On 14 February 1927, on the approaches to Hull Paragon station, the incoming 08:22 from Withernsea to Hull collided head-on with the 09:05 from Hull to Scarborough. Twelve passengers were killed and 24 were seriously injured. This happened despite the tracks having the latest safety features available at the time: a system of interlocking should have made it impossible to give clear signals to trains unless the route to be used is proved to be safe. In his book LTC Rolt comments that "Scarcely any safety device existing at the time was lacking on the network of lines outside Paragon station..." - however, one safety device did exist and was lacking - a track circuit which had been invented in the USA in the 1870s and began to be used in the UK from the beginning of the 20th century. There were no track circuits protecting the layout at Hull in February 1927. In his report on the accident, Col. JW Pringle recommended installation of a track circuit, which the LNER then carried out.
Three signalmen were present in the signalbox, the enquiry found that one of them had pulled the wrong lever; he had intended to set the points for the incoming train but instead set the points ahead of the Scarborough. The points were locked and could not be moved as long as the signal ahead of the Scarborough train was at clear, and also by the presence of locomotive or vehicle wheels on the locking bar immediately in rear of the points. One of the other signalmen was setting the signals behind the Scarborough train to danger and, in contravention of the rules, this was done whilst the train was still passing the signal and before it had reached the locking bar. This released the locking on the points for some 1.9 seconds before the Scarborough train reached the locking bar, allowing the points to be changed by the application of the wrong lever. A combination of these two failings led to the disaster.
‡ indicates railway accidents and incidents resulting in at least 20 fatalities § indicates the deadliest railway accident in British history 1815–18992000–present
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable. Signalling control was originally exercised via a decentralised network of control points that were known by a variety of names including signal box, interlocking tower and signal cabin. Currently these decentralised systems are being consolidated into wide scale signalling centres or dispatch offices. Whatever the form, signalling control provides an interface between the human signal operator and the lineside signalling equipment. The technical apparatus used to control switches (points), signals and block systems is called interlocking.
Railway signalling (BE), also called railroad signaling (AE), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormous weight and inertia of a train, which makes it difficult to quickly stop when encountering an obstacle. In the UK, the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 introduced a series of requirements on matters such as the implementation of interlocked block signalling and other safety measures as a direct result of the Armagh rail disaster in that year.
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. It resulted in the deaths of over 200 people and remains the worst rail disaster in British history.
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances and tracks interlocked together are sometimes collectively referred to as an interlocking plant or just as an interlocking. An interlocking system is designed so that it is impossible to display a signal to proceed unless the route to be used is proven safe.
The Hawes Junction rail crash occurred at 5.49 am on 24 December 1910, just north of Lunds Viaduct between Hawes Junction and Aisgill on the Midland Railway's Settle and Carlisle main line in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was caused when a busy signalman, Alfred Sutton, forgot about a pair of light engines waiting at his down (northbound) starting signal to return to their shed at Carlisle. They were still waiting there when the signalman set the road for the down Scotch express. When the signal cleared, the light engines set off in front of the express into the same block section. Since the light engines were travelling at low speed from a stand at Hawes Junction, and the following express was travelling at high speed, a collision was inevitable. The express caught the light engines just after Moorcock Tunnel near Aisgill summit in Mallerstang and was almost wholly derailed.
A wrong-side failure describes a failure condition in a piece of railway signalling equipment that results in an unsafe state. A typical example would be a signal showing a 'proceed' aspect when it should be showing a 'stop' or 'danger' aspect, resulting in a "false clear".
The Purley station rail crash was a train collision that occurred just to the north of Purley railway station in the London Borough of Croydon on Saturday 4 March 1989, leaving five dead and 88 injured. The collision was caused by the driver of one of the trains passing a signal at danger; he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 months in prison plus six months suspended, although this was reduced to four months upon appeal, and in 2007 overturned. The Department of Transport report noted that the signal had a high incidence of being passed at danger and recommended that an automatic train protection system should be introduced without delay and in the interim a repeater for the signal that had been passed be installed.
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.
Hull Paragon Interchange is a transport interchange providing rail, bus and coach services located in the city centre of Kingston upon Hull, England. The G. T. Andrews-designed station was originally named Paragon Station, and together with the adjoining Station Hotel, it opened in 1847 as the new Hull terminus for the growing traffic of the York and North Midland (Y&NMR) leased to the Hull and Selby Railway (H&S). As well as trains to the west, the station was the terminus of the Y&NMR and H&S railway's Hull to Scarborough Line. From the 1860s the station also became the terminus of the Hull and Holderness and Hull and Hornsea railways.
The Hull–Scarborough line, also known as the Yorkshire Coast Line, is a railway line in Yorkshire, England that is used primarily for passenger traffic. It runs northwards from Hull Paragon via Beverley and Driffield to Bridlington, joining the York–Scarborough line at a junction near Seamer before terminating at Scarborough railway station.
Rule 55 was an operating rule which applied on British railways in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was superseded by the modular rulebook following re-privatisation of the railways. It survives, very differently named: the driver of a train waiting at a signal on a running line must remind the signaller of its presence.
The Clayton Tunnel rail crash occurred on Sunday 25 August 1861, five miles (8 km) from Brighton on the south coast of England. At the time it was the worst accident on the British railway system. A train ran into the back of another inside the tunnel, killing 23 and injuring 176 passengers.
Classification of railway accidents, both in terms of cause and effect, is a valuable aid in studying rail accidents to help to prevent similar ones occurring in the future. Systematic investigation for over 150 years has led to the railways' excellent safety record.
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 Radstock rail accident took place on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway in south west England, on 7 August 1876. Two trains collided on a single track section, resulting in fifteen passengers being killed.
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.
There was a rail crash near Welwyn Garden City railway station in Hertfordshire, England, in 1935 which killed fourteen people, and another in 1957 with one fatality.
The Connington South rail crash occurred on 5 March 1967 on the East Coast Main Line near the village of Conington, Huntingdonshire, England. Five passengers were killed and 18 were injured.
Great Western Railway accidents include several notable incidents that influenced rail safety in the United Kingdom.
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