival railway company.
The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash was a three-train collision at Harrow and Wealdstone station in Wealdstone, Middlesex during the morning rush hour of 8 October 1952. 112 were killed and 340 injured, 88 of these being detained in hospital, and it remains the worst peacetime rail crash in the United Kingdom and the second deadliest overall. The Quintinshill rail disaster of 1915 had 226 fatalities.
The railway signalling system used across the majority of the United Kingdom rail network uses lineside signals to control the movement and speed of trains.
Over the latter years of the 19th and early years of the 20th centuries, Penistone in Yorkshire gained a name as an accident black-spot on Britain's railway network; indeed, it could be said to hold the title of the worst accident black-spot in the country. The main line through the town was the Woodhead route of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway between Sheffield Victoria and Manchester, London Road. The line was heavily graded with a summit some 400 yards inside the eastern portal of the Woodhead tunnel.
The Goswick rail crash occurred on 26 October 1947 near the village of Goswick, Northumberland, England. The Flying Scotsman express from Edinburgh Waverley to London King's Cross failed to slow down for a diversion and derailed. Twenty-eight people were killed, including the talented Scottish biochemist, John Masson Gulland. It was the last major accident to occur on British railways before their nationalisation on 1 January 1948.
The Grantham rail accident occurred on 19 September 1906. An evening Sleeping-Car and Mail train from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley hauled by Ivatt 'Atlantic' No 276 derailed, killing 14. The accident was never explained; the train ran through Grantham station, where it was scheduled to stop, and derailed on a set of points on a sharp curve at the end of the platform, which at the time had been set for a freight train. No reason was ever established as to why the train did not stop as scheduled, or obey the Caution and Danger signals.
The Jokela rail accident occurred on 21 April 1996, at 07:08 local time in Tuusula, Finland, approximately 50 kilometres (30 mi) north of Helsinki. Four people were killed and 75 were injured when express train P82 from Oulu, bound for Helsinki, derailed in heavy fog. The overnight sleeper train was carrying 139 passengers and five crew members. The official investigation into the accident revealed that it was caused by overspeeding through a slow-speed turnout.
The Jyväskylä rail accident occurred on 6 March 1998 in Jyväskylä, Finland, when the Sr1-driven express train P105 from Turku bound for Joensuu via Pieksämäki derailed. The train left the tracks after coming in too fast on a 35 km/h (22 mph) switch near the station. 300 people were on board ; the fireman driving the train and nine passengers were killed, and 94 passengers injured.
The Brühl train derailment happened on 6 February 2000 at Brühl, railway station on the West Rhine railway. A train negotiated a low speed turnout at three times the correct speed and derailed, killing 9 people.
The Milton rail crash was a crash in 1955, at Milton, Berkshire. A passenger train took a crossover too fast and derailed. Eleven were killed, and 157 were injured.
– Spuyten Duyvil derailment – fatigued driver's momentary inattention led to overspeed through a curve
– Goswick rail crash - overspeed through turnout
– Laverton accident - overspeed through turnout
– Jokela rail crash - overspeed through turnout
– Brühl train disaster - overspeed through turnout
– Amagasaki derailment - overspeed through sharp curve
