A train accident or train wreck is a type of disaster involving two or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track, when the wheels of train come off the track or when a boiler explosion occurs. Train accidents have often been widely covered in popular media and in folklore.
A head-on collision between two trains is colloquially called a "cornfield meet" in the United States. [1]
Train accidents can occur due to a range of factors, including one or more of the following:
There have been four railway accidents at Potters Bar in England. Those in 1898 and 1946 were signals passed at danger. The accident in 2002 led to substantial public debate and a national change in policy relating to maintenance of infrastructure.
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.
A signal passed at danger (SPAD), known in the United States as a stop signal overrun (SSO) and in Canada as passing a stop signal, is an event on a railway where a train passes a stop signal without authority. This is also known as running a red.
The Clapham Junction rail crash occurred on the morning of 12 December 1988, when a crowded British Rail passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal just south of Clapham Junction railway station in London, England, and subsequently sideswiped an empty train travelling in the opposite direction. A total of 35 people died in the collision, while 484 were injured.
The Great Train Wreck of 1918 occurred on July 9, 1918, in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Two passenger trains, operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway ("NC&StL"), collided head-on, costing at least 101 lives and injuring an additional 171. It is considered the worst rail accident in U.S. history, though estimates of the death toll of this accident overlap with that of the Malbone Street Wreck in Brooklyn, New York, the same year.
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".
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.
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 have been a number of train accidents on the railway network of Victoria, Australia. Some of these are listed below.
Great Western Railway accidents include several notable incidents that influenced rail safety in the United Kingdom.
The Wenzhou train collision was a railway accident that occurred on 23 July 2011, when a high-speed train travelling on the Yong-Tai-Wen railway line collided into the rear of another stationary train on a viaduct in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. The two trains derailed, and four carriages fell off the viaduct. 40 people were killed, and at least 192 were injured, 12 severely. This disaster was caused by both defects in railway signal design and poor management by the railway company.
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