Just west of

Wennington railway station Wennington is a railway station on the Bentham Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated east of Lancaster, serves the village of Wennington in Lancashire. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains. History ...

lies Wennington junction where the

Furness and Midland Joint Railway The Furness and Midland Joint Railway was a joint railway in England owned by the Furness Railway and the Midland Railway. Construction was agreed in 1862 for a line from Carnforth, on the Furness system, to Wennington, on the Midland Railway ...

leaves the Leeds to Morecambe section of the

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 ...

. On 11 August 1880 the 12:15

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

to Lancaster train completely derailed at the junction points then continued for before striking the

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

of a bridge. The junction had no

super-elevation The cant of a railway track or camber of a road (also referred to as superelevation, cross slope or cross fall) is the rate of change in elevation (height) between the two rails or edges. This is normally greater where the railway or road is curve ...

as continuous crossing timbers were in use thus reducing the safe speed, and the

were advised to correct this. But the enquiry also found the braking power of the train to be grossly inadequate; the train should have been able to stop before reaching the bridge. Only the locomotive was fitted with a

Westinghouse brake A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The W ...

and there was only one

brake van Brake van and guard's van are terms used mainly in the UK, Ireland, Australia and India for a railway vehicle equipped with a hand brake which can be applied by the guard. The equivalent North American term is caboose, but a British brake van ...

on the train. Although the Midland Railway was fitting

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 ...

to its passenger trains the enquiry pointed out that such a recommendation had been made twenty years previously and the actions had still not been completed.

Sources

External links

Board of Trade report transcription
{{Railway accidents in the United Kingdom, 1815–1899, state=collapsed Railway accidents and incidents in Lancashire Railway accidents in 1880 1880 in England Accidents and incidents involving Midland Railway 1880s in Lancashire Derailments in England Transport in the City of Lancaster August 1880 events 1880 disasters in the United Kingdom