The 1944 Ilford rail crash occurred on 16 January 1944 when, in darkness and dense fog, an express passenger train

passed a signal at danger A signal passed at danger (SPAD), known in the United States as a stop signal overrun and in Canada as passing a stop signal, is an event on a railway where a train passes a stop signal without authority. In the United States and Canada, this ...

and collided with another passenger train that was stopped at

Ilford railway station Ilford railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line serving the town of Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge, east London. It is down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between and . Its three-letter station co ...

in Essex, England. The collision killed nine people, including three

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

personnel and

Frank Heilgers Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Frederick Alexander Heilgers (25 June 1892 – 16 January 1944) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their ele ...

, the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Bury St. Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A ...

. Thirty-eight people were injured.

Collision

At approximately 19:20 on 16 January 1944, in dense fog and wartime conditions, the 14:38 express train from

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

was stopped at Ilford en route to

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

. Due to poor visibility, the driver had not seen several caution signals and subsequently stopped past a signal at danger. The driver walked to the

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

and after a short wait was given a "line clear" by the signalman. As the driver returned to his train the signalman received a telephone call from a colleague in the adjacent box reporting that the following train, the 14:40 express from Norwich Thorpe had also passed his signals at danger. The Ilford station inspector, who had arrived at the signal box to find out why the Yarmouth express had stopped, was sent to place detonators at the rear of the train, however, before he was able to take any action the Norwich train ran into the rear of the Yarmouth service at a speed of . The Yarmouth train comprised a

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...

steam locomotive hauling nine coaches and a two-coach articulated set. The Norwich service was made up of a 4-6-0 locomotive, an LNER B17 No. 2868 Bradford City, hauling ten coaches and a two-coach articulated set. Both services were busy with passengers. There were nine fatalities as a consequence of the collision, including

, the

for

. Twenty-eight people were hospitalized and ten others suffered shock or minor injuries.

Aftermath

First aid was available immediately as an American doctor and nurse had been travelling on the train; also a member of staff had been ambulance-trained. Ilford civil defence personnel arrived at 19:36 and ambulances and the civil rescue squad followed at around 19:50. A local U.S. Army depot sent a medical detachment. Hampered by a lack of light and the fog, the last of the casualties were only recovered by 21:20. The collision blocked the two through lines to and from London until 14:30 the next day, but the two local lines were not affected and a crossover facility meant the impact on rail traffic was minimal.

References

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Bibliography

* {{coord , 51, 33, 31, N, 0, 4, 5, E, type:event_region:GB-RDB, display=title Railway accidents and incidents in Essex Railway accidents in 1944 Railway accidents involving fog 1940s in Essex

Rail crash A train wreck, train collision, train accident or train crash is a type of disaster involving one or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track; or an acci ...

Railway accidents and incidents in London Railway accidents involving a signal passed at danger Accidents and incidents involving London and North Eastern Railway 1944 disasters in the United Kingdom January 1944 events Train collisions in England Rail accidents caused by a driver's error

Collision

Aftermath

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography