List of rail accidents (1880–99)

This is a list of rail accidents from 1880 to 1899.

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1880s

1880

• January 8, 1880 – United Kingdom – A collision near Southport kills ten people.^[1]
• January 15, 1880 – United Kingdom – Six people killed when the 5:30 express from Liverpool collided with a passenger train between Ormskirk and Burscough Junction. Both trains were on the same line and a signalman was arrested.^[2]
• February, 1880 – United Kingdom – Thirty passengers had minor injuries following a collision between a Welsh coal-train and an express from Chester, near the Birkenhead Tunnel.^[3]
• February 10, 1880 – France – A train from St Lazaire station ran into the Paris to Argenteuil train near Clichy station. Seven passengers killed and at least fifty are badly injured.^[4]
• February 13, 1880 – United Kingdom – Two waggons and the guard's van were thrown off the viaduct over the River Almond, Scotland killing two guards and a telegraph boy.^[5]
• February 16, 1880 – United Kingdom – A freight train runs into a rock on the line near Chepstow, Monmouthshire and is derailed.^[6]
• March 13, 1880 – Germany – Two passenger trains collided at Halle railway station; seven killed and many injured.^[7]
• March 13, 1880 – United Kingdom – Two lives lost after an accident on the Great Northern Line, near Wakefield, Yorkshire.^[8]
• June 17, 1880 – United Kingdom – A bridge on the Hay and Brecon Railway collapsed and a luggage train crashed into the river, killing the driver and severely injuring the stoker.^[9]
• June 24, 1880 – United Kingdom – A child riding on the engine of a mineral train died when the mineral train left the rails of a branch line, near Skinningrove Mine, Cleveland.^[10]
• August 10, 1880 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train is derailed north of Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland due to faulty track. Three people are killed.^[11]
• August 11, 1880 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train is derailed at Wennington, Lancashire. Eight people are killed and 23 are injured.^[12]
• August 19, 1880 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train comes to a halt inside Blea Moor Tunnel, Yorkshire due to a faulty brake pipe. An express passenger train overruns signals and is in a rear-end collision with it at low speed.^[13]
• September 2, 1880 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train left the rails on a sharp curve at the Manchester Central Station at 10:00 am. Several passengers and crew injured.^[14]
• September 11, 1880 – New Zealand – The Rimutaka Incline railway accident on the Rimutaka Incline, New Zealand. A small train left Greytown at 8.30am bound for Wellington via the Rimutaka Incline. At Cross Creek at the foot of the incline, the train was rearranged with two passenger cars and the luggage carriage in front of the Fell Engine. Behind it were two wagons of timber, and the Fell brake van last. A strong northwest wind was blowing and, at a place called Siberia, a terrific gust blew the three leading carriages off the line. The couplings held and the weight of the engine plus the grip of the drivers on the centre-rail stopped them from falling to the valley below, but the body of the first carriage was torn off its chassis. The passengers were thrown out, three children were killed instantly, another died later, and some had horrific injuries. The inquest found the deaths accidental and no blame was attached to anyone. Wind shelters were later built on dangerous parts of the incline.^[15]
• September 11, 1880 – United Kingdom – A London and South Western Railway passenger train collides with a light engine at Nine Elms Locomotive Junction, London due to errors by signalmen and the fireman of the light engine. Seven people are killed.^[16]
• October 7 1880 – United Kingdom – One of the carriages of an excursion train for Leamington overturned when leaving Kenilworth.^[17]
• October 27 1880 – United Kingdom – A passenger train ran into a goods train near Mosesgate on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Several passengers were injured and about a dozen carrages and a number of wagons were damaged.^[18]
• October 28 – Belgium – A goods train ran down an incline, near Herstal and hit a passenger train, killing seven people with several injured.^[19]
• December 21 1880 – United Kingdom – The Bristol, Derby and Sheffield express hit at Sheffield express at Holbeck Junction, near Leeds. One fatality and forty injured.^[20][21]

1881

• Jan 5, 1881 – Canada – A Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway freight train derails on temporary track laid across the frozen Saint Lawrence River between Longueuil and Hochelaga. Locomotive No.31 plunges through the ice. The locomotive was salvaged five days later.^[22]
• May 21, 1881 – United Kingdom – A London, Chatham and Dover Railway passenger train is derailed at Crystal Palace, London. One person is killed.^[23]
• June 23, 1881 – Mexico – In the Morelos railway accident near Cuautla, Morelos, a train falls into a river, killing over 200 people.
• July 6, 1881 – United States – Boone, Iowa: Honey Creek Bridge rail disaster: A Chicago and North Western Railway locomotive runs tender-first, westbound over the line out of Boone to check the tracks during a heavy summer rainstorm in the Des Moines River Valley and plunges into Honey Creek as the weakened bridge collapses. Irish-born, seventeen-year-old Kate Shelley, who lives close by the accident site, realizes that the late night eastbound express coming from Moingona, a mile to the west, has to be flagged down, lest it pile into gap at Honey Creek. To reach the station, she must cross the long bridge over the Des Moines River in the storm. Arriving at the depot, she relates what she has seen, and the express train is halted. She then accompanies the rescue train to the failed bridge and helps locate the surviving engine crew, two of whom had survived the 25 foot plunge into the flood and who have found refuge above the waters on tree limbs. For her part in keeping a small accident from becoming much worse, Kate Shelley becomes a national folk heroine. The new bridge over the Des Moines River is named in her honor as the 'Kate Shelley High Bridge'. As of mid-2007, the bridge is due to be replaced by a new structure capable of higher capacity and speed by the Union Pacific which absorbed the Chicago & North Western. The old alignment may become a road bridge.

1882

• January 13, 1882 – United States – Spuyten Duyvil, New York: Hudson River Railroad's Tarrytown Special collides with rear of the halted Atlantic Express near Spuyten Duyvil at night, telescoping the last two coaches which also catch fire. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper publishes full front-page engraving on January 21, 1882 showing trainmen, passengers, and local farmers rolling giant snowballs in an attempt to extinguish the blaze. State Senator and sleeping car magnate Webster Wagner was among the dead. This occurred in the same general location as another deadly train derailment on December 1, 2013 ^[24]
• June 30, 1882 – United States – Little Silver, New Jersey: Five of the seven cars of the Long Branch Railroad's Lightning Express, plunge off a trestle bridge near Little Silver, killing 1 man outright, with 2 men dying of their injuries later. Ulysses S. Grant was amongst the passengers of the train that day.^[25][26]
• July 13, 1882 – Russia – In the Tcherny railway accident a train is derailed and more than 150 people killed.

Train crash at Hugstetten.

• September 3, 1882 – Germany – Hugstetten: Hugstetten rail disaster - After heavy weather a washaway occurs and the train most probably was running too fast. 64 people were killed and 225 injured.

1883

• January 1, 1883 – United Kingdom – A Cambrian Railways passenger train is struck by a landslide at Vriog, Merionethshire. The locomotive is pushed into the sea, but the carriages remain on the track. Both crew are killed.^[27]
• January 20, 1883 – United States – Brakes holding passenger cars on a Central Pacific train failed during a locomotive switch at Tehachapi Summit, near Tehachapi, California. As the runaway cars headed down the mountain, stoves tipped over and ignited the cars before derailment. A total of 21 people were killed in the disaster, many of whom were burned beyond recognition.^[28]
• March 8, 1883 – United Kingdom – Wotton, Brill Tramway A ladies' maid is run over and killed by a locomotive as she stood in the trackway watching it approach. This was the only fatality in the line's 64-year history.^[29]

1884

• June 7, 1884 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern Railway freight train runs into the rear of another at Sevenoaks, Kent due to a signalman's error. Two people are killed.^[6]
• July 16, 1884 – United Kingdom – Bullhouse Bridge rail accident: A locomotive axle failure causes the derailment of a passenger train at Penistone. Twenty-four passengers are killed.

1885

• January 1, 1885 – United Kingdom – Penistone rail crash, Penistone,: An axle failure derails an empty wagon into the path of a passenger train. One passenger is killed, two die later.
• January 1885 – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway express passenger train overruns signals and is in collision with a North Staffordshire Railway freight train near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. One person is killed.^[30]
• September 15, 1885 – Canada – St Thomas, Ontario: Express goods train hauled by a Grand Trunk Railway locomotive hits a dwarf Asian elephant on an embankment. The elephant is thrown down the embankment by the collision; the train's engineer throws the locomotive into reverse, but is unable to prevent a rear-end collision with an African elephant (the famous Jumbo), killing it and derailing the locomotive and tender.^[31]

An accident on Switzerland's Rigi-Bahnen on 20 October 1885.

• October 20, 1885 – Switzerland – Accident on the Rigi-Bahnen, Lake Lucerne.

1886

• September 14, 1886 – United States – A head-on collision in Silver Creek between a freight train and a passenger train leaves twenty passengers dead. All of them are killed when the smoking car telescopes.^[32]

1887

• January 4, 1887 – United States – Republic, Ohio: A head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight results in a fire. Thirteen passengers lose their lives.^[33]
• February 5, 1887 – United States – Hartford, Vermont: While approaching the 650-foot bridge over the White River, a rail broke under the northbound Vermont Central Railroad Montreal Express train after the engine passed over it, causing the last passenger car to derail. This sleeper car was dragged sideways for about 200 feet, and plunged more than 50 feet down a steep embankment to the frozen river below. Three additional passenger cars were pulled down the precipice by this car, with the engine, tender, and two other cars able to make it safely over the bridge before it collapsed. At least 40 people were killed in total. The temperature was well below zero, and survivors of the wreck were stranded half-clothed and injured on the frozen river. When help eventually arrived, a fire ignited which burned alive any survivors that were still trapped in the wreckage. Rescuers had to seek shelter due to the intensity of the flames. Jewelry and other belongings were used to identify victims, as most bodies and flesh were burned beyond recognition.^[34]
• March 14, 1887 – United States – West Roxbury, Massachusetts: "The Forest Hills Disaster"; also, "The Forest Ridge Disaster" – A morning Boston & Providence Railroad train, inbound to Boston, is passing over the "Bussey Bridge", a Howe truss, at South Street in the Roslindale section of West Roxbury when it collapses, killing twenty-four commuters and school children and injuring several hundred. Bridge design was found to be faulty.
• March 25, 1877 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train is derailed at Morpeth, Northumberland due to defective track. Five people are killed and seventeen are injured.
• April 26, 1887 – United Kingdom – : a bomb planted by the Fenians in a first-class compartment explodes on the Metropolitan Railway near Aldersgate St. station, London, killing 2 people and injuring 8 others. The first fatal terrorist attack against what is now the London Underground, it is one of a series of bombings of the Underground and other London landmarks.^[35]
• August 10–11, 1887 – United States – Chatsworth, Illinois: The Great Chatsworth Train Wreck – A fifteen car train of fully occupied Pullman sleepers and coaches on the Toledo, Peoria and Western bound for Niagara Falls, comes to a wooden trestle over a shallow "run" just before midnight; the engineer sees that it is on fire too late to stop the double-headed train from crossing the weakened structure and the consist with over 600 on board crashes to a stop as the lead engine collapses it. The cars in the front half telescope into one another and some 84 are killed with injuries estimated at 279. This accident inspires morbid ballad "The Chatsworth Wreck" that includes the verse, "the dead and dying mingled with the broken beams and bars; an awful human carnage, a dreadful wreck of cars."
• August 22, 1887 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway freight train becomes divided at Wath-upon-Dearne, Yorkshire. Due to a signalman's error, an express passenger train runs into the rear of it. Seventeen people are injured.^[36]
• September 16, 1887 – United Kingdom – Hexthorpe rail accident, near Doncaster: Locomotive crew misread signals, crash into rear of special train for racegoers; twenty-five killed. Simple vacuum brakes deemed inadequate by subsequent enquiry.
• October 11, 1887 – United States - Freight train crashes into a passenger train at train intersection in Kouts, Indiana. The number of deaths were twenty and injuries were near seventy.^[37]
• October 25, 1887 – United Kingdom – A freight train overruns signals at Amble, Northumberland and collides with a locomotive. The locomotive is pushed back into a waiting passenger train, which itself is pushed back into a freight train.^[38]

1888

• March 16, 1888 – United States – North of Coleman's Station, Dutchess County, New York, : A New York Central snow-clearance train consisting of the plow "Old Eli" and five locomotives reaches a rock cut clogged with snow, moving about 40 mph. The entire train derails and five crewmen are killed.^[39][40]

Blackshear trestle wreck, 1888

• March 17, 1888 – United States – Blackshear, Georgia: Most of the West India Fast Mail Train from New York City to Jacksonville, Florida is wrecked when two-thirds of a 300-foot-long (91 m), 25-foot-high (7.6 m) trestle collapses. The accident is caused by a broken rail under the lead baggage car, which gets off the track. The train safely crosses the bridge over the Hurricane River, but at about 9:30 a.m. the baggage car suddenly whirls over and strikes the subsequent trestle, which gives way. All but the detached engine tumbles below—a combination car, 3 baggage cars, a smoking car, a coach, 2 Pullman sleepers, and the private car of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. 20 are killed, with 35 injured. Among the latter is Elisha P. Wilbur, president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, who together with members of his family and friends was traveling in the private car. George Gould and his wife escape serious injury. The engine runs into town for help.
• July 12, 1888 – United States – Wreck at the Fat Nancy, Virginia: Nine are killed and twenty-six are injured when a train trestle gives way. One of the victims was a civil engineer who had designed a replacement for the trestle, since it was known to be unsafe. One of the passengers in the train was Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet.
• August 6, 1888 – United Kingdom – A London and South Western Railway locomotive is in a head-on collision with a passenger train at Hampton Wick, Middlesex due to a signalman's error. Four people are killed and fourteen are seriously injured.^[41]
• October 10, 1888 – United States – Mud Run Disaster, Pennsylvania: Following a mass meeting held by the Total Abstinence Union in the Pennsylvania mountains at Hazleton in which eight special temperance trains are operated from Wilkes-Barre, by the Lehigh Valley Railroad carrying some 5,000 conventioneers, the consists are directed to keep a ten-minute interval between them upon return. At about 8 p.m., the sixth train with 500 on board stops near Mud Run along the banks of the Lehigh River and shortly thereafter the following section plows into it, telescoping the last car of the stopped train halfway through the coach ahead, killing 66 of the 200 in these two wooden cars outright. More than 50 are injured. Newspaper accounts suggest that temperance pledges were forgotten by some of the victims after they returned to the train.

The Borki train crash, 1888

• October 29 [O.S. October 17] 1888 – Russia – Borki train disaster. The imperial train, carrying Alexander III of Russia and his family, derailed near Borki in Kharkov Governorate. 21 died on site, two in local hospitals. The popular story says that tsar held up the mangled roof of the carriage, so that his family could escape from the wreckage. Alexander sustained a massive impact trauma to his back but was apparently not affected in any other way. Commissioner disagreed on the direct cause of the crash, citing speeding, substandard track and mismanagement by private railroad owners.

1889

• March 30, 1889 – United Kingdom – A Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway passenger train is derailed at Penistone, Yorkshire due to a broken axle on a locomotive. A mail train runs into the wreckage. One person is killed and 61 are injured.^[42]
• May 12, 1889 – United States – Seattle, Washington, a street car descending Denny Hill suffers a cable malfunction and crashed after hitting a sharp curve. The crash killed one passenger and injured another. The crash marked the first street car fatality in the history of Seattle.^[43]
• May 23, 1889 – United States – The westbound train on the St. Louis and San Francisco road, which left St. Louis was wrecked at about 11:15 pm at a point three miles west of Sullivan MO
• June 12, 1889 – United Kingdom – The Armagh rail disaster occurs near Armagh, Ireland: when a train stalls on a gradient, the driver decides to divide it. Left unbraked, the rear portion runs away backwards and collides with a following train, killing 88. Parliament responds by passing the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, mandating fail-safe brakes and improved signal systems.
• August 22, 1889 – United States – An excursion train of dignitaries inspecting the newly completed route of the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap and Louisville Railroad between Knoxville and Middlesboro derailed at Flat Creek in Grainger County, Tennessee, killing five, including a Knoxville city alderman and the chairman of the board of public works, and injuring twenty.^[44]
• December 7, 1889 - United Kingdom - 3 trains collided near Cheetham Hill junction. A London and North-Western Goods train with 27 wagons of coal bound for Oldham was waiting for a Lancashire and Yorkshire passenger train from Bacup to pass before using the junction to bear right onto the Oldham line. At 10:45 pm a Lancashire and Yorkshire passenger heading from Victoria Station to Bacup set off on schedule and saw no warning light that a train was stopped on the line. It crashed into the back of the coal train, derailing and injuring many passengers as it hit the stationary train at around 14 MPH. The resulting debris blocked the other line and the passenger train coming from Bacup ran into this, also causing a derailment and many injuries to passengers. There was only one death and this was the fireman from the train that set off from Victoria Station, at the coroners inquest it could not be determined whether he had jumped from the train or been violently thrown at impact, he had been trapped under the guard van from the goods train, when rescuers got to him he was past help.

1890s

1890

• March 21, 1890 – United Kingdom – An accident involving a South Eastern Railway train at St Johns, London kills three people.^[45]
• August 19, 1890 – United States – Quincy, Massachusetts: A jack used to level rails was left on the tracks. A passenger train then collided with it causing a derailment. 24 people were killed due to the impact of the collision as well as the result of scalding.^[46]
• September 19, 1890 – United States – Shoemakersville, Berks County, Pennsylvania: Two coal trains on the Reading Railroad had a minor collision that deposited debris on the adjacent passenger track. The approaching express passenger train was then derailed (engine, tender, baggage car, mail car, and three of the five passenger cars) into the Schuylkill River and twenty-two people died and thirty people were injured.^[47]
• October 23, 1890 – United States – near Hinton, West Virginia, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, the eastbound Fast Flying Virginian struck a rockslide on the tracks. This accident was immortalized by the ballad Engine One-Forty-Three.
• November 11, 1890 – United Kingdom – Norton Fitzwarren rail crash, England: A passenger train collides with a goods train that had been shunted onto the main line – the signalman had forgotten that the line was obstructed. Ten people killed, eleven seriously injured.
• November 28, 1890 – United Kingdom – On the North British Railway two trains, both headed by NBR D class 0-6-0 locomotives, crashed head-on on the Todd's Mill Viaduct, one locomotive plunging 60 feet off the bridge.^[48]

1891

• March 8, 1891 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway passenger train runs into a snowdrift and is derailed at Camborne, Cornwall.^[36]
• April 19, 1891 – United States – Kipton, Ohio, United States: A passenger train and a freight train collide just east of the Kipton depot, 8 dead. This accident was attributed to one of the engineers' watches having stopped and being four minutes behind.^[49] Webster Clay Ball, watch dealer and inspector of Cleveland, Ohio is later appointed as Watch Inspector for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad.
• May 1, 1891 – United Kingdom – Norwood Junction rail accident: A London Brighton and South Coast Railway passenger train is derailed near Norwood Junction, London when a cast iron bridge collapses under it.
• May 17, 1891 – United States – Greenvale, New York, United States: A horse's hoof gets caught in the switching apparatus at Greenvale (LIRR station), resulting in both the death of the horse and two crew members, as well as the destruction of the station house.^[50]
• June 14, 1891 – Switzerland – Munchenstein rail disaster - Münchenstein, Basel: An iron girder bridge collapses as a crowded passenger train passes over it, 71 dead, 171 injured. Switzerland's worst ever railway accident.
• August 27, 1891 – United States – Statesville, North Carolina: A passenger train of the Western North Carolina Railroad derails upon entering a bridge, plunging to the creek below, killing 22 and injuring 26 others. .^[51]
• August 31, 1891 – United Kingdom – A London, Chatham and Dover Railway empty stock train overruns the buffers at Ramsgate Town station, Kent. One person is killed.^[23]
• September 9, 1891 – United States – Oyster Bay, New York: Boiler explosion of a locomotive at Oyster Bay (LIRR station) resulting in the deaths of three crewmembers. This LIRR locomotive replaced the one that was involved in the wreck in Greenvale in May 1891.^[50]
• October 17, 1891 – United Kingdom – A Great Eastern Railway passenger train is derailed at Lavenham, Suffolk.^[52]
• December 4, 1891 – United States – Great East Thompson Train Wreck; East Thompson, Connecticut: Four trains collide on the New York and New England Railroad. Two freight trains collide due to sloppy dispatching, jack-knifing several cars. The Long Island & Eastern States Express passenger train then hits the wreckage, killing the engineer and fireman. Shortly thereafter, despite an attempt to flag it down, the Norwich Steamboat Express also piles into the rear of the Eastern States Express, setting the last sleeper on fire as well as the locomotive cab although both engine crew survive. In all, only two deaths are confirmed although the body of one passenger is never found and presumed dead.
• 1891 – United States – Delta, California: Elephant travelling as a passenger on a Southern Pacific train removes a coupling pin from a car. The train parts, and the forward portion travels 20 miles before the locomotive crew discover the split.^[53]

1892

• February 22, 1892 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern Railway locomotive is run into by a London, Brighton and South Coast Railway passenger train at Hastings, East Sussex. The passenger train overran a danger signal. Both locomotives are damaged.^[54]

Esholt Junction.

• June 9, 1892 – United Kingdom – Esholt Junction rail crash - A Midland Railway passenger train overruns signals and collides with another at Esholt Junction, Yorkshire. Five people are killed and 30 are injured.
• November 2, 1892 – United Kingdom – Thirsk rail crash, Thirsk, Yorkshire, England: a distressed signalman forgets about a goods train standing outside his signal box. Eight people killed, 39 injured.

1893

• January 18, 1893 – United States – Lonsdale Mills, Cumberland, Rhode Island. Eight of 23 sleigh ride passengers are killed when a sleigh collides with a Providence & Worcester Railroad freight train. Several horses were killed. Six passengers died at the scene, as the other two died at Rhode Island Hospital. The sleigh ride was coming to Cumberland after an evening excursion from North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Later, to investigators, the engine's operator said weather conditions were so cold that night, maybe the sleigh riders never heard the train whistle. Witnesses said because of a bend of the railroad, the passengers of the sleigh never saw what hit them.^[55]
• July 18, 1893 - United States - East Aurora, New York. A serious derailment at East Aurora, involving a 12 car excursion train returning from a Lime Lake, New York summer picnic, by the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad. Engine #124 landed on Engine #30.^[56]
• August 12, 1893 – United Kingdom – Llantrisant rail accident, 13 killed when mechanical failure led to derailment.

1894

• August 9, 1894 – United States – 1894 Rock Island railroad wreck, Lincoln, Nebraska: Determined to be an act of sabotage. Eleven of 33 passengers died.^[57]
• October 4, 1894 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway sleeping car express overruns signals and runs into the rear of a freight train at Castle Hills, Yorkshire. One person is killed.^[58]
• November 12, 1894 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway boat train ia derailed in a flood at Yetminster, Dorset.^[42]
• December 22, 1894 – United Kingdom – Chelford rail accident: During shunting operations strong winds blow a high-sided wagon into other wagons. The wagon derails and fouls the main line; an oncoming express hits the wagon and is itself derailed, killing 14 passengers.
• December 22, 1894 – United Kingdom – A light engine is in collision with a South Eastern Railway passenger train at Purley, Surrey. Six people are injured.^[45]

1895

• April 13, 1895 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway passenger train derails between Doublebois and Bodmin Road. The cause is found to be that the track was damaged by the previous train due to excessive speed.^[59]

Train goes too far at Gare Montparnasse, Paris

• August 1, 1895, – United Kingdom – A London, Chatham and Dover Railway freight train collides with an excursion train at Herne Bay, kent. One person is killed. ^[23]
• October 22, 1895 – France – Montparnasse derailment — At Gare Montparnasse, Paris, France an express train overruns a buffer stop due to the driver approaching the station too fast and Westinghouse air brake failure, and crosses about 30 metres of concourse before plummeting through a window. One person in a shop below is crushed by the falling engine. The locomotive remains outside the station for several days and a number of photographs are taken.
• December 22, 1895 – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway express passenger train collides with goods wagon which had run away and fouled the main line. Fourteen people are killed and 79 are injured.^[60]

1896

• March 7, 1896 – United Kingdom – The last carriage of a Great Northern Railway passenger train derails at Little Bytham, Lincolnshire, causing other carriages to derail. The cause is found to be the premature removal of a speed restriction. Two people are killed.^[61]
• Easter Monday, April 6, 1896 – United Kingdom – Llanberis, Wales: On the opening day of the Snowdon Mountain Railway, locomotive No. 1 Ladas runs away and derails before plummeting down a steep slope where it is destroyed. The driver and fireman jumped clear and the carriages were stopped by the guard. One passenger jumped off the moving train and fell beneath the wheels. He later died from his injuries. The line then closed for over a year before re-opening on April 19, 1897.
• May 26, 1896 – Canada – in Victoria, British Columbia, a passenger train with 143 passengers aboard crashed through Point Ellice Bridge into the Gorge river. Fifty-five were killed. A coroner’s jury concluded that the tramway operator, the Consolidated Electric Railway Company, was responsible because it allowed the streetcar to be loaded with much a greater number of passengers than the bridge was designed to support.^[62]
• July 30, 1896 – United States – 1896 Atlantic City rail crash – two trains collide at a crossing just west of Atlantic City, New Jersey, crushing five loaded passenger coaches, killing 50 and seriously injuring around 60.
• August 3, 1896 – United Kingdom – A Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway passenger train collides with a West Lancashire Railway passenger train at Preston Junction, Lancashire due to the driver of the former misreading signals. One person is killed and seven are injured.^[63]
• August 15, 1896 – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway sleeping car express is derailed at Preston, Lancashire due to excessive speed on a curve. One person is killed.^[64]
• August 29, 1896 – United Kingdom – The locomotive of a Charing Cross to Hastings train is derailed near Etchingham, East Sussex when it collides with a traction engine and threshing machine using an occupation crossing.^[65]
• September 15, 1896 – United States – The Crash at Crush – Showman William George Crush convinces officials of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT, known as "the Katy"), to let him stage a colossal train wreck for a crowd that will ride to the site near the town of West, Texas, producing much passenger revenue for the company. A one-day town is thrown up and named Crush, boasting a 2,100 foot platform and tank cars supplying 100 faucets. Two six-car trains of obsolete rolling stock, pulled by dolled-up locomotives are let loose at each other over a one-mile (1.6 km) course with spectacular result. When the wrecked engines' boilers explode, flying shrapnel kills at least three of the 30,000 spectators (some sources estimate 40,000) and injures many more.
• December 4, 1896 – United States – A freight train consisting of Engine No. 155 and twenty-six cars of freight was running from Brattleboro, Vermont to New London, Connecticut. Just outside Eagleville, Connecticut the train became uncoupled between cars 10 and 11. As the crew in the back tried to stop the back part of the train, the crew in the locomotive increased speed to gain distance from the decoupled cars. The boiler exploded killing brakeman Warren Thomas, Engineer Otis Hall, and his brother, fireman Benjamin Hall.^[66]
• December 27, 1896 – United States – A passenger train, No. 41 of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad, plunged through a bridge 110 feet over the Cahaba River, east of West Blocton, Alabama, killing 22 or 23 of the 31 people on board, many burned beyond recognition.^[67][68]

1897

Garrison Train Wreck, 1897

• January 26, 1897 – Canada – The regular westbound CP express train between Halifax and Montreal, hauled by an ICR engine, came off the rails outside Dorchester, New Brunswick, loaded with 6 tons of freshly minted Canadian pennies from London. Two people were killed and 38 injured, including the Canadian Minister of the Militia, Frederick William Borden. It is known as "The Penny Wreck".^[69]
• May 1, 1897 – Russia – A military train derails 3 km north of Puka, Governorate of Livonia. 58 people are killed and 44 deeply wounded in the accident.^[70]
• June 11, 1897 – Denmark – Gentofte train crash, Denmark: An express train passes a signal at danger and collides with a stationary passenger train at Gentofte station. 40 die and more than 100 are injured.
• June 11, 1897 – United Kingdom – Welshampton rail crash 11 killed when excursion train derails.

Heathfield.

• September 1, 1897 – United Kingdom – A passenger train derails near Heathfield, East Sussex, killing the driver.^[71]
• October 24, 1897 – United States – Garrison train crash in Garrison, New York, On this Sunday morning, train No. 46, on the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, wrecks near King's Dock of the Hudson River division, about one and three-quarters miles south of Garrison. 19 killed.^[72]

1898

• January 3, 1898 – United Kingdom – A North British Railway freight train is derailed at Dunbar, Lothian. It is run into by an express passenger train which overran signals. One person is killed and 21 are injured.^[73]
• January 29, 1898 – United States – A Maine Central Railroad train crashed near Orono. The accident fatally injured four and killed two.
• 1898 (unknown exact date) – United States – A Tallulah Falls Railway train pulling a children's excursion derailed due to bad track. The locomotive and baggage car toppled from the track. The baggage car simply fell onto its side; however, the locomotive rolled to the bottom of the embankment, killing the engineer. No children were injured.

St Johns

• March 21, 1898 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train runs into the rear of another passenger train at St Johns, London due to a signalman's error. Three people are killed and twenty are injured.^[73]
• September 2, 1898 – United Kingdom – A parcels trolley falls off the platform at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire and is run into by a Midland Railway express train, which is derailed. Seven people are killed and 65 are injured.^[74]
• 1898 – United States – Second major accident on the Tallulah Falls Railway occurred at the Panther Creek trestle. Over 100 feet high, it was the highest trestle on the line. When a passenger train which was crossing the trestle reached the highest section of the bridge, the supports gave way beneath it, causing the locomotive, tender, and first car to pitch into the ravine. Miraculously the second coach remained on the still erect portion of the bridge. The coach stopped mere inches from pitching off the bridge and on top of the locomotive and derailed first coach. No injuries are reported, and only one passenger is marked as having been killed.
• 1898 – United Kingdom – A mail train is derailed near Penryn, Cornwall. The Great Western Railway 3521 Class locomotives are subsequently rebuilt due to excessive oscillation when running at speed.^[75]

1899

• January 12, 1899 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway express freight train is derailed at Penmaenmawr, Caernarfonshire due to the formation being washed away in a storm. Both locomotive crew are killed.^[76]
• March 11, 1899 – New Zealand – Rakaia railway accident Two excursion trains which were returning from Ashburton to Christchurch collided when the second train rear-ended the first; four passengers were killed and 22 injured. The accident led to the fitting of air brakes to rolling stock and improved signalling.
• October 23, 1899 – United Kingdom – A Caledonian Railway express train collides with a cattle train at Cupar, Angus. One person is killed.^[77]
• December 23, 1899 – United Kingdom – A rear-end collision occurs at Wivelsfield, West Sussex.^[78]

See also

• London Underground accidents

References

Sources

• "Europe's history of rail disasters". BBC. October 11, 2006. Retrieved May 8, 2010. 
• "World's worst rail disasters". BBC. December 19, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2010. 
• "GenDisasters Train Wrecks 1869–1943". 
• "Interstate Commerce Commission Investigations of Railroad Accidents 1911–1993". U.S. Department of Transportation. 
• Beebe, Lucius & Clegg, Charles (1952). Hear the train blow; a pictorial epic of America in the railroad age. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. ASIN B000I83FTC. 
• Earnshaw, Alan (1990). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 6. Penryn: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-37-0. 
• Earnshaw, Alan (1991). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 7. Penryn: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-50-8. 
• Earnshaw, Alan (1993). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 8. Penryn: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-52-4. 
• Haine, Edgar A. (1993). Railroad Wrecks. New York: Cornwall Books. ISBN 978-0-8453-4844-4. 
• Hall, Stanley (1990). The Railway Detectives. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0 7110 1929 0. 
• Hoole, Ken (1982). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 3. Redruth: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-05-2. 
• Hoole, Ken (1983). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 4. Truro: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-07-9. 
• Karr, Ronald D. (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England – A Handbook of Railroad History. Branch Line Press. ISBN 978-0-942147-02-5. 
• Kidner, R. W. (1977) [1963]. The South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Tarrant Hinton: The Oakwood Press. 
• Leslie, Frank (1882-01-21). "Illustrated Newspaper". LIII (1,374). New York: 1. 
• Reed, Robert C. (1968). Train Wrecks – A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line. New York: Bonanza Books. ISBN 978-0-517-32897-2. 
• Rolt, L. T. C.; Kichenside, G. M. (1982). Red for Danger: A history of railway accidents and railway safety (4th ed.). Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8362-0. OCLC 9526651. 
• Shaw, Robert B. (1978). A History of Railroad Accidents, Safety Precautions and Operating Practices. LCCN 78104064. 
• Trevena, Arthur (1980). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 1. Redruth: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-01-X. 
• Trevena, Arthur (1981). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 2. Redruth: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-03-6. 

External links

• Pendleton, John (1896). Our Railways: Their Origin, Development, Incident and Romance, Chapter XL. Railway Disasters, 1840–1870. London: Cassell and Co., Ltd.  External link in |title= (help)