Witham railway station Witham railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, serving the town of Witham, Essex. It is about half a mile (1 km) to the north of the town centre and is down the line from London Liverpool Street. O ...

was the scene of a serious accident on Friday, 1 September 1905.

Derailment

All 14 coaches of the 09:27

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

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Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

express derailed whilst travelling through the station at speed. Ten passengers and a luggage porter were killed when several of the carriages somersaulted on to the platforms causing considerable damage to the rolling stock and the station. Seventy-one passengers were seriously injured. This remains to this day the worst single loss of life in a railway accident in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Enquiry

The subsequent enquiry found that the derailment occurred at a trailing

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which was being worked on by three

platelayer A platelayer (British English), fettler (British English – UK, Australia, NZ) or trackman (American English) is a railway employee who inspects and maintains the permanent way of a railway, usually under the charge of a foreman called (in UK ...

s. The three maintained they had just been clearing and repacking the ballast which would not have impaired the stability of the track; and the only contributing cause was the high speed of the train.

Witness

However six weeks later a further witness was found, a shunter who was waiting for the express to pass before reporting to the signal box, who stated he saw that 'a key was out of the rail' and saw the rail jump up as the locomotives passed the crossover and the leading coach plough into the ballast. When the enquiry was reopened the three platelayers stuck to their original story. But when the driver and fireman of the express were recalled they recounted that as their train approached Witham the three men were working furiously on the track ahead; so furiously that the driver feared they would not move out of the way in time; and that all three had their eyes riveted to a certain point of the track. The guard had also previously stated that his van seemed to have jolted and hit something hard as it had passed over the crossing and had then derailed.

Final conclusions

The reconvened enquiry therefore found that the platelayers had rashly loosened the rail fastening and had been unable to make good their mistake in time.

References

Sources

* {{coord, 51.8047, N, 0.63736, E, type:event_region:GB, display=title Railway accidents and incidents in Essex Railway accidents in 1905 1905 in England Accidents and incidents involving Great Eastern Railway 1900s in Essex Derailments in England 1905 disasters in the United Kingdom September 1905 events Witham