Accidents in December

[Jimbob52]

December is a bad month for accident anniversaries. In addition to Lewisham, major accidents that occurred in December include:

- The Tay Bridge disaster, on 28 December 1879.

- Elliot Junction: 28 December 1906, when an Edinburgh to Glasgow train running tender first in thick snow ran into a stationary local. There were 22 fatalities.

- Castlecary: 10 December 1910, when an Edinburgh to Glasgow express hit the rear of a stationary Dundee to Glasgow train in falling snow. There were 35 fatalities and 179 injured.

- Hawes Junction: 24 December 1924, when a signalman forgot that two light engines were waiting for a signal to clear and cleared the path for the down Scotch express. Twelve passengers lost their lives.

- Barnes Junction: 2 December 1955, when an electric passenger train from Waterloo collided with the rear of a steam hauled freight train, owing to a signalman’s irregular use of equipment protecting the block. There were 13 fatalities.

- Clapham: 12 December 1988, when a commuter train ran into the rear of another owing to incorrect wiring of a signal. There were 35 fatalities and 500 injured.

 

[stephens]

Also

West Ealing: 19 December 1973. D1007 Western Talisman derailed. Its battery box came open and switched points underneath it. 10 fatalities.

 

[Trainguy34]

In addition to Lewisham,

Can you expand on that please, I can't seem to remember that one.

 

[Harvester]

- Castlecary: 10 December 1910, when an Edinburgh to Glasgow express hit the rear of a stationary Dundee to Glasgow train in falling snow. There were 35 fatalities and 179 injured.

- Hawes Junction: 24 December 1924, when a signalman forgot that two light engines were waiting for a signal to clear and cleared the path for the down Scotch express. Twelve passengers lost their lives.

These dates are wrong! The Castlecary crash, where A3 Grand Parade was written off, was in 1937. Hawes Junction was Christmas Eve 1910.

 

[Morayshire]

Can you expand on that please, I can't seem to remember that one.

4th December 1957 with 90 dead.

There was a very recent thread on it as well - link below

Lewisham Thread

 

[Jimbob52]

These dates are wrong! The Castlecary crash, where A3 Grand Parade was written off, was in 1937. Hawes Junction was Christmas Eve 1910.

Apologies, you are quite correct.

 

[Harvester]

Also Eccles 30 December 1941, with 23 fatalities.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Weather, and less daylight, are probably factors.

Can you expand on that please, I can't seem to remember that one.

1957 Rear end collision in smog: steam hauled express train ran into the back of a stationary EMU and brought down a viaduct on top of the wreckage - another train was about to cross the viaduct but was able to stop short.

Confusion by the signalman between the electric train and the diesel unit ahead of it, which had been given a "wrong stick" (it was for Hastings, not Hayes) was the initial cause of the delay which led to the electric being at a stand. Missing signals from the cab of a Bulleid Pacific (notorious for steam clinging to their "air-smoothed casings") did the rest.

 

[Trainguy34]

1957 Rear end collision in smog: steam hauled express train ran into the back of a stationary EMU and brought down a viaduct on top of the wreckage - another train was about to cross the viaduct but was able to stop short.

Confusion by the signalman between the electric train and the diesel unit ahead of it, which had been given a "wrong stick" (it was for Hastings, not Hayes) was the initial cause of the delay which led to the electric being at a stand. Missing signals from the cab of a Bulleid Pacific (notorious for steam clinging to their "air-smoothed casings") did the rest.

Ah, thought I recognised the name from somewhere.

 

[Harvester]

Weather, and less daylight, are probably factors.

This was certainly the cause of another S&C accident in January 1960. A Britannia lost a slide bar which the driver failed to see after stopping in a snowstorm and darkness at Garsdale, to investigate the knocking sound. He carried on, and eventually a connecting rod came adrift near Settle churning up ballast, damaging the track and derailing a passing freight train with fatal consequences.

 

[The Puddock]

- Elliot Junction: 28 December 1906, when an Edinburgh to Glasgow train running tender first in thick snow ran into a stationary local. There were 22 fatalities.

This actually involved a Kings Cross to Aberdeen sleeping car train.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Weather, and less daylight, are probably factors.


1957 Rear end collision in smog: steam hauled express train ran into the back of a stationary EMU and brought down a viaduct on top of the wreckage - another train was about to cross the viaduct but was able to stop short.

Confusion by the signalman between the electric train and the diesel unit ahead of it, which had been given a "wrong stick" (it was for Hastings, not Hayes) was the initial cause of the delay which led to the electric being at a stand. Missing signals from the cab of a Bulleid Pacific (notorious for steam clinging to their "air-smoothed casings") did the rest.

Thick pea-souper fog was also a significant factor contributing to the Lewisham train smash, I believe.

 

[RT4038]

This actually involved a Kings Cross to Aberdeen sleeping car train.

I thought it was a train running from Arbroath to Edinburgh? (possibly an Edinburgh-Dundee and return which had been curtailed there due to the snow conditions)

 

[The Puddock]

I thought it was a train running from Arbroath to Edinburgh? (possibly an Edinburgh-Dundee and return which had been curtailed there due to the snow conditions)

Elliot Junction is east of Dundee and west of Arbroath. The traffic situation before the accident was quite complicated as several trains had been stranded in the snow and there was at least one goods train off the road. The ‘local’ Arbroath & Dundee Joint service was actually a down direction service which was being returned to Dundee because the line north of Abroath was blocked when it collided with the North British sleeping car train. The crew of the local had been drinking in the pub adjacent to Arbroath station for a few hours before the accident. The Board of Trade report doesn’t actually specify the origin or destination of the ‘local’ train and, to be honest, is quite a dry and difficult read in 2023.

 

[contrex]

26 December 1962 Coppenhall Junction, 18 killed, 11 December 1981 Seer Green, 4 killed, 7 December 1991 in the Severn Tunnel 185 injured.

 

[Rescars]

7th December 1882 Mennock (GSWR), when the up Mail collided with a cattle train in a blizzard. D L Smith tells the story. Apparently the Mail was instructed to proceed at Sanquhar by a junior station hand who told the driver to "go on" and ignore the signals which were out out of order. By a curious and sad twist of fate, the station hand who had given this instruction to the driver then left railway service, moved to London and was returning home for Christmas in 1910 when he was killed in the accident at Hawes Junction.

 

[Signalmans Eye]

Eccles Dec 4th 1984.Driver and 2 passengers killed. Liverpool Scarborough train into rear of Tank train.

 

[Taunton]

7th December 1882 Mennock (GSWR), when the up Mail collided with a cattle train in a blizzard. D L Smith tells the story. Apparently the Mail was instructed to proceed at Sanquhar by a junior station hand who told the driver to "go on" and ignore the signals which were out out of order. By a curious and sad twist of fate, the station hand who had given this instruction to the driver then left railway service, moved to London and was returning home for Christmas in 1910 when he was killed in the accident at Hawes Junction.

Is this the passenger who was presumed lost in the Hawes Junction accident, was known travelling home for Christmas, likely by that train, but was not found in the burned-out wreckage and never seen again?

 

[AlistairCowell]

Summit Tunnel fire on 20th December 1984, and it was a very bad fire, 200 properties in Walesden were evacuated.

Took four days to put the fire out, then took 8 months to clear the damage vehicles and repair the tunnel, reopening in August 1985.

The loco involved was 47125, that loco and three wagons narrowly escaped the fire, could have been very well perished in such a fire.

 

[Rescars]

Is this the passenger who was presumed lost in the Hawes Junction accident, was known travelling home for Christmas, likely by that train, but was not found in the burned-out wreckage and never seen again?

As you say, presumed lost. I imagine confirming exactly who was travelling on which train may have been more art than science in 1910, despite the best efforts of the Railway Clearing House and others to apportion ticket sale revenue.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Not forgetting the Shipton on Cherwell on the GWR in 1874. (Christmas Eve)

A defective tyre on a coach dragged into service onto a heavily loaded Paddington - West Midlands , was attached at Oxford next to the 2 train engines. A derailment occurred in seasonal atmospheric conditions and the coaches ended up partly in the nearby canal. Ultra tragic that the accident happened at the height of the seasonal traffic.

 

[Harvester]

Is this the passenger who was presumed lost in the Hawes Junction accident, was known travelling home for Christmas, likely by that train, but was not found in the burned-out wreckage and never seen again?

Another mystery that springs to mind is the death of two small children in the burned out mail/passenger train wreckage at Charfield in 1928. They were never identified, and appear to have been travelling unaccompanied during the night!

 

[Merle Haggard]

Is this the passenger who was presumed lost in the Hawes Junction accident, was known travelling home for Christmas, likely by that train, but was not found in the burned-out wreckage and never seen again?

Maybe I'm too cynical but it could have been a way to lose your troubled past and start a new life.

In a recent serious collision it is said that there were people who tried to misleadingly create the illusion that they were on then train involved to escape responsibilities of various descriptions.

 

[D Williams]

Maybe I'm too cynical but it could have been a way to lose your troubled past and start a new life.

In a recent serious collision it is said that there were people who tried to misleadingly create the illusion that they were on then train involved to escape responsibilities of various descriptions.

"In a recent serious collision it is said that there were people who tried to misleadingly create the illusion that they were on then train involved to escape responsibilities of various descriptions."

And your citation for the above is....?

 

[yorksrob]

Summit Tunnel fire on 20th December 1984, and it was a very bad fire, 200 properties in Walesden were evacuated.

Took four days to put the fire out, then took 8 months to clear the damage vehicles and repair the tunnel, reopening in August 1985.

The loco involved was 47125, that loco and three wagons narrowly escaped the fire, could have been very well perished in such a fire.

And apparently the heat was so intense, the brickwork melted !

 

[Taunton]

As you say, presumed lost. I imagine confirming exactly who was travelling on which train may have been more art than science in 1910, despite the best efforts of the Railway Clearing House and others to apportion ticket sale revenue.

I believe the Tay Bridge collapse, yet another December catastrophe, 28 December 1879, only managed to identify the fatality numbers by the most extensive analysis of ticket sales (given that some would be on return tickets, not purchased that day).

 

[norbitonflyer]

I believe the Tay Bridge collapse, yet another December catastrophe, 28 December 1879, only managed to identify the fatality numbers by the most extensive analysis of ticket sales (given that some would be on return tickets, not purchased that day).

Identifying the numbers should have been easy, as tickets were collected at St Fort ticket platform, just before the bridge. (Ticket platforms were a common thing in the days of compartment stock, as on-train inspection was clearly impractical). However, the original Tay Bridge death toll was thought to be much greater, as the tickets for that train had been put in the same box as those for all the other trains that had run that day.

Counting the casualties was one thing, identifying who they were was another. In the Carr Bridge disaster (a bridge washout) in 1914, five bodies were found downstream of the accident. The search continued for some time as there were thought to be others, in particular a titled gentleman (Sir Oliver Lodge) whose name was on luggage found in the wreckage, but was not accounted for either among the survivors or the bodies so far recovered, until it turned out it was being sent "luggage in advance" and he was safe at home.

 

[coppercapped]

And just up the way from me[1], there was the Sonning Cutting accident on 24th December 1841 when a train derailed on a landslide after wet weather. (Nothing changes...!) Nine people were killed.

There is a description in Wikipedia, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonning_Cutting_railway_accident

[1] Although I was not there at the time...!

 

[12LDA28C]

Aylesbury derailment 23rd December 1904 left four dead and several more seriously injured.

 

[norbitonflyer]

And just up the way from me[1], there was the Sonning Cutting accident on 24th December 1841 when a train derailed on a landslide after wet weather. (Nothing changes...!) Nine people were killed.

Both Shipton-on-Cherwell (1874) and Hawes Junction (1905 I think) occurred on Christmas Eve as well.