The Thorpe rail accident occurred on 10 September 1874, when two trains were involved in a head-on collision at

Thorpe St Andrew Thorpe St Andrew is a town and civil parish in the Broadland district of Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Yare, two miles east of the centre of Norwich, and is outside the boundary of the city. The civil parish has an area of and ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. The accident occurred on what was then a single-track rail line between

Norwich railway station Norwich railway station (formerly Norwich Thorpe) is the northern terminus of the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the city of Norwich, Norfolk. It is down the main line (measured via Ipswich) from London Liverpool St ...

and . The two trains involved were the 20:40 mail from Yarmouth and the 17:00 express from London to Yarmouth. The latter had left Norwich Thorpe at 21:30 and would normally have had a clear run on its way to Yarmouth, since the mail train should have been held on a loop line at Brundall to allow the express to pass. On this occasion trains were running late. In such circumstances, when the timetable was upset, drivers had to have written authority to proceed further. Due to a series of errors (primarily, the telegraph clerk sending the authorization message before it had been signed by the appropriate official), both drivers received their authority, and anxious to make up for lost time, set off at speed along the single track. The accident, when it occurred around 21:45, resulted in both locomotives rearing into the air, and carriages reduced to wreckage. Both drivers and firemen were killed, as were 17 passengers with 4 later dying from their injuries.''Derail: Why Trains Crash'' by Nicholas Faith, page 44, publ 2000 by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

books, . 73 passengers and two railway guards were seriously injured. John Prior and James Light Rosary Cemetery Norwich

Prompted by the accident, engineer Edward Tyer developed the tablet system in which a token is given to the train driver; this must be slotted into an electric interlocking device at the other end of the single-track section before another train is allowed to pass.

Similar accidents

The Canoe River train crash in Canada in 1950 also involved two trains, controlled by telegraphed orders, authorized to enter the same single-track section in opposite directions.

References

External links

Illustrated London News reportHistory feature on the disaster
by BBC Radio Norfolk
Broadland Memories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe Rail Accident Railway accidents and incidents in Norfolk History of Norfolk Railway accidents in 1874 1874 in England Train collisions in England Norwich Transport in Norwich 19th century in Norfolk 1874 disasters in the United Kingdom