The Warrington rail crash occurred at Walton Junction just south of the town of

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

in Lancashire on 29 June 1867. The collision involved a passenger train running into the back of a coal train. Eight people were killed and 33 injured. The accident resulted in changes being made to the management of

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

and

signals 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'' ...

Location

left, A Railway Clearing House Junction Diagram showing the layout of Walton Junction in 1901 In 1867 Walton Junction was located about south of Warrington Bank Quay station just beyond Walton Bridge over the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

. The junction was where the

Birkenhead Railway The Birkenhead Railway was a railway company in North West England. It was incorporated as the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway (BL&CJR) in 1846 to build a line connecting the port of Birkenhead and the city of Chester with ...

mainline diverged from the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

. However, in less than 30 years after the accident the junction was made obsolete with the construction of the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

. In the 1890s a single four-track bridge was built to carry the lines of both the LNWR and the Birkenhead Junction Railway (co-owned by the LNWR and Great Western Railways) over the waterway. The Birkenhead Railway lines were consolidated into the LNWR to avoid the unnecessary cost of building separate bridges. As the new tracks ran to the north of the original -to-

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

mainline on which the accident happened, the old Walton Junction ceased to have through trains and became part of a branch to a

marshalling yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ya ...

Accident

The 10:23

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. A branch of the West Coast M ...

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 railw ...

service, which was running 10 minutes late, left Warrington Bank Quay station at 11:35 for . On approach to Walton Junction, the driver saw that a coal train ahead was being shunted onto the line, but did not reduce speed because he thought that the line would be clear. However, the points were not switched back to the Crewe line, causing the London-bound passenger service to plough into the rear of the coal train. Five people were killed at the scene. Three others died later of their injuries. A further 33 were injured. The coroner gave the following verdict: "We are unanimously of opinion that the deceased came to their deaths by neglect of duty on the part of John Rowson,

pointsman A switchman (North America) or pointsman (British Isles) is a rail transport worker whose original job was to operate various railway switches or points on a railroad. It also refers to a person who assists in moving cars in a railway yard or ...

, and at the same time we wish to recommend to the railway company the adoption of a new system of signalling and points at Walton Junction." Rowson was later charged with manslaughter in July 1867.

Legacy

The

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

enquiry recommended that the British railway network should adopt a system whereby points were interlocked with signals.http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_WaltonJunction1867.pdf Official Accident report This ensures that a train can only be signalled into a section when the correct route has been set for it.

References

Sources

Official Accident report
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The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' 1867 : **1 July page 10 "Dreadful Railway Accident" **2 July page 12 "The Accident near Warrington" **6 July page 14 "The Fatal Railway Collision at Warrington" **10 July page 5 "The Fatal Railway Collision near Warrington" {{Railway accidents in the United Kingdom, 1815–1899, state=collapsed Railway accidents and incidents in Cheshire Railway accidents in 1867 Train collisions in England 1867 in England History of Warrington Transport in Warrington London and North Western Railway 19th century in Cheshire June 1867 events 1867 disasters in the United Kingdom