Winchburgh rail crash | |
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Details | |
Date | 13 October 1862 18:30 |
Location | Winchburgh, Linlithgowshire |
Coordinates | 55°58′26″N3°29′32″W / 55.97389°N 3.49222°W |
Country | Scotland |
Line | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway |
Cause | Points maintenance error |
Statistics | |
Trains | 2 |
Deaths | 17 |
Injured | 35-100 |
List of UK rail accidents by year |
The Winchburgh rail crash was a multi-train rail crash that occurred on Monday 13 October 1862, 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) northwest of Winchburgh in Linlithgowshire (now West Lothian). The crash caused 17 deaths (15 passengers and two employees died) and is the fourth most deadly rail accident in Scotland. [1] [2] [3]
The accident occurred at night at the location near Winchburgh where the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway passes through a cutting on a curve. [4] During the night of the accident, only one line was in use due to track maintenance when two trains met head-on. The drivers saw each other when they were some 300 yards (270 m) apart and managed to slow down so that their relative speed was under 30 mph (50 km/h) when they collided. The driver of the Glasgow train leapt clear prior to the impact and survived though badly injured, but both firemen and the driver of the other train along with 15 passengers were killed and between 35 and 100 injured. [4] One of the passengers made their way to a local home named Craigton House and commandeered a horse and cart to drive over 4 miles (6.4 km) to Linlithgow, raise the alarm and summon doctors to the scene. A special train arrived from Edinburgh bringing workmen who laboured all night to free the dead and injured, and then to clear the wreckage; indeed the line was back in use the following day.
It was the standard practice that to prevent such collisions, a pilot engine would work the line to escort every train along the length of single track. [2] However, at the time of the crash, the pilot engine was being used for other duties and had waggons attached to it; moreover a larger engine had been substituted for the distinctive small one used as the pilot. [2] The inexperienced pointsman saw a ballast train following the train from Glasgow and wrongly assumed it to be the pilot engine and so let the train through; just then, the Edinburgh train was approaching from the east. [2]
Among the 17 dead was James Hosie, manager of the Oakley Iron Works and founder of the Bathgate Foundry, as well as John Wightman, the Earl of Lauderdale’s estate manager. [2] [3]
Legal charges were brought against the pointsman but dropped. Charges of culpable homicide were then brought against two officials of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company but a jury found them not guilty. [2]
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.
Preston railway station, in Preston, Lancashire, England, is an interchange railway station on the West Coast Main Line, half-way between London Euston and Glasgow Central. It is served by Avanti West Coast, Northern Trains and TransPennine Express services, plus Caledonian Sleeper overnight services between London and Scotland. It is also served by the Calder Valley line to Leeds and York, and by branch lines to Blackpool North, Ormskirk and Colne.
The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by act of Parliament on 4 July 1838. It was opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow Queen Street railway station and Haymarket railway station in Edinburgh. Construction cost £1,200,000 for 46 miles (74 km). The intermediate stations were at Corstorphine, Gogar, Ratho, Winchburgh, Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk, Castlecary, Croy, Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs. There was a ticket platform at Cowlairs. The line was extended eastwards from Haymarket to North Bridge in 1846, and a joint station for connection with the North British Railway was opened on what is now Edinburgh Waverley railway station in 1847.
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.
Two rail accidents have occurred near Castlecary, Scotland. One of these was in 1937 and one in 1968. Both events involved rear-end collisions, and caused the deaths of 35 and 2 people respectively.
The Bellgrove rail accident occurred on 6 March 1989 when two passenger trains collided near Bellgrove station, Glasgow, United Kingdom. Two people were killed and 53 were injured. The cause was driver error, with a signal being passed at danger. The layout of a junction was a contributory factor.
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 Norton Fitzwarren rail crash occurred on 11 November 1890, at Norton Fitzwarren station on the Great Western Railway, approximately two miles south-west of Taunton in Somerset. A special boat train carrying passengers from Plymouth to Paddington collided with a goods train that was being shunted on the main line. Ten passengers were killed, and eleven people were seriously injured. Another significant accident occurred at Norton Fitzwarren in 1940.
The Ratho Rail crash occurred on 3 January 1917 and killed 12 people. It occurred near Ratho Station in Scotland when an express collided with a light engine in stormy weather.
The Dumfries, Lochmaben and Lockerbie Railway was a railway in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. It connected Dumfries with Lockerbie via Lochmaben. Promoted independently, it was absorbed by the Caledonian Railway to give access to Dumfriesshire and later to Portpatrick for the Irish ferry service. It opened in 1863, closed to ordinary passenger services in 1952, and closed completely in 1966.
This is a list of significant railway accidents in Queensland, Australia.