The Bourne End rail crash occurred on 30 September 1945 when a sleeper train from

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city rail ...

derailed, killing 43. The cause was driver error, possibly compounded by ambiguous signalling regulations.

Overview

The train was the 15-coach overnight

express hauled by

LMS Royal Scot Class The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Royal Scot Class is a class of 4-6-0 express passenger locomotive introduced in 1927. Originally having parallel boilers, all members were later rebuilt with tapered type 2A boilers, and were in ef ...

4-6-0 No 6157 ''The Royal Artilleryman''.''British Rail Disasters'' publ.

Ian Allan Publishing Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. It was founded by Ian Allan. In 1942 Ian Allan, then working in the public relations department for the Southern Railway at Waterloo st ...

, 1996 Because of engineering work in

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

tunnel, it was scheduled to divert from the fast to the slow lines at Bourne End, near

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

. However, the driver failed to slow the train down in response to cautionary signals on the approach to the diversion, and it entered a turnout at nearly . The engine and the first six carriages overturned and fell down an embankment into a field; only the last three coaches remained on the rails. The morning was fine and sunny, and the driver who was highly experienced with a particular reputation for being conscientious had read the notice about the diversion before leaving Crewe, although he may not have appreciated its significance. He had worked 26 days consecutively due to post-war staff shortages and it was possible that he had either experienced micro-sleep momentarily or gone into "autopilot" through fatigue. Although the

Automatic Warning System The Automatic Warning System (AWS) was introduced in the 1950s in the United Kingdom to provide a train driver with an audible warning and visual reminder that they were approaching a distant signal at caution. Its operation was later extended t ...

had not yet been fitted to this line, it is probable that it could have prevented the accident. Advance warning of the turnout was provided by a colour light

distant signal The application of railway signals on a rail layout is determined by various factors, principally the location of points of potential conflict, as well as the speed and frequency of trains and the movements they require to make. Non-provisi ...

showing double yellow, an outer home signal showing green, and two 'splitting' semaphore inner homes side by side showing which route was set. The double yellow aspect could have an important extra meaning under Rule 35b(ii);

"In some cases colour light signals will exhibit two yellow lights. This indication means - Pass next signal at restricted speed, and if applicable to a junction may denote that the points are set for a diverging route over which the speed restriction shown in the appendix applies."

The inspector pointed out that this arrangement was ambiguous and evidently did not alert the driver to the approaching low speed turnout, but it was unclear why he failed to notice the diverging route indication of the splitting inner homes. Low sun shining directly in his face would have made observation tiring, but the signals were still clearly visible. The alarm was raised by a pilot who had just taken off from Bovingdon Aerodrome and who had observed the accident during takeoff and notified the railway authorities via the Bovingdon Control tower. Airfield staff also helped significantly with assistance after the crash (Hamilton, 1967). Forty-three people were killed, making it Britain's joint seventh worst rail disaster in terms of death toll.

Similar accidents

* – Spuyten Duyvil derailment – fatigued driver's momentary inattention led to overspeed through a curve * –

Goswick rail crash The Goswick rail crash occurred on 26 October 1947 near the village of Goswick, Northumberland, England. The '' Flying Scotsman'' express from Edinburgh Waverley to London King's Cross failed to slow down for a diversion and derailed. Twenty- ...

- overspeed through turnout * –

Milton rail crash The Milton rail crash was a crash in 1955, at Milton, Berkshire (now part of Oxfordshire). A passenger train took a crossover too fast and derailed. Eleven were killed, and 157 were injured. Overview The crash occurred at about 13:15 on Sun ...

- overspeed through turnout * – Laverton accident - overspeed through turnout * –

Jokela rail crash The Jokela rail accident occurred on 21 April 1996, at 07:08 local time (04:08 UTC) in Tuusula, Finland, approximately north of Helsinki. Four people were killed and 75 were injured when express train P82 from Oulu, bound for Helsinki, derail ...

- overspeed through turnout * –

Jyväskylä rail crash Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

- overspeed through turnout * – Brühl train disaster - overspeed through turnout * – Waterfall rail accident - overspeed through sharp curve * –

Amagasaki derailment The 2005 JR occurred in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, on 25 April 2005 at 09:19 local time (00:19 UTC), just after the local rush hour. It occurred when a seven-car commuter train came off the tracks on West Japan Railway Company's (J ...

- overspeed through sharp curve

References

Sources

* *
Railways Archive account, including official Accident Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourne End Rail Crash Railway accidents and incidents in Hertfordshire History of Hertfordshire Railway accidents in 1945 1945 in England Accidents and incidents involving London, Midland and Scottish Railway Dacorum Hemel Hempstead 20th century in Hertfordshire Derailments in England 1945 disasters in the United Kingdom September 1945 events in the United Kingdom Rail accidents caused by a driver's error

Overview

Similar accidents

See also

References

Sources