Hull Paragon

[Jimbob52]

February 14th will see the anniversary of an accident that has been described as ‘a one-in-infinity’ error.

The accident occurred in 1927 outside Hull Paragon station. In his haste to get a train away from the station, a signalman restored a signal to danger before the train had fully passed. This freed the locking bars on a set of points for 1.9 seconds. Within that elapsed time, his colleague set the road for a train to approach from the opposite direction. Unfortunately, he pulled the wrong lever, sending the departing train over the unlocked points into the path of the arriving train. His action took 1.6 seconds.

Because the two actions were virtually simultaneous, the trains collided head-on. There were 12 fatalities.

 

[Harvester]

February 14th will see the anniversary of an accident that has been described as ‘a one-in-infinity’ error.

The accident occurred in 1927 outside Hull Paragon station. In his haste to get a train away from the station, a signalman restored a signal to danger before the train had fully passed. This freed the locking bars on a set of points for 1.9 seconds. Within that elapsed time, his colleague set the road for a train to approach from the opposite direction. Unfortunately, he pulled the wrong lever, sending the departing train over the unlocked points into the path of the arriving train. His action took 1.6 seconds.

Because the two actions were virtually simultaneous, the trains collided head-on. There were 12 fatalities.

An incredibly unfortunate accident! It might have been much worse if Driver Atkinson, on the departing Scarborough train, had not quickly realised he had been put too far over to the right. He lost no time in shutting off steam and applying the brake, and brought his train almost to a stop at the point of collision. The coaches on both trains were extensively telescoped causing the 12 deaths and many more serious injuries, in what was a relatively low speed collision!