A disaster on the British rail network (

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

) occurred on 21 June 1870 when two trains collided at

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, England, killing 18 passengers and injuring 40 others. The investigation found that an axle had broken on the goods train, and the excursion train collided with the debris on the track.

Investigation

The crash was examined by Captain Henry Tyler of the

Railway Inspectorate Established in 1840, His Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) is the organisation responsible for overseeing safety on Britain's railways and tramways. It was previously a separate non-departmental public body, but from 1990 to April 2006 it ...

, and he was able to pinpoint the disaster in a broken axle on one of the goods wagons of the first train. The engine driver stopped his train when he discovered that several rear wagons had suddenly derailed, one of which blocked the adjacent line. He then saw the second train approaching at speed on the next line, and tried to warn him, but to no avail. The passenger train collided with the wagon across the line, the fatalities occurring in several of the lead carriages. The broken axle was examined by Tyler, and he found that it had cracked from the edge into the centre in a progressive way. The age and history of the axle were unknown, despite Tyler's own attempts to encourage railway companies to keep records of axles and their mileage.

Axle Fractures

The sudden failure of vehicle axles bedevilled the railways from their very beginning, a notorious example being the terrible

Versailles train crash On 8 May 1842, a train crashed in the cutting between Gare de Meudon, Meudon and Bellevue Station (France), Bellevue stations on the railway between Versailles (city), Versailles and Paris, France. The train was travelling to Paris when it der ...

of 1842, when almost 100 passengers were killed. They continued to fail for many years on all railways, causing yet more disastrous accidents. Another derailment had occurred the previous year of 1869, for example, in the Dalton Junction rail crash. Fatigue was the basic cause of the problem, but the hairline cracks characteristic of

fatigue Fatigue describes a state of tiredness that does not resolve with rest or sleep. In general usage, fatigue is synonymous with extreme tiredness or exhaustion that normally follows prolonged physical or mental activity. When it does not resolve ...

are very difficult to detect, and were frequently missed, until they became critical. Some of the first systematic studies of the problem were undertaken by

William John Macquorn Rankine William John Macquorn Rankine (; 5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish mechanical engineer who also contributed to civil engineering, physics and mathematics. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson ( ...

, and later by

August Wöhler August Wöhler (22 June 1819 – 21 March 1914) was a German railway engineer, best remembered for his systematic investigations of metal fatigue. Life Born in the town of Soltau, Hanover, the son of local teacher Georg Heinrich Wöhler, he showe ...

, who showed how fatigue cracks are started (as surface defects) and grow with each loading.

References

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External links

1 picture of crash from Illustrated London News
{{coord, 53.0725, -0.7929, type:event_region:GB-NTT, display=title Railway accidents and incidents in Nottinghamshire History of Nottinghamshire 1870 disasters in the United Kingdom Railway accidents in 1870 1870 in England 19th century in Nottinghamshire