Railway accident at Abermule

In the Abermule railway accident on January 26, 1921, a passenger train collided with an express train in Wales between Abermule and Newtown . 17 people died as a result of the accident and around 20 were injured. It was the first head-on collision on a single-track line since the introduction of the Electric Tablet System and should remain the only one in Great Britain.

Operational situation

The route from Whitchurch via Welshpool, Montgomery and Newtown to Aberystwyth was operated by the Cambrian Railway and was partly single-track, including the section Montgomery - Newtown with the Abermule junction. All three sites were equipped with Tyer machines. In Abermule, next to this device, which was housed in the station building, there was a lever mechanism at each end of the platform for setting the switches and signals . They were interdependent. There was no dependency between the signals and the block apparatus.

Four railway workers were employed in Abermule: the station chief, who was absent on the day of the accident and was represented by a replacement, was responsible for the operations together with the signalman. The porter was a 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old was busy checking tickets and doing auxiliary work. The two boys were zealous and diligent and operated - which was not allowed, but was tolerated by the adults out of comfort - also telegraph, block apparatus and signal box . Each of the two wanted to be the first to take the tablet from the drivers of the arriving trains .

Events on the day of the accident

On the day the accident happened, an express train from Aberystwyth to Manchester was en route. Scheduled traffic stops for this train were Newtown and Welshpool with a short operating stop in between to replace the tablets in Abermule. There the express train was supposed to cross with a passenger train that had left Whitchurch at 10:05 and was scheduled to stop in Welshpool, Montgomery, Abermule and Newtown on the way west.

At 11:52 am, Montgomery asked in Abermule for clearance for the passenger train. Because the station master was still on his lunch break, the signalman took the train, activated the Tyer device and made an entry in the train log. Then he made a phone call in Moat Lane to make sure that the express train was on time and that the crossing in Abermule would take place as planned, finally informed the baggage boy and went to the east signal box to set the entrance signal for the passenger train going west. The express train was accepted at 11:56 a.m. by the baggage boy, who also operated the Tyer apparatus, but did not enter the train in the train log. At 11:59 a.m. the express train from Newtown left with a tablet to Abermule. Both Tyer sets in Abermule and the sets in Newtown and Montgomery in the direction of Abermule were blocked as planned.

In the meantime the stationmaster had returned from lunch. Before he could find out about the operational situation in the office, he was stopped by a traveler who wanted to take the passenger train and order a car beforehand. The station master accompanied the traveler to the goods shed as a favor. The passenger train pulled in at 12:02 and the ticket boy took the tablet from the driver. The station master came back from the goods shed and asked the ticket boy whether the express train would run as planned. The ticket boy told him about the signalman's phone call to Moat Lane about the express train. Since the ticket boy had a speech impediment, the station master did not understand him correctly and understood from the words that the express train had been delayed and the intersection had been moved to Newtown. Instead of checking his acceptance, he took the ticket boy's tablet - believing it was the one for the section to Newtown - and instructed him to tell the signalman that he should provide the exit for the passenger train. Then he handed the tablet to the driver. Nor did he notice that it was the same tablet that he had given the ticket boy shortly before and put it on its side without checking it, assuming that he was holding the driving license to Newtown in his hand. The signalman concluded from the message he had received from the ticket boy on behalf of the station master that the intersection with the express train had now been moved to Newtown and - without checking his acceptance - set the route for the passenger train, which set off immediately.

The baggage boy, who had taken his time on the way to the western signal box, now tried to open the entrance for the express train that he himself had accepted. He didn't succeed - the levers were blocked because the signalman in the eastern signal box had anticipated him by setting the exit road. The baggage boy then went to the station master to tell him that the driveway could not be made. The station master checked the display of the block apparatus and after noticing the error with the tablet, he finally recognized the seriousness of the situation and called Newtown to hold the express train back, but it was too late.

The train driver of the express train saw the smoke trail of the oncoming passenger train 2 km before Abermule, immediately gave a warning signal and was able to reduce the speed of the 300 meters from 80 km / h to 50 km / h by emergency braking. He and the stoker managed to jump off just before the collision, so that they survived the accident with injuries.

The passenger locomotive was knocked over and destroyed by the express train locomotive, the locomotive personnel of the passenger train, who had neither noticed the warning signal nor the oncoming train, died immediately. The first three passenger cars of the express train were smashed. Among the 12 dead were the train driver and director of Cambrian Railways, Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest. The other cars on the express train and all cars on the passenger train stayed on the track. About 20 injured were taken to the hospital in Newtown, and three travelers died there from serious injuries.

The seriously injured train driver of the express train had the correct assumption as to the cause of the accident and had the stoker search the rubble for the tablet of the passenger train in order to relieve himself and his stoker. He was actually able to secure the tablet for the Montgomery - Abermule section (i.e. the wrong one). With this tablet, the Abermule-Montgomery apparatus could later be unlocked in Abermule under witnesses, so that the cause of the accident was established. The rubble was so wedged together that it took 50 hours to clear the route.

Judicial aftermath and long-term consequences

As is customary in such cases, an expert from the Board of Trade examined the course of the accident. Of the railway workers who caused the disaster through negligence and a lack of communication, only the station master and the signalman were charged. There was no conviction - the railway workers got away with a reprimand, probably also because the railway company was criticized in the investigation report for various organizational deficiencies.

Although there had been far worse railway accidents in Great Britain, this accident became a prime example of how well-established and widespread technical safety systems such as the Electric Tablet System become ineffective if the responsible railway workers carry out their duties carelessly and uncoordinated. The accident served as a reminder for the training of the following generations of railway workers, so that the circumstances and the course of the accident are still present today.

Some railway companies put a sign on the Tyer machines that read "Remember Abermule", others went further and upgraded the Electric Tablet System or replaced it with other systems over time.

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Movie

NN: Abermule Crash . Great Britain 1921. Silent film / news article. 3 minutes. Available at: British Film Institute .

Web links

Individual evidence

^ John Huntley: Railways in the Cinema . London 1969, p. 113.

[1] John Huntley: Railways in the Cinema . London 1969, p. 113.