Great Western Railway accidents
Encyclopedia
Great Western Railway
accidents include several notable incidents that influenced rail safety in the United Kingdom.
In common with other railway companies, the GWR experienced accidents throughout its history, one of the most serious being the Sonning Cutting accident
in December 1842. Nine workmen were killed when their train hit a landslip. The accident occurred in the early hours of 24 December 1841 in the Sonning Cutting
, near Reading
, in Berkshire
, as a luggage train travelling from London
to Bristol entered the cutting. The train comprised the broad-gauge locomotive Hecla and its tender, three third-class passenger waggons and some heavily-laden goods waggons. The passenger waggons were between the tender and the goods waggons. Recent heavy rain had saturated the soil in the cutting causing it to slip, covering the line on which the train was travelling. On running into the slipped soil the engine was derailed, and the passenger waggons were crushed between the goods waggons and the tender. Eight passengers died at the scene and sixteen were seriously injured, one of whom died later in hospital.
The accident had important repurcussions because it led to the Railway Regulation Act 1844
. William Ewart Gladstone
introduced his bill to regulate the way passengers were transported, such as protection of third-class passengers, and to introduce much greater government control of the growing network. The Act established the Parliamentary train
with fares limited by statute.
The most serious accident however, occurred on 24 December 1874, when a double-headed
passenger train from Paddington to Birkenhead
derailed near Kidlington
just north of Oxford
and 34 passengers were killed. The Shipton-on-Cherwell train crash
was caused by the fracture of a single wheel on an old carriage just behind the locomotive's tender. The carriage continued upright until the drivers saw what had happened and applied the brakes. The following carriages crushed the old waggon and it was thrown off the track, with the rest of the train behind. The locomotives travelled some distance before the drivers realised what had happened and returned to help rescue efforts.
The investigation which followed was led by William Yolland
and established the root causes very quickly. The tyre was on an old carriage, and was of an obsolete design. The fracture started at a rivet hole, possibly by metal fatigue
, although it was not recognised as such by the inquiry. The weather was very cold that day, with snow blanketing the fields and very low freezing temperatures, another factor which hastened the tyre failure. The disaster led to a re-appraisal of braking methods and systems, and eventual adoption of continuous automatic brakes being fitted to trains, based either on the Westinghouse air brake or a vacuum brake
. The Railway Inspectorate recommended Mansell wheels, a type of wooden composite wheel, be adopted by the railway companies since the design had a better safety record than the alternatives. There had been a long history of failed wheels involved in serious accidents, especially in the previous decade. They were also critical of the communication method between the locomotive and the rest of the train using an external cord and gong, suggesting that a telegraphic method be adopted instead.
The Shipton disaster came in a period, the 1870s, when railway accidents were at their peak, never equalled before or since. The national network had grown enormously but basic equipment had been neglected, and old equipment kept in service when it should have been scrapped years before. The sequence of railway tragedies
ended with the Tay rail bridge
disaster of 1879, but accidents continued, although at a lower level.
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
accidents include several notable incidents that influenced rail safety in the United Kingdom.
Notable accidents
Railway accident at Sonning Cutting
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 luggage train travelling from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads station entered Sonning Cutting...
in December 1842. Nine workmen were killed when their train hit a landslip. The accident occurred in the early hours of 24 December 1841 in the Sonning Cutting
Sonning Cutting
Sonning Cutting is on the original Great Western Railway built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It is to the east of Reading station and to the west of Twyford station near the village of Sonning in Berkshire, England. It had been intended to route the railway around the north of Sonning Hill past the...
, near Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, as a luggage train travelling from London
Paddington station
Paddington railway station, also known as London Paddington, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex.The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates...
to Bristol entered the cutting. The train comprised the broad-gauge locomotive Hecla and its tender, three third-class passenger waggons and some heavily-laden goods waggons. The passenger waggons were between the tender and the goods waggons. Recent heavy rain had saturated the soil in the cutting causing it to slip, covering the line on which the train was travelling. On running into the slipped soil the engine was derailed, and the passenger waggons were crushed between the goods waggons and the tender. Eight passengers died at the scene and sixteen were seriously injured, one of whom died later in hospital.
The accident had important repurcussions because it led to the Railway Regulation Act 1844
Railway Regulation Act 1844
The Railway Regulation Act 1844 was a British Act of Parliament introduced as a means of providing a minimum standard for rail passenger travel.-The prior situation:...
. William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
introduced his bill to regulate the way passengers were transported, such as protection of third-class passengers, and to introduce much greater government control of the growing network. The Act established the Parliamentary train
Parliamentary train
A Parliamentary train or Parly is, nowadays, a British English term for a train that operates a Parliamentary service - that is to say a token service to a given station, thus maintaining a legal fiction that either the station or, in some cases, the whole line is open, although in reality the...
with fares limited by statute.
Double-headed
Double-headed may refer to:* Double-headed eagle, common symbol in heraldry and vexillology* Double-heading, the use of at least two steam locomotives at the front of a train...
passenger train from Paddington to Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
derailed near Kidlington
Kidlington
Kidlington is a large village and civil parish between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and southwest of Bicester.-History:...
just north of Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and 34 passengers were killed. The Shipton-on-Cherwell train crash
Shipton-on-Cherwell train crash
The Shipton-on-Cherwell train crash was a major disaster which occurred on the Great Western Railway. It involved the derailment of a long passenger train at Shipton-on-Cherwell near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, England, on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1874, and was one of the worst ever disasters on...
was caused by the fracture of a single wheel on an old carriage just behind the locomotive's tender. The carriage continued upright until the drivers saw what had happened and applied the brakes. The following carriages crushed the old waggon and it was thrown off the track, with the rest of the train behind. The locomotives travelled some distance before the drivers realised what had happened and returned to help rescue efforts.
The investigation which followed was led by William Yolland
William Yolland
William Yolland CB, FRS was an English military surveyor, astronomer and engineer, and was Britain’s Chief Inspector of Railways from 1877 until his death...
and established the root causes very quickly. The tyre was on an old carriage, and was of an obsolete design. The fracture started at a rivet hole, possibly by metal fatigue
Metal Fatigue
Metal Fatigue , is a futuristic science fiction, real-time strategy computer game developed by Zono Incorporated and published by Psygnosis and TalonSoft .-Plot:...
, although it was not recognised as such by the inquiry. The weather was very cold that day, with snow blanketing the fields and very low freezing temperatures, another factor which hastened the tyre failure. The disaster led to a re-appraisal of braking methods and systems, and eventual adoption of continuous automatic brakes being fitted to trains, based either on the Westinghouse air brake or a vacuum brake
Vacuum brake
The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in those countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum brakes also enjoyed a brief period of adoption in...
. The Railway Inspectorate recommended Mansell wheels, a type of wooden composite wheel, be adopted by the railway companies since the design had a better safety record than the alternatives. There had been a long history of failed wheels involved in serious accidents, especially in the previous decade. They were also critical of the communication method between the locomotive and the rest of the train using an external cord and gong, suggesting that a telegraphic method be adopted instead.
The Shipton disaster came in a period, the 1870s, when railway accidents were at their peak, never equalled before or since. The national network had grown enormously but basic equipment had been neglected, and old equipment kept in service when it should have been scrapped years before. The sequence of railway tragedies
Tragedy (event)
A tragedy is an event in which one or more losses, usually of human life, occurs that is viewed as mournful. Such an event is said to be tragic....
ended with the Tay rail bridge
Tay Rail Bridge
The Tay Bridge is a railway bridge approximately two and a quarter miles long that spans the Firth of Tay in Scotland, between the city of Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife ....
disaster of 1879, but accidents continued, although at a lower level.
List of Great Western Railway accidents
This list includes notable accidents on railways that were later amalgamated with the Great Western Railway.- Sonning CuttingRailway accident at Sonning CuttingThe 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 luggage train travelling from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads station entered Sonning Cutting...
, 24 December 1841 – 10 killed, 17 injured: train ran into landslideLandslideA landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments...
caused by heavy rain. - Grove viaduct, 6 May 1859 – just two days after the opening of the Cornwall RailwayCornwall RailwayThe Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The section from Plymouth to Truro opened in 1859, the extension to Falmouth in 1863...
a train was derailed near St GermansSt Germans railway stationSt Germans Station serves the village of St Germans in Cornwall, UK. The Station is operated by First Great Western and west of Plymouth.It is situated immediately west of the large St Germans viaduct.Both platforms have step-free entrances...
and fell off a viaduct killing three of the train crew. - Menheniot, 2 December 1873 (Cornwall RailwayCornwall RailwayThe Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The section from Plymouth to Truro opened in 1859, the extension to Falmouth in 1863...
) – head on collision on single line; no casualties: misunderstood signalman's verbal order. - Shipton-on-CherwellShipton-on-Cherwell train crashThe Shipton-on-Cherwell train crash was a major disaster which occurred on the Great Western Railway. It involved the derailment of a long passenger train at Shipton-on-Cherwell near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, England, on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1874, and was one of the worst ever disasters on...
, 24 December 1874; 34 killed, 69 injured: carriage tyre broke, derailed train on bridge over canal. - Norton FitzwarrenNorton Fitzwarren rail crash (1890)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...
, 10 November 1890 – ten killed due to signlman's error. - MenheniotMenheniot railway stationMenheniot railway station serves the village of Menheniot in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The station is operated by First Great Western.- History :The station opened with the Cornwall Railway on 4 May 1859...
, 9 February 1897 – reconstruction of Coldrennick Viaduct: workman's platform fell: 12 killed. - MenheniotMenheniot railway stationMenheniot railway station serves the village of Menheniot in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The station is operated by First Great Western.- History :The station opened with the Cornwall Railway on 4 May 1859...
, 15 November 1897 – reconstruction of Trevido Viaduct: accident raising a heavy timber: 2 killed. - SloughSlough railway stationSlough railway station, in Slough, Berkshire, England, is served by local services operated by First Great Western from to and intercity services on the Great Western Main Line, the original line of the Great Western Railway...
, 16 June 1900 – signal passed at dangerSignal passed at dangerA Signal passed at danger , in British railway terminology, occurs when a train passes a stop signal without authority to do so. It is a term primarily used within the British Railway Industry, although it can be applied worldwide.-Categories of SPAD:...
: 5 killed, 35 injured. - AbermuleAbermule train collisionThe Abermule train collision was a head-on collision which occurred at Abermule, Montgomeryshire, Wales on 26 January 1921, killing 17 people. The crash arose from misunderstandings between staff which effectively over-rode the safe operation of the Electric Train Tablet system protecting the...
(Cambrian RailwaysCambrian RailwaysCambrian Railways owned of track over a large area of mid-Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904...
), 26 January 1921 – 17 killed, 36 injured; head-on collision on single line, inattention to proper procedures. - Norton FitzwarrenNorton Fitzwarren rail crash (1940)The Norton Fitzwarren rail crash occurred on 4 November 1940 between Taunton and Norton Fitzwarren in the English county of Somerset, when the driver of a train misunderstood the signalling and track layout, causing him to drive the train through a set of points and off the rails. 27 people were...
, 4 November 1940 – 27 killed: driver misunderstood signal layout, drove off track.