Sonning Cutting is on the original Great Western Railway built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. [1] It is to the east of Reading station and to the west of Twyford station near the village of Sonning in Berkshire, England. Originally planned to route around the north of Sonning Hill past the village, the railway instead bypasses the village due to local objections. The resulting route follows a cutting over 1-mile (1.6 km) and up to 60 feet (18 m) deep, through the hill, giving a more direct route between Twyford and Reading. [2]
The cutting was hand-dug without machinery and the spoil removed in wheelbarrows and horse-drawn carts. It took two years to complete and there were several casualties in the process. The line was opened on 30 March 1840.
After the ending of the broad gauge in 1892, the railway was widened to four tracks. This involved a major rebuilding of the cutting, during which the slope of the sides was reduced.
Early on 24 December 1841, a mixed goods and passenger train ran into a landslide in the cutting, caused by earlier persistent heavy rain. [3] Many passengers who were carried in open-topped wagons were thrown out or crushed between the wagons. Eight people died there and seventeen, one of whom died later, were injured. Among the casualties were artisans returning home after working on the new Parliament building. The tragedy stimulated William Ewart Gladstone, while President of the Board of Trade (1843–1845), to introduce legislation to improve safety on the railways.[ citation needed ]
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838 with the initial route completed between London and Bristol in 1841. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of 7 ft —later slightly widened to 7 ft 1⁄4 in —but, from 1854, a series of amalgamations saw it also operate 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892.
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world.
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Twyford railway station serves the large village of Twyford in Berkshire, England. The station is on the Great Western Main Line, 31 miles 1 chain west of London Paddington. It is the junction station for the Henley-on-Thames branch and is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway and Elizabeth line.
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The Sonning Cutting railway accident occurred during the early hours of 24 December 1841 in the Sonning Cutting through Sonning Hill, near Reading, Berkshire. A Great Western Railway (GWR) luggage train travelling from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads station entered Sonning Cutting. The train was made up of the broad-gauge locomotive Hecla, a tender, three third-class passenger carriages, and some heavily laden goods waggons. The passenger carriages were between the tender and the goods waggons.
Great Western Railway accidents include several notable incidents that influenced rail safety in the United Kingdom.
Sonning Hill is a hill near the village of Sonning in Berkshire, England, close to the River Thames. Towards the Oxfordshire side of the main river channel, there is a long thin island creating two branches of the river. The Sonning Cutting takes the Great Western Railway through part of the hill between Twyford and Reading.