Penshurst Railway Accident

In the Penshurst railway accident on January 20, 1846, a railway bridge between Penshurst and Tonbridge , Kent , Great Britain , collapsed under a train passing over it. The engine driver died. This is the oldest known railway accident caused by a bridge collapse .

Starting position

The railway line , then under the administration of the South Eastern Railway (SER), runs between Tonbridge and Penshurst on a wooden bridge over a tributary of the River Medway . On the night of January 20, 1846, a freight train was on its way to London . It was raining heavily.

the accident

The rain made the Medway swell so badly that it tore away part of the bridge. The freight train drove into the gap. Its locomotive , its tender and the first freight cars crashed. The stoker , who was not seriously injured, managed to recover the engine driver, who died shortly afterwards.

See also

• List of rail accidents in the UK

literature

• NN: Fearful and Fatal Accident on the South Eastern Railway . In: The Times, Jan. 21, 1846, p. 5.
• Lionel Thomas Caswell Rolt : Red for Danger . Edition: London 1978. ISBN 0-330-25555-X

Web links

• Accident at Tonbridge in the Railways Archive .

Remarks

1. ↑ The railway company merged on January 1, 1899 and went on in the South Eastern and Chatham Railway .
2. ↑ In the literature, the neighboring town of Tunbridge is always mentioned at this point (Rolt: Red for Danger , p. 92). From there, however, there is no railway line to Penshurst. In contrast, the railway line between Tonbridge and Penshurst crosses the Medway. Tonbridge is also listed as the scene of the accident in the Railways Archive .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolt: Red for Danger , p. 92.
2. ^ Rolt: Red for Danger , p. 92.

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 30.2 ″  N , 0 ° 14 ′ 25.9 ″  E