Exeter crossing loop collision

Last updated

Exeter crossing loop collision
Exeter 006904b.jpg
Telescoped carriages
Details
Date13 March 1914
Location Exeter, New South Wales
Coordinates 34°36′50″S150°19′02″E / 34.6138°S 150.3173°E / -34.6138; 150.3173 Coordinates: 34°36′50″S150°19′02″E / 34.6138°S 150.3173°E / -34.6138; 150.3173
Country Australia
Line Main South railway line
Operator New South Wales Government Railways
Statistics
Deaths14

The Exeter crossing loop collision was a railway accident that occurred between the Temora Mail Train and a goods train at Exeter railway station, New South Wales, on 13 March 1914. At that time the main line was a single track, with a crossing loop and a down refuge siding at Exeter.

Contents

Events leading to accident

The up fast goods train was running late [1] by the time it reached Exeter. Despite the train's being too long to be accommodated in the loop at that station, [1] the signaller [night officer] turned the train into the loop. When the locomotive had reached the points at the Sydney end of the station, the rear of the train was still on the main line at the southern end.

Faced with the knowledge that the Temora Mail would soon be due, the goods train was brought forward so that it could be reversed into a siding on the eastern side of the station yard. It was during this manoeuvre that the Temora Mail struck the goods train head-on. [2]

Court trial for manslaughter

Questions were swiftly raised as to why two trains should collide when the goods train should have had the protection of the home signal. The mail train driver claimed that the distant signal was clear when he passed it; however, as there was a thick fog at the time, he did not sight the home signal, which was against him, until the train was right upon it.

The driver of the mail train was brought before the Goulburn Circuit Court charged with manslaughter. At that trial, the night officer at Exeter gave evidence to the effect that the down distant signal was in fact at danger at the time the mail train passed. The night officer further stated that there was no fog that night, but that just before the goods train arrived a slight mist had set in. However, the goods train driver gave conflicting evidence, stating that on the night of the accident the denseness of the fog made it difficult to see the signals. [2]

After a retirement of more than four hours, the jury delivered a verdict of "not guilty." [2]

Deceased

The collision killed 14. [1] Five were said to have been killed almost instantly, three died while still crushed in their carriages, one succumbed as rescuers reached him, and two died on the Exeter station platform. The remaining three reportedly died in a temporary hospital that had been set up in a sleeping carriage. Alfred Bray, the guard, was one of those killed in the collision. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quintinshill rail disaster</span> 1915 railway accident in Scotland

The Quintinshill rail disaster was a multi-train rail crash which occurred on 22 May 1915 outside the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. It resulted in the deaths of over 200 people, and remains the worst rail disaster in British history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abergele rail disaster</span> 1868 Welsh railway disaster

The Abergele rail disaster, which took place near Abergele, North Wales, in August 1868, was the worst railway disaster in Great Britain up till then.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violet Town rail accident</span>

The Violet Town rail accident, also known as the Southern Aurora disaster, was a railway accident that occurred on 7 February 1969 following the incapacitation of the driver of one of the trains, near the McDiarmids Road crossing, approximately 1 km south of Violet Town, Victoria, Australia. The crash resulted in nine deaths and 117 injuries.

The Geurie crossing loop collision occurred on the night of 23 August 1963. Geurie is located between Orange and Dubbo in New South Wales, Australia.

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 Leeds to Bristol London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash</span> 1952 train wreck in Wealdstone, England

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. The crash resulted in 112 deaths and 340 injuries, 88 of these being detained in hospital. It remains the worst peacetime rail crash in British history and the second deadliest overall after the Quintinshill rail disaster of 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weston-super-Mare railway station</span> Main railway station for Weston-super-Mare, England

Weston-super-Mare railway station serves the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, England. It is situated on a loop off the main Bristol to Taunton Line, 137 miles 33 chains from the zero point at London Paddington via Box.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torquay railway station</span> Railway station in Devon, England

Torquay railway station is on the Riviera Line and serves the seaside resort of Torquay, Devon, England. It is 219 miles 79 chains measured from London Paddington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbots Ripton rail accident</span> 1876 Multi-train collision in Huntingdonshire, England

The Abbots Ripton rail disaster occurred on 21 January 1876 at Abbots Ripton, then in the county of Huntingdonshire, England, on the Great Northern Railway main line, previously thought to be exemplary for railway safety. In the accident, the Special Scotch Express train from Edinburgh to London was involved in a collision, during a blizzard, with a coal train. An express travelling in the other direction then ran into the wreckage. The initial accident was caused by:

The Murulla rail accident involved the collision of the Sydney-bound Northern Mail with runaway goods wagons near Murrurundi, New South Wales, in the Upper Hunter Valley on 13 September 1926; 26 persons died. A goods train had become divided and the attempts of the train crew to reunite the portions resulted in 12 vehicles running away down a steep gradient, and colliding with the approaching mail train. This was the worst accident on the New South Wales rail network until the Granville railway disaster in 1977.

There have been a number of train accidents on the railway network of Victoria, Australia. Some of these are listed below.

The railways of New South Wales, Australia have had many incidents and accidents since their formation in 1831. There are close to 1000 names associated with rail-related deaths in NSW on the walls of the Australian Railway Monument in Werris Creek. Those killed were all employees of various NSW railways. The details below include deaths of employees and the general public.

The accident at St Bedes Junction was one of several serious accidents in 1915. It featured a double collision and fire fuelled by gas, characteristics shared by a much worse accident that year at Quintinshill. There were also similarities in that a signalman was unaware of the presence of a train near his signal box and rules were not observed. The accident is sometimes referred to as the Jarrow railway disaster as there was no station at Bede and Jarrow was then the nearest place of importance.

The Kirtlebridge rail crash took place in 1872 at Kirtlebridge railway station in Dumfriesshire. An express passenger train ran into a goods train that was shunting; 11 people lost their lives immediately, and one further person succumbed later. The cause was a failure to communicate between the station master in charge of the shunting operation, and the signalman. There was not full interlocking of the points, and the block system of signalling was not in use.

This article lists significant fatal, injury-only, and other accidents involving railway rolling stock, including crashes, fires and other incidents in the Australian state of South Australia. The first known incident in this list occurred in 1873 in Smithfield, South Australia.

This is a list of significant railway accidents in Queensland, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copmanthorpe railway station</span> Disused railway station in North Yorkshire, England

Copmanthorpe railway station served the village of Copmanthorpe, North Yorkshire, England from 1839 to 1959 on the York to Normanton line. The line also became part of the East Coast Main Line at various periods. The station was moved and substantially rebuilt halfway through its working life.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Emergency Management Disasters Database". Attorney-General of Australia. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kenn Pearce (1994). Australian Railway Disasters. Davidson: IPL Books. ISBN   0-908876-09-2.