England – Whickham, County Durham. Two boys die when they are run over by a wagon on a wooden coal wagonway. While such tramway accidents are not generally listed as rail accidents (note the lack of accidents listed for the next 163 years) this is sometimes cited as the earliest-known railway accident.[1]
February – United Kingdom – A 13-year-old boy named Jeff Bruce is killed whilst running alongside the Middleton Railway tracks. The Leeds Mercury reports that this would "operate as a warning to others".[2]
28 February – United Kingdom – The driver is killed on the Middleton Railway in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire when Salamanca's boiler explodes, as a result of the force of the explosion, he was "carried, with great violence, into an adjoining field the distance of one hundred yards."[3] "This was the result of the driver tampering with the safety valves."
5 December – United Kingdom – David Brook, a carpenter, is walking home from Leeds, Yorkshire along the Middleton Railway in a sleet storm when he is run over, with fatal results, by the steam engine of a coal train.[4]
United Kingdom – An unnamed woman from Eaglescliffe, County Durham, England (believed to have been a blind beggar woman) is "killed by the steam machine on the railway". This is said to be the first case of a woman being killed in a railway collision.[5]
July 1 – United Kingdom – The boiler of Stockton and Darlington railway locomotive Locomotion No. 1 explodes at Aycliffe Lane station, County Durham. One person is killed.[6]
4 September – United Kingdom – "A poor fellow incautiously placed himself in the way of a locomotive engine, which was driving waggons on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in Salford, when the wheel went over one of his legs, which was literally cut off. He was carried to a surgeon's in the neighbourhood, but no effectual aid could be given to him, nor the bleeding staunched, and he died."[7]
8 February – United Kingdom – William Tewburn was a guard on an overnight goods train of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, pulled by the Twin Sisters locomotive which arrived at Liverpool Road, in Manchester at 2 am, where the unfortunate victim got aboard the tender unbeknownst to the engineer, who started moving the locomotive to take on coke and water, one of these short lurching trips caused the benumbed guard to lose his grip, and he fell under first the tender and then the locomotive, virtually cutting him in half.[8]
21 October – United Kingdom – On the Warrington & Newton Railway. Mr. Kitchingman had a garden that backed onto the railway at Dallam-brook. He was on the train with a friend and decided to jump out at his house, but was dragged under the wheels of the following coach, which mangled his leg, which had to be amputated. He later succumbed to his injuries and expired.[10]
1 February – United Kingdom – At Parr Moss, west of Newton-le-Willows on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, an eastbound train is stopped by the bursting of a fire tube in the locomotive. Passengers get off to see what has happened, and some of them stand on the westbound track where the escaping steam blocks them from seeing (or being seen from) a train approaching from Bolton. Four are run over by the westbound train, three of them killed instantly and the fourth reported as unlikely to survive.[11]
2 October – United States – A broken axle of a Cincinnati-bound train throws a woman and a child onto the track where they are both dragged and run over. The woman perishes, but the child manages to survive, though seriously injured.[13]
11 October – France – An employee of the line from Saint-Étienne to Lyon falls on a track and is decapitated by a train. The first train accident in France.[14]
11 August – United States – 1837 Suffolk head-on collision - The first head-on collision to result in passenger fatalities occurred on the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad near Suffolk, Virginia, when an eastbound lumber train coming down a grade at speed rounded a sharp curve and smashed into the morning passenger train from Portsmouth, Virginia. The first three of the thirteen stagecoach-style cars were smashed, killing three daughters of the prominent Ely family and injuring dozens of the 200 onboard returning from a steamboat cruise. An engraving depicting the moment of impact was published in Howland's Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in 1840.[15]
October – United Kingdom – A collision involving an experimental engine which Dionysius Lardner is allowed to operate on the Great Western Railway kills a "pupil" of Lardner.[17]
2 February – United Kingdom – Charlotte Carrad was killed by a train heading for Slough on the Great Western Railway, eight months after this section, the first of the GWR, had opened. She was trying to cross the track at Langley to pick turnip tops in a field. She had seen the train, Hurricane, with three carriages, coming at about 18 miles per hour (29 km/h) but hurried down the public footpath to get across the track. She reached the further rail when the engine struck her on the shoulder. Her friend, who was with her, found her in the ditch on the other side of the track. There was a little sign of life, but she died a minute or two later, her neck vertebrae having been dislocated.[18]
7 August – United Kingdom – Howden rail crash, Five passengers are killed when a casting falls from a wagon and derails the carriages of a Hull and Selby Railway passenger train.
September – United Kingdom – An Eastern Counties Railway passenger train is in a rear-end collision with another at Old Ford, Essex. One person is killed.[19]
11 November – United Kingdom – A York and North Midland Railway luggage train is in a rear-end collision with a passenger train at Taylor's Junction, Yorkshire. Two passengers are killed.[21]
6 January – United Kingdom – A collision between two North Midland Railway trains at Barnsley, Yorkshire killed one person. The only passenger to be killed travelling by train in the United Kingdom that year.[24][25]
10 March – Netherlands – During a test drive a locomotive derailed on a incompletely closed railway bridge near Warmond. One person was killed. This was the first railway accident in the Netherlands.[26]
United Kingdom – A locomotive boiler explosion on the Hartlepool Railway kills one person, a member of the public travelling illegally on the footplate.[27]
9 July – United Kingdom – A Clarence Railway engine standing in a branch line of the Stockton and Darlington Railway suddenly began to move down the incline and collided with some waggons of another Clarence engine. Four men were crushed between the carriages and were severely injured. One died at the scene.[citation needed]
23 November – United Kingdom – Elizabeth Coleman, aged eleven years, was killed on the Eastern Counties Railway. The deceased was, it appeared, endeavouring to cross the line at a point near the Roydon station where the Lockroad crosses the line on a level when she was struck by the buffer of a Cambridge train and killed upon the spot. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death."[33]
24 May – United Kingdom – Dee bridge disaster – Five people are killed and nine are injured when the carriages of a Chester-to-Ruabon train falls 50 feet (15 m) into the River Dee following the collapse of a bridge. One of the supporting cast-iron girders had cracked in the centre and given way. The locomotive and tender manage to reach the other side of the bridge, which was engineered by Robert Stephenson. The accident causes his reputation to be questioned. The collapse led to a re-evaluation of the use of cast iron in railway bridges; many bridges have to be demolished or reinforced.
28 June – United Kingdom – A North Union Railway locomotive suffers a boiler explosion, injuring one person.[34]
10 May – United Kingdom – 1848 Shrivenham rail collision – Six passengers are killed, and thirteen are injured at Shrivenham, Berkshire when a Great Western Railway express train runs into two wagons on the line. The horse-box and cattle van had been pushed onto the main line by two porters to free a wagon turntable. Although the locomotive was undamaged, the side of the leading carriage was torn out.[35]
Whitsuntide – United Kingdom – An East Lancashire Railway passenger train is in a rear-end collision with an excursion train. Despite efforts to protect its rear, another excursion train is in a rear-end collision with the passenger train.[36]
2 February – United Kingdom – The firebox of a York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway locomotive collapses whilst the locomotive is hauling a freight train near Darlington, County Durham. Two people are killed.[38]
1 August – United Kingdom – When three Scottish Central Railway excursion trains are scheduled to arrive in rapid succession at Cowlairs, Lanarkshire, the second one stops on a crossover and must reverse to clear it; but although time interval working is in use, no one goes back to protect it and the third train crashes into it, killing five people.[41][42]
United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway excursion train collides with a horsebox that had escaped from a siding at Wootton Bassett Junction, Wiltshire. Following this accident, The Great Western Railway provides trap points and scotch blocks at all sidings exiting on to main lines.[36]
United Kingdom – A Midland Railway train is in a rear-end collision with an excursion train at Woodlesford station, Yorkshire because a signal is lit at night.[41]
21 January – Germany – The 1851 Avenwedde rail accident was the first German rail accident with several fatalities and the worst rail accident at that time point. Three people died.
12 July – United Kingdom – Burnley railway accident – A 35-coach school excursion train from Goole arrives at Burnley on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, where it is far too long for the platform track. The engines are detached and the train left coasting slowly downhill into a long siding. As the station is understaffed, two friends of the staff have been asked to help out. One of them briefly lets go of a set of weighted points, misrouting the train into the dead-end platform track, where it crashes into the buffers before it can be braked. Of 800 people on board, four are killed.[47][48]
29 July – United Kingdom – On the London and North Western Railway, a locomotive is brought into Shrewsbury shed for a minor repair, but the steam is still engaged when the fire is dropped. After the engine is repaired and fired up, it is left unattended for 20 minutes at a shift change. It runs away onto the main line and 14 miles (23 km) later collides with a standing train at Donnington, Shropshire, killing one passenger.[49]
3 August – United Kingdom – The ashpan of the locomotive falls off a Rugby-to-Birmingham train at Hampton on the London and North Western Railway, derailing a van and one coach, which collide with a train on the other track. Two passengers are killed and several injured.[50]
6 January – United States – Franklin Pierce rail accident – A train carrying President-elect Franklin Pierce, his wife Jane and their son Benjamin derailed and toppled off an embankment near Andover, MA. Franklin and Jane suffered minor injuries, but their son Benjamin was killed.[54]
4 March – United States – A train carrying emigrants near Mount Union, Pennsylvania, is rear-ended by a mail train; boilers rupture, scalding seven people to death and having the highest death toll in the United States in that time. The engineer of the mail train was reportedly asleep when the collision occurred.[55]
6 March – United Kingdom – The boiler of a London and North Western Railway locomotive explodes at Longsight, Lancashire. Six people are killed, and the engine shed is severely damaged.[58]
Norwalk River, Connecticut 6 May – United States – Norwalk rail accident – The first major American railroad bridge disaster occurs when a New Haven Railroad engineer neglects to check for an open swing bridge signal. The locomotive, four cars, and part of a fifth car run through the open bridge and plunge into the Norwalk River, Connecticut. Forty-six passengers are crushed to death or drowned, and about 30 others are severely injured.
9 May – United States – A cornfield meet in the New Jersey Meadowlands results in the deaths of two people. One of the engineers was not forewarned about the change in time schedule which resulted in this.[65]
September – United Kingdom – An Eastern Counties Railway freight train comes to a halt near Brandon, Suffolk due to a locomotive failure. The driver of another freight train deliberately ignores a red signal and consequently his train is in a rear-end collision with the first train.[67]
5 October – Ireland – 1853 Straffan rail accident – A Great Southern and Western Railway express passenger train fails south of Straffan, County Kildare due to a broken piston rod on the locomotive. The train is run into by a following freight train due to the failure of the guard to act to protect the line to the rear of the broken-down train. Eighteen people are killed.
United Kingdom – The boiler of a Midland Railway locomotive explodes near Bristol, Gloucestershire whilst the locomotive is hauling a freight train.[68]
24 August – United Kingdom – A South Eastern Railway excursion train is in a rear-end collision with a light engine at Windmill Bridge, Croydon, Surrey. Three passengers are killed.[71]
February-March – United Kingdom – On Monday 12 February 1855 large portions of the South Devon Railway sea wall were washed away. Despite repair work starting promptly four days later more of the sea wall and a long 70-yard (64 m) section of line were also washed away.[73] Passengers were obliged to leave their trains and carry their luggage some distance to join another.[74] A temporary viaduct was constructed by the resident engineer, Mr. Margery, and was in operation within a couple of weeks which allowed the through operation of coaches, pulled by hand and rope, although some nervous passengers still alighted and walked.[75]
29 August – United States – 1855 Camden & Amboy rail accident – A southbound Camden and Amboy Rail Road passenger train, backing up on a single track near Burlington, New Jersey, to make room for a northbound express, hit a horse-drawn carriage. The rearmost passenger car derailed, and the succeeding cars crashed into it, derailed, and plunged into a ditch. All four passenger cars were demolished. Twenty-four people died, and between 65 and 100 were injured.[76]
12 September – United Kingdom – A light engine is dispatched from Reading on the wrong line and is in a head-on collision with a South Eastern Railway passenger train. Four people are killed, and many are injured. [71]
6 May – Panama – 1856 Panama Railroad accident- A train with over 500 passengers derailed near Aspinwall in Panama. Thirty to forty people were killed and 70 to 80 were injured.[78][79][80]
29 May – Germany – The Jupiter locomotive crashed into the Potsdamer Havel during a test run due to a swing bridge that was not closed.[81]
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17 July – United States – Great Train Wreck of 1856 – Two North Pennsylvania Railroad passenger trains are in a head-on collision at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, including a train on an excursion from a Sunday school[83] at St. Michael's Catholic Parish in Philadelphia. Fifty-nine people are killed in the crash and subsequent fire, with over 100 people injured, some of whom consequently die. One of the two trains' conductors commits suicide the same day; the other is indicted for manslaughter but acquitted.
10 August – Netherlands – Schiedam train accident – Two passenger trains collide resulting in three deaths.[84]
Salisbury, 6 October 1856 6 October – United Kingdom – Accident at Salisbury resulted in 2 deaths and 1 injury.[85]
6 May – United Kingdom – A passenger train from Plymouth on the just-opened Cornwall Railway derails just before the Grove Viaduct near St Germans and the engine and two cars plunged toward the water. Three railwaymen are killed.[87]
11 May – United States – A bridge some three miles (5 km) from Utica, New York gave way when two trains, including a New York Central, express bound for Cincinnati, passed over it. Nine passengers died, including some who drowned, and fifty were injured.[88][89]
15 May – United States – A Lafayette & Indianapolis Railroad train accident on a 120-foot (37-metre) bridge over Potato Creek, about 17 miles (27 km) south-east of Lafayette near Colfax, Indiana. The engineer, Jacob Beitinger (Beidinger), the fireman, Patrick Maloney (Moloney), and conductor James W. Irwin were killed.[90][91]
11 August – United Kingdom – A passenger train runs into the buffers ar Ramsgate Town station, Kent. Twenty people are injured.[71]
Round Oak 23 August – United Kingdom – Round Oak rail accident – An Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway passenger train becomes divided following a coupling failure. The rear portion runs away and collides with a following passenger train at Round Oak station, Stourbridge, Worcestershire. Fourteen people are killed. There are 50 serious injuries and 170 minor injuries.
6 September – France – On the Chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain, a 10-car atmospheric railway train is returning by gravity with about 300 festival-goers from Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Le Vésinet, where it will couple to a steam locomotive to continue to Paris. Due to a combination of errors, it runs away and crashes into the locomotive's tender. A crew member and two passengers are killed, and at least 40 people are injured.[92]
28 June – United States – South Bend train wreck – At South Bend, Indiana, the Springbrook Bridge collapses as a Michigan Southern Railroad express passenger train passes over it. The locomotive and two carriages smash into the mudbank 30 feet (9 m) below. Forty-two people are killed and 50 are injured.
20 February – United Kingdom – The tyre of an Eastern Counties Railway locomotive breaks as it hauls a passenger train through Tottenham station. The train is derailed, killing seven people.[93]
16 May – United States – On the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad about thirteen miles (21 km) west of Jacksonville, Florida, a train encountered a drove of cattle which threw the train off track. Lumber, logs trunks and passengers were "heaped up in almost inextricable confusion." Nearly every person on board was more or less injured. Three people were killed in the crash.[citation needed]
16 November – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway mail train overruns signals and crashes into the rear of a cattle train at Atherstone, Warwickshire. Ten people are killed; mostly Irish drovers asleep in the brake van at the rear of the cattle train.[citation needed]
4 July – United Kingdom – As the westbound Irish Mail approaches Easenhall bridge, four miles (6.4 km) past Rugby, at about 35 mph (56 km/h), its 2-2-2 LNWR Bloomer Class locomotive is completely destroyed in an explosion due to badly corroded boiler plates. Luckily no passengers are even injured, but of the railwaymen and postal crew on board, one is killed and three are injured.[95][96]
25 August – United Kingdom – Clayton Tunnel rail crash: A London, Brighton and South Coast Railway excursion train crashes into the rear of another inside the Clayton Tunnel, West Sussex due to a combination of driver's, signalman's and operating errors. Twenty-three people are killed, and 176 are injured in what was then the deadliest railway accident in the United Kingdom.
29 August – United Kingdom – A South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway excursion train returning from Windermere to Darlington derails three miles (5 km) west of Bowes, injuring a number of passengers. The injured driver and fireman are trapped beneath the locomotive for several hours till rescued. The driver died on September 8, 1861, from his injuries.[97]
December – United Kingdom – A London, Chatham and Dover Railway train hauled by locomotive Eclipse is derailed at Teynham, Kent due to the elongation of the gap at a rail joint in cold weather.[94]
19 February – United States – Chunky Creek train wreck: The Hercules on the Southern Rail Road crashes into the Chunky River in Newton County, Mississippi. The train was headed for Vicksburg where Confederate forces were in need of reinforcements. The Hercules derailed on a damaged bridge and fell into the cold, murky depths. At least 40 passengers were killed. Some victims were rescued by soldiers from the 1st Choctaw Battalion who were camped nearby.
28 February – India – An accident on the East Indian Railway results in a bridge collapsing somewhere on the line between Ahmoodpur and Rampur.[99]
15 January – United States – A train crossing the Little Juniata River near Birmingham, Pennsylvania experiences a derailment. The train and proceeding coaches plummet down a ravine. Stoves in the coaches overturn and ignite a fire. While many injuries are reported, miraculously, no one is killed.[100]
5 May – United Kingdom – At Colne on the Midland Railway, a 0-6-0 engine being prepared to work a goods train to Leeds suffers a boiler explosion, killing the driver and badly injuring the fireman. A woman is struck by a fragment in her home 1⁄4 mile (400 m) away.[101]
Immigrant train runs through an open swing bridge near Beloeil, Quebec. 29 June – Canada – St-Hilaire train disaster – An immigrant train fails to stop at a danger signal and attempts to cross an open swing bridge and falls into the Richelieu River at Beloeil, Quebec. Ninety-nine people are killed and 100 are injured. As of 2019[update], this still stands as the rail accident with the largest death toll in Canada.
15 July – United States – Shohola train wreck – An Erie Railroad passenger train carrying Confederate prisoners-of-war is in a head-on collision with a coal train near Shohola Township, Pennsylvania due to a dispatcher's error. Between 60 and 72 people are killed (official toll is 65 killed).
16 August – United States – An Erie Railroad freight train runs into the rear of a passenger train between Turner's Station and Sloatsburg, New York. A third train runs into the wreckage. Seven people are killed.[104]
21 September – United States – A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train runs into the rear of a stopped freight train at Thompsontown, Pennsylvania. The wreckage then catches fire. At least six people are killed and thirteen are injured.[105][106]
12 May – United Kingdom – An accident occurred on the Irish North Western railway near Enniskillen. A goods train left Derry and ran off the rails. The engine driver, J. McCabe, and the stoker, C. Craven, were killed. Some bullocks in a waggon were also killed.'[110]
7 June – United Kingdom – Rednal rail crash – A Great Western Railway excursion train is derailed at Rednal, Shropshire due to excessive speed on track under maintenance. Thirteen people are killed and 30 are injured.
Crash scene after the Staplehurst accident 9 June – United Kingdom – Staplehurst rail crash – A South Eastern Railway boat train is derailed on a bridge over the River Beult at Staplehurst, Kent after track workers misread a timetable and remove a rail. Ten people are killed, and 49 are injured. Author Charles Dickens is amongst the survivors.
30 April – United Kingdom – A South Eastern Railway passenger train collides with some goods wagons at Caterham Junction, Surrey due to a signalman's error. Four people are killed.[111]
10 June – United Kingdom – Welwyn Tunnel rail crash: A Great Northern Railway freight train is stopped in Welwyn North Tunnel due to a burst fire tube. A Midland Railway freight train following it in the same direction crashes into it, and a third freight train going the other way crashes into the wreckage. All three trains are totally destroyed by fire, but the only deaths are two of the crew members.[112]
27 August – United States – A boiler explosion on the Petaluma and Haystack Railroad at Petaluma Station kills the engineer and three others and wrecks the railroad's only locomotive.[113]
19 December – United Kingdom – During the construction of the new Smithfield Market building adjacent to an open-air section of the Metropolitan Railway in London, a girder falls onto a passing train and three passengers are killed. This is the first fatal accident on an underground train.[114]
29 June – United Kingdom – Warrington rail crash – A London and North Western Railway passenger train is in collision with a freight train at Walton Junction, Warrington, Cheshire due to a signalman's error. Eight people are killed and 70 are injured. Lack of interlocking between signals and points is a major contributory factor in the accident.[115]
Bray, County Wicklow 9 August – Ireland – A bridge collapses under a passenger train at Bray, County Wicklow. Four people are killed and twelve are injured.[116]
Angola, New York 18 December – United States – Angola Horror – The Buffalo-bound New York Express of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern derails its last coach, and it plunges off a truss bridge into Big Sister Creek just after passing Angola, New York. The next car is also pulled from the track and rolls down the far embankment. Stoves set both coaches on fire and 49 are killed. The cars were relatively easy to derail because they were "compromise cars" designed to run on slightly different track gauges, a practice soon afterwards prohibited.[117]
20 August – United Kingdom – Abergele rail disaster: A London and North Western Railway freight train is being shunted at Llandulas, Denbighshire. During shunting operations, six wagons run away downhill towards Abergele, where they collide with an express passenger train. Five of the wagons are carrying paraffin, which explodes and sets the wreck of the passenger train on fire. Thirty-three people are killed, the driver of the express is severely burned.
The Cerhovice collision 10 November - Czech Republic - A collision occurs between Cerhovice and Ujezd involving a passenger train and a freight train. 35 passengers die as a result, and 80 more are injured.[121]
3 February – Czech Republic – A passenger train heading to Prague derails near Úvaly sending multiple coaches down an embankment. 10 are injured in the accident and the conductor of the train is the only reported fatality.[122]
23 April – United States – Hollis, New York: A Long Island Rail Road passenger train is derailed by a broken rail. The rail curls into a "snakehead" and rips out the bottom of one of the cars. Six people are killed, and fourteen injured.[123]
14 November – United States – San Leandro, California: An errant switchman and poor visibility due to fog led to a head-on collision between an eastbound passenger train from Oakland, with a sleeper car, on the Western Pacific Railroad and an Alameda-bound Alameda Railroad passenger train. Among the fourteen killed was Judge Alexander W. Baldwin of the U.S. District Court of Nevada.[124]
21 June – United Kingdom – Newark rail crash: The axle of a wagon of a Midland Railway freight train breaks at Newark, Nottinghamshire, derailing the train. The derailed wagons foul an adjacent line. An excursion train collides with the debris. Eighteen people are killed and 40 are injured.
6 December – United Kingdom – A collision between two North Eastern Railway trains at Brockley Whins claims five lives and injures 37 people. The cause is a pointsman's error made possible by the lack of interlocking between points and signals.[126][128]
United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway freight train overruns signals and is in collision with a London and North Western Railway mail train at St. Nicholas Crossing, Carlisle, Cumberland. Five people are killed, many more are injured. The driver of the North Eastern Railway train was intoxicated.[126]
6 February – United States – A freight train on the Hudson River Railroad, carrying both crude and refined oil, suffers a broken axle. Because the crew have not threaded the required rope for communication from caboose to locomotive, the engineer is unaware, and the train keeps moving until it derails at the Wappinger Creek drawbridge, New Hamburg, New York. They and the drawbridge tender try to warn the following Pacific Express passenger train, but they are not in time, and the collision and resulting fire kill 22 people.[131][132]
Bangor, Maine, August 8, 1871 9 August – United States – A bridge collapses under a Maine Central Railroad Company passenger train at Bangor, Maine. One person is killed and 30 are injured.[133]
Site of the Revere, Massachusetts, train wreck, 26 August 1871 26 August – United States – Great Revere train wreck of 1871: A series of dispatching errors allow the Eastern Railroad'sPortland Express to run into the rear of a stalled local train at Revere, Massachusetts. The wreckage catches fire; 29 people are killed and 57 are injured. Several prominent Boston citizens are killed, bringing much national publicity to the accident.
24 December – United States – Two passenger cars of a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train fall off a bridge in Portland, New York due to a "broken flange on the tender". Thirty people are killed and at least eighteen are injured.[134][135]
30 March – United Kingdom – A Great Northern Railway excursion train collides with two carriages at Bourne, Lincolnshire. No one was seriously injured, but the carriages and crossing gates were destroyed.[136]
Scene of the Railroad Disaster at Meadow Brook, Rhode Island, a wood engraving from a sketch by Theodore R. Davis, published in Harper's Weekly, 10 May 1873. The accident occurred on 19 April 1873, at Wood River Junction. 19 April – United States – A passenger train is derailed at Meadow Brook, Rhode Island, near Wood River Junction, due to a bridge being washed away in a dam collapse.[137][138] Nine passengers are killed.[139]
12 August – Italy – A Società per le strade ferrate romane passenger train in service between Rome and Florence derails near the town of Orte (Lazio) after hitting two cattle standing on the tracks. Two people are killed and more than 40 injured.
2 December – United Kingdom – At Menheniot on the Cornwall Railway, a porter-signalman named Pratt instructs a down goods train to proceed by calling out "Right away, Dick" to its guard, Richard Wills. Unfortunately, an up goods train is also at the station and its guard, Richard Scantlebury, thinks the instruction is for him; by the time Pratt realizes this, Scantlebury has already told his driver to start. Their train collides with another down goods before reaching St Germans, injuring several crewmen and killing one.[142][143]
10 September – United Kingdom – Thorpe rail accident – Two Great Eastern Railway passenger trains are in a head-on collision at Thorpe St. Andrew, Norfolk, due to irregular dispatching procedures. Twenty-five people are killed and more than 100 injured. The accident leads directly to the introduction of automatic control systems to manage traffic on single-track railways.
6 July – Chile – A bridge collapses beneath the overnight train between Valparaíso and Santiago in Chile, killing nine people.[144]
28 August – United Kingdom – A passenger train overruns signals and is in a rear-end collision with an excursion train at Kildwick, Yorkshire. Seven people are killed and 39 are injured.[145]
Lagerlunda rail accident, 1875 15 November – Sweden – Lagerlunda rail accident – Unclear signalling leads to a head-on-collision between two passenger trains near Lagerlunda, Östergötland. Nine people are killed.[146]
21 January – United Kingdom – Abbots Ripton rail accident: A Great Northern Railway express passenger train passes a signal jammed in the clear position during a blizzard and is in a rear-end collision with a freight train at Abbots Ripton, Huntingdonshire, and a train in the other direction then collides with the wreckage. Thirteen passengers are killed and 59 people are injured.
14 April – United Kingdom – A Great Northern Railway express train runs into a mail train at Corby, Lincolnshire because signals are jammed in a clear position in a blizzard.[147]
23 December – United Kingdom – A Great Northern Railway express train overruns signals and crashes into a number of wagons at Arlesley Sidings, Bedfordshire. Six people are killed.[149]
Ashtabula Bridge collapse 29 December – United States – Ashtabula River railroad disaster: A bridge collapses under a Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway passenger train at Ashtabula, Ohio. The train falls into the frozen creek 70 feet (21 m) below. A fire is started by the car stoves. Dozens of people are killed, but sources disagree as to how many—perhaps as many as 92. The famous hymn-writer Philip Bliss and his wife are believed to be amongst an estimated 19 to 25 unidentified victims.
11 January – United Kingdom – Great Northern Railway – The Flying Scotsman is in a collision with a freight train at Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, after which a local passenger train collides with the wreckage.
21 May – United States – A Kansas Pacific R.R. Freight train is caught in a bridge washout at Kiowa Creek, Colorado; 3 killed.[154]
31 August – United Kingdom – A London, Chatham and Dover Railway passenger train collides with goods wagons at Sittingbourne, Kent due to errors by a shunter and the two guards of a freight train. Five people are killed.[155]
Lithograph of the La Chapelle train collision by Paul Van Rijssel 17 January – France – A runaway locomotive collides into a passenger train in La Chapelle. One of the passengers is Paul Gachet who survives the wreck with an injury to his liver.[158]
18 (or 25) January – Belgium – Two passengers and the engine driver were killed when the express train from Brussels to Lille and Calais left the line at Bassilly.[159]
22 January – United Kingdom – A heavy goods train from Glasgow was travelling too fast on the Tay Rail Bridge and a number of carriages left the track when the guard applied the brakes.[160] The same bridge would be the scene of a much worse accident less than a year later (see below).
5 (or 12) February – United Kingdom – A cattle train ran into a ballast train near Widnes Junction on the London and North Western Railway. The driver and stoker jumped out as the cattle train engine ran down the embankment.[162]
4 April – United Kingdom – A goods train ran off the Highland Railway line, near Perth, destroying 80 yards (73 m) of track.[163]
13 June – United Kingdom – A train carrying show cattle from the Royal Cornwall Show was hit by a Plymouth-to-Penzance goods train at Truro railway station. One van was "smashed to pieces", there was one minor injury to the goods train driver, and none to the cattle.[165]
July/August – France – An accident between Nancy and Paris killed five people and injured eleven.[167]
16 August – France – A passenger train and a goods train collided near Montséret killing fifteen and injuring thirty-six.[168]
29 August – United Kingdom – The Scottish mail train derailed between Hendon and Mill Hill due to the track subsiding following heavy rain. The driver and fireman both severely injured.[169]
12 October – United Kingdom – The 10:10 am passenger train from Derby ran into seven empty carriages at Nottingham station, resulting in eight injured and considerable damage to the rolling stock.[171]
Tay Bridge collapse 28 December – United Kingdom – Tay Bridge disaster – The Tay Rail Bridge collapses in a violent storm while a North British Railway passenger train is crossing it. There were no survivors, with the total estimated at seventy-five lives lost, although the real total was fifty-nine.[173] The subsequent investigation concludes that "the bridge was badly designed, badly constructed and badly maintained" and lays the major blame on the designer, Sir Thomas Bouch. William McGonagall produces his epic poem The Tay Bridge Disaster to commemorate the event. The disaster shocks engineers into creating an improved crossing both on the Tay, as well as the famous Forth Bridge.
^Foley, Michael (15 January 2014). Britain's railway disasters: fatal accidents from the 1830s to the present day. Barnsley. ISBN978-1-78159-379-0. OCLC886539827.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"Liverpool – shocking accident on the railroad". The Times. 1833-02-04. Quoted in Hylton, Stuart (2007). The Grand Experiment: The Birth of the Railway Age, 1820–45. Ian Allan. pp. 81–82. ISBN978-0-7110-3172-2.
^"FATAL ACCIDENT". Caledonian Mercury. No. 17570. 22 February 1834.
^L. Wright (Photographer): Train wreck on the Providence Worcester Railroad near to Pawtucket, August 12, 1853, Rochester: George Eastman House; Photo: Trains! at The George Eastman House, kodak.com
^"Historical Overview". Ruxton, Riderwood, Lake Roland Area Improvement Association. Ruxton, Riderwood, Lake Roland Area Improvement Association. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
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