Darlington Railway Accident (1928)
In the Darlington rail accident on June 27, 1928, a special train collided with a shunting train at Bank Top station in Darlington . 25 people died.
Starting position
A stoker maneuvered a cargo train in the station. He had the appropriate authorization for this. However, he lacked local knowledge in the train station.
A special train from Scarborough to Newcastle upon Tyne was allowed to travel on a through track at the station . Numerous women of the Mothers' Union from the Durham area were on the way back from a trip to Hetton-le-Hole on this train.
the accident
In the dark around 10 p.m. the stoker ran over a signal that called for a “stop” and that was supposed to secure the entrance of the track on which he was shunting into the through track. Presumably he confused two signals. A shunter traveling along noticed the driving error and tried to draw the stoker's attention to it by applying the brakes on the car on which he was traveling. But that went unnoticed by the moving stoker. The engine driver of the special train only became aware of the dangerous situation very late and could hardly reduce the speed of his train in the remaining seconds. The special train hit the shunting unit at around 70 km / h.
consequences
25 people died and 48 were also injured. The locomotive of the general cargo train was pushed back, several of the general cargo wagons derailed . The locomotive of the special train tipped out of the track and the next three cars were badly damaged: The second and third cars pushed into one another. The investigation report criticized the fact that the crossing of the signal indicating “Halt” was not safeguarded by an automatic train control , which would have triggered an emergency brake .
See also
literature
- JAB Hamilton: British Railway Accidents of the 20th Century . George Allen and Unwin / Javelin Books 1967. ISBN 0-7137-1973-7 . ND 1987 under the title: Disaster down the Line .
- John Wallace Pringle: Report on the Accident at Darlington on 27th June 1928 (pdf).
- Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .