Related Research Articles
A train wreck, train collision, train accident or train crash is a type of disaster involving one or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track; or an accident, such as when a train wheel jumps off a track in a derailment; or when a boiler explosion occurs. Train wrecks have often been widely covered in popular media and in folklore.
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.
A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters.
The Charfield railway disaster was a fatal train crash which occurred on 13 October 1928 in the village of Charfield in the English county of Gloucestershire. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Leeds to Bristol night mail train failed to stop at the signals protecting the down refuge siding at Charfield railway station. The weather was misty, but there was not a sufficiently thick fog for the signalman at Charfield to employ fog signalmen. A freight train was in the process of being shunted from the down main line to the siding, and another train of empty goods wagons was passing through the station from the Bristol (up) direction.
The Polmont rail accident, also known as the Polmont rail disaster, occurred on 30 July 1984 to the west of Polmont, near Falkirk, in Scotland. A westbound push-pull express train travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow struck a cow which had gained access to the track through a damaged fence from a field near Polmont railway station, causing all six carriages and the locomotive of the train to derail. 13 people were killed and 61 others were injured, 17 of them seriously. The accident led to a debate about the safety of push-pull trains on British Rail.
On the evening of 4 December 1957, two trains crashed in dense fog on the South Eastern Main Line near Lewisham in south-east London, causing the deaths of 90 people and injuring 173. An electric train to Hayes had stopped at a signal under the bridge, and the following steam train to Ramsgate crashed into it, destroying a carriage and causing the bridge to collapse onto the steam train. The bridge had to be completely removed; it was over a week before the lines under the bridge were reopened, and another month before the bridge was rebuilt and traffic allowed over it.
There are a number of books on British railway accidents which provide aid in the systematic study of the causes and effects of accidents, and their prevention. There are common themes in many accidents. Key books are listed here to avoid repeating them for each individual accident.
The Darlington rail accident occurred on the evening of 27 June 1928 when a parcels train and an excursion train collided head on at Darlington Bank Top railway station in County Durham, England. The accident was caused by the parcels train driver passing a signal at danger, due to misunderstanding the signalling layout in an unfamiliar part of the station. This accident resulted in the deaths of 25 people and the serious injury of 45 people.
Great Western Railway accidents include several notable incidents that influenced rail safety in the United Kingdom.
This is a list of significant railway accidents in Queensland, Australia.
The 1953 New York Central Railroad accident occurred on the four-track mainline 2.4 miles east of Conneaut, Ohio at 10:02 P.M. on March 27, 1953. The accident sequence began when an improperly secured load of large pipes broke loose from a gondola car on an eastbound freight train. The loose pipe, dragged by the moving train, damaged the westbound passenger track. A passing westbound freight train crew notified the first train and stopped to assess what had happened. A fast westbound passenger train could not stop and derailed from the damaged track, colliding with the westbound freight on the adjacent track. Finally, an eastbound fast passenger train struck the derailed equipment from the first two trains. There were 21 deaths and 49 people were injured. This accident holds the record for the most trains involved in a single accident.
References
- Ludwig von Stockert (1913), Eisenbahnunfalle (Railway Accidents – a contribution to railway operating technology). Leipzig 1913.
- Schneider, Wolfgang; Armand Mase (1968). Katastrophen auf Schienen. In German, English translation 1979 by E.L. Dellow as Railway Accidents of Great Britain and Europe. Orell Fussli Verlag (German), David and Charles (English). SBN 7153 4791 8.
- Rolt, L.T.C. (1956). Red for Danger. Bodley Head / David and Charles / Pan Books. Later editions available.