FOR over 90 years, the Railway Observer has recorded the chronology of the railways of Britain, and to a lesser extent of those abroad, through the eyes of its membership - covering the minutiae of day-to-day running and allocations, through to headlinemaking events.
Unfortunately among these events are the accidents, minor and major, that have occurred from the earliest days of the passenger-carrying railway when on September 15, 1830 Stephenson's Rocket fatally injured William Huskisson MP on the opening day of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Railway accidents more often than not are the result of human error, a driver or fireman missing a signal, a signalman momentarily forgetting where a train is in his section of line, a guard not ensuring sufficient brakes are applied on a loose-coupled freight, or a permanent way fault not detected by a linesman.
The resulting carnage can be catastrophic, as witnessed at Harrow & Wealdstone on the foggy morning of October 8, 1952 when three passenger trains were involved causing 112 fatalities and 340 serious injuries. 36 years later on December 12, 1988 three trains again collided in the cutting outside Clapham Junction station when 35 people lost their lives and another 484 were injured.
Browsing through the 1948 volume of the RO, the reader will come across a description of the derailment ofThompson A2/1 4 No. 60508 DukeofRothesaywhen working the 7.50pm Edinburgh to King's Cross from Grantham on Saturday, July 17.