The Tamworth rail crash was an accident that happened at

Tamworth railway station Tamworth is a split-level railway station which serves the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. It is an interchange between two main lines; the Cross Country Route and the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line (WCML). It has ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, on 14 September

1870 Events January–March * January 1 ** The first edition of ''The Northern Echo'' newspaper is published in Priestgate, Darlington, England. ** Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed. * January 3 – Construction of the Broo ...

. It was caused when a signalman's error accidentally diverted the

Irish Mail The ''Irish Mail'' was a named train in the United Kingdom that operated from London Euston via the West Coast and North Wales Coast lines to Holyhead from 1848 until 2002 connecting with ferry services to Dublin. History The first ''Iris ...

express onto a dead end siding, where part of the train crashed through the buffers and into the

River Anker The River Anker is a river in England that flows through the centre of Nuneaton. It is a major tributary of the River Tame, which it joins in Tamworth. The name of the river derives from an old British term for ''winding river''. From source t ...

. Three people were killed, and thirteen injured.

Setting

At Tamworth low level station in 1870, there were two running lines through the station, with two platform loops diverging at each side, serving each platform. At the end of the up (London bound) platform loop was a dead-end

siding Siding may refer to: * Siding (construction), the outer covering or cladding of a house * Siding (rail) A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch l ...

leading to a pumphouse by the River Anker with a small reservoir alongside it. The

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 ...

exiting the up platform loop onto the running line were interlocked with those into the siding, meaning that when the points were set to allow trains through on the running line, the points would also be automatically set to divert any trains running forward on the loop into the siding, to prevent them from accidentally running onto the running line. There were two

signalbox On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetabl ...

es at the north and south ends of the station, each controlling the points and signals from either direction.

The accident

On 14 September, the Irish Mail had been delayed by the late running of the steamer at

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...

, and it was thirteen minutes late by the time it approached Tamworth. The signalman in the south signalbox was expecting the Mail, and had correctly set his points to allow it through on the running line, which also set the points on the loop into the siding. The signalman in the north signalbox however became confused after his watch had stopped, and was expecting a goods train, and set his points into the loop. At around 4:09 am the Mail approached Tamworth at around 50 mph (85 kmh), the driver saw that the signal was set for the loop and applied the emergency brakes, but could not stop before being diverted onto the platform loop and then into the siding. The train had slowed to about 15 mph when it hit the

buffer stop A buffer stop, bumper, bumping post, bumper block or stopblock (US), is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a physical section of track. The design of the buffer stop is dependent, in part, on the kind of couplings ...

at the end of the siding. The locomotive went through the buffers and crashed into the River Anker. A coach and a postal van overturned into an adjacent small reservoir. The driver, Samuel Taylor, and fireman, William Davis, on the engine, and one passenger, Rev. Father Healy, were killed. Thirteen other people were injured, including ten passengers, two postal staff, and a guard who was seriously injured.

Report

The accident report, completed by Henry Tyler, criticised the poor

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junction (rail), junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and Track (rail transpor ...

and signalling arrangements at the station, specifically the lack of interlocking between the north and south signalboxes to prevent an accident of this type from occurring. It also criticised the lack of sufficient warning to the engine driver that the points were set the wrong way, and also the lack of information about train movements;

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

equipment had been installed at both signalboxes at the time of the accident, but was not in use. The report also noted that the accident would have been considerably worse had the Mail not been fitted with

continuous brakes A railway brake is a type of brake used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration (downhill) or to keep them immobile when parked. While the basic principle is similar to that on road vehicle usage, operational f ...

, and noted that it might have stopped short of the buffers had the rails not been greasy. John R. Raynes wrote in 1921 that "it transpired that the poor signalman had been on duty 68 hours consecutively!". This is not supported by the figures given in Tyler's official report.

References

* Rolt, L.C.T, ''Red For Danger'', 1986, Pan Books, {{DEFAULTSORT:Tamworth Rail Crash Railway accidents and incidents in Staffordshire Railway accidents in 1870 1870 in England Accidents and incidents involving London and North Western Railway 19th century in Staffordshire Tamworth, Staffordshire 1870 disasters in the United Kingdom