The Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) is a train protection system used throughout the British passenger main-line railway network, and in Victoria, Australia.
In rail transport, a derailment is a type of train wreck that 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.
The Ufton Nervet rail crash occurred on 6 November 2004 when a passenger train collided with a stationary car on a level crossing on the Reading–Taunton line near Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England. The collision derailed the train, and seven people—including the drivers of the train and the car—were killed. An inquest found that all railway personnel and systems were operating correctly, and the crash was caused by the suicide of the car driver.
The Selby rail crash was a high-speed rail crash that occurred at Great Heck near Selby, North Yorkshire, England, on the morning of 28 February 2001. An InterCity 225 passenger train operated by Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) travelling from Newcastle to London collided with a Land Rover Defender which had crashed down a motorway embankment onto the railway line. It was consequently derailed into the path of an oncoming freight train, colliding at an estimated closing speed of 142 mph (229 km/h). Ten people were killed, including the drivers of both trains, and 82 were seriously injured. It remains the worst rail disaster of the 21st century in the United Kingdom.
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).
Automatic Warning System (AWS) is a railway safety system invented and predominantly used in the United Kingdom. It provides a train driver with an audible indication of whether the next signal they are approaching is clear or at caution. Depending on the upcoming signal state, the AWS will either produce a 'horn' sound, or a 'bell' sound. If the train driver fails to acknowledge a warning indication, an emergency brake application is initiated by the AWS. However if the driver correctly acknowledges the warning indication by pressing an acknowledgement button, then a visual 'sunflower' is displayed to the driver, as a reminder of the warning.
The Glenbrook rail accident occurred on 2 December 1999 at 8:22 am on a curve east of Glenbrook railway station on the CityRail network between Glenbrook and Lapstone, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. Seven passengers were killed and 51 passengers were taken to hospital with injuries when a CityRail electric interurban train collided with the rear wagon of the long-haul Perth-to-Sydney Indian Pacific.
The 1996 Stafford rail crash occurred on 8 March 1996 when a Transrail freight train travelling from Mossend, North Lanarkshire, to Willesden, North London, derailed after an axle on a wagon carrying liquid carbon dioxide failed due to fatigue at Rickerscote 1.4 miles (2.2 km) south of Stafford on the West Coast Main Line. Almost immediately after the derailment, a Travelling Post Office mail train hauled by a Rail Express Systems British Rail Class 86 electric locomotive collided with a section of the derailed freight train on the adjacent line and fouled the path of the TPO mail train. One person, a mail sorter, was killed in the crash and twenty others including the driver of the mail train were injured.
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.
Nuneaton railway station serves the market town of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England. The station is managed by West Midlands Trains. It is served by three railway lines: the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line (WCML), the Birmingham-Leicester-Peterborough line and the Coventry to Nuneaton branch line. The station was known, during the period 1924–1969, as Nuneaton Trent Valley, to distinguish it from the now closed Nuneaton Abbey Street station; many local people still refer to it as Trent Valley.
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.
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.
The Eltham Well Hall rail crash was an accident on the British railway system that occurred on 11 June 1972 at approximately 21:35. An excursion train from Margate to Kentish Town derailed on a sharp curve at Eltham Well Hall station, Eltham, London. The curve had a maximum permitted speed to be taken at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) but the train was estimated to have been travelling at 65 miles per hour (105 km/h) resulting in the locomotive and all but one of the ten carriages derailing.
The Ealing rail crash was an accident on the British railway system that occurred on 19 December 1973. The 17:18 express train from London Paddington to Oxford—with approximately 650 passengers on board—was derailed while travelling at around 70 mph (110 km/h) between Ealing Broadway and West Ealing. Ten passengers were killed and 94 were injured, and it was Britain's deadliest train crash of the decade until the Moorgate tube crash which killed 45. The cause of the accident was an unsecured maintenance door that had fallen open whilst the train was travelling, after having struck several lineside objects, it struck a Point machine at Longfield Avenue, derailing the entire train.
The Thirsk rail crash occurred on 31 July 1967 at Thirsk, Yorkshire, England on the British Rail East Coast Main Line.
The Grantham rail accident occurred on 19 September 1906. An evening Sleeping-Car and Mail train of the Great Northern Railway, running 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 Coton Hill rail crash was a train crash which occurred on 11 January 1965, at Coton Hill, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England.
The Wigan rail crash was a railway accident which occurred at Wigan North Western station, England, to a northbound excursion train in the early morning of 3 August 1873. Thirteen passengers were killed after derailed carriages collided with station buildings. The train was declared to have been travelling at excessive speed.
The Hoofddorp train accident in the Dutch municipality Haarlemmermeer took place on 30 November 1992. Whilst en route to Vlissingen, a Koploper-type passenger train derailed at about 7:15 near Hoofddorp. Five people were killed and 33 were injured in the accident. Two days earlier, an international train from Amsterdam to Paris had derailed at nearly the same location.
