The Goswick rail crash occurred on 26 October 1947 near the village of

Goswick Goswick () is a hamlet in Northumberland, England, situated approximately south-east of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, between the A1 and the North Sea coast. History Goswick station Goswick station was opened in November 1870 when it was known ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

, England. The '' Flying Scotsman'' express from

Edinburgh Waverley Edinburgh Waverley railway station (also known simply as Waverley; gd, Waverley Dhùn Èideann) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. It is the north ...

to London King's Cross failed to slow down for a diversion and derailed. Twenty-eight people were killed, including the talented Scottish biochemist,

John Masson Gulland John Masson Gulland (14 October 1898 – 26 October 1947) was a Scottish chemist and biochemist. His main work was on nucleic acids, morphine and aporphine alkaloids. His work at University College Nottingham on electrometric titration was im ...

. It was the last major accident to occur on British railways before their nationalisation on 1 January 1948.

Overview

The train was scheduled to divert from the fast line to a goods loop at

, between

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census reco ...

and

Morpeth Morpeth may refer to: *Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia ** Electoral district of Morpeth, a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales * Morpeth, Ontario, Canada * Morpeth, Northumberland, England, UK ** Morpeth (UK ...

, because of engineering work. This required a significant reduction in speed, but the driver failed to react to a cautionary signal approaching the diversion and the train entered a turnout at approximately . The engine, A3 Class No. 66 "Merry Hampton", and most of the train derailed and overturned. The driver, fireman and guard had all failed to read the notice of the diversion posted at Haymarket depot. The driver, who was held principally at fault, had also allowed an unauthorised passenger on to the footplate who may have distracted his attention. He claimed to have missed the distant

signal 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' ...

due to smoke from the engine obscuring his view. The home signal had been cleared to allow the train to draw up slowly to the points, but the

signalman A signalman is a person who historically made signals using flags and light. In modern times, the role of signalmen has evolved and now usually uses electronic communication equipment. Signalmen usually work in rail transport networks, armed for ...

was exonerated because he could not judge the speed of the train until it was too late. A similar accident occurred two years earlier at Bourne End, Hertfordshire.

Similar accidents

Bourne End rail crash The Bourne End rail crash occurred on 30 September 1945 when a sleeper train from Perth to London Euston derailed, killing 43. The cause was driver error, possibly compounded by ambiguous signalling regulations. Overview The train was the 15- ...

- 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 ...

- Finland *

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 ...

- England

References

* *
Railways Archive account, including official Accident Report

External links

British Pathe newsreel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goswick Rail Crash Railway accidents and incidents in Northumberland Railway accidents in 1947 1947 in England History of Northumberland 20th century in Northumberland Derailments in England Accidents and incidents involving London and North Eastern Railway 1947 disasters in the United Kingdom October 1947 events in the United Kingdom Rail accidents caused by a driver's error

Overview

Similar accidents

See also

References

External links