List of rail accidents (1900–29)

This is a list of rail accidents from 1900 to 1929.

1900s

1900

• February 16, 1900 – United Kingdom – a Cleator and Workington Junction Railway freight train is derailed when the formation is washed away by heavy rain.^[1]

• February 20, 1900 – United Kingdom – A Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway freight train overruns the buffer stops at Harcourt Street station, Dublin and ran through the end wall of the station. 0-6-0 locomotive Wicklow was suspended over Hatch Street immediately after the collision.^[2]
• April 30, 1900 – United States – The Cannonball Express, en route from Memphis, Tennessee to Canton, Mississippi, with Jonathan Luther "John" "Casey" Jones as Engineer, collides with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. The engineer of the Cannonball, Casey Jones, was the only fatality.
• June 16, 1900 – United Kingdom – Slough. Great Western Railway express train from Paddington runs into rear of local train at Slough station, killing five people and seriously injuring 35.^[3][4]
• June 23, 1900 – United States – McDonough, Georgia: Southern Railway (U.S.) A train from Macon bound for Atlanta ran into a washout over Camp Creek near McDonough and plunged 60 feet into the swollen creek below before bursting into flames, killing 39 of the 49 aboard. The flagman, J.J. Quinlan, acted heroically, running all the way to town and alerting the telegraph operator to the disaster before procuring a length of rope and saving two female passengers.^[5]
• July 24, 1900 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train is derailed at Amberswood, Lancashire. One person is killed.^[6]
• November 5, 1900 – United Kingdom – a freight train runs away and is derailed at Lingdale Junction, Yorkshire.^[7]
• December 1, 1900 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway train runs away and is derailed at Peckwash, Derbyshire.^[8]
• 1900 – United States – The Lonesome Gap Viaduct on the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap and Louisville Railroad collapses when a double headed freight train is driven over it, against standing orders that such trains are not to cross the viaduct.^[9]

1901

• June 8, 1901 – United States – A double-header freight train collides with a stopped freight train carrying 12 tons of dynamite on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad in Vestal, New York. Five people are killed, and seven are injured.^[10][11]
• July 4, 1901 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway freight train ran off the end of a loop line and was derailed at Harperley, County Durham.^[12]
• October 29, 1901 – United States – Linwood, North Carolina. The second of two northbound special trains carrying part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show towards Danville collided head-on with a southbound Southern Railway freight train carrying a load of fertilizer. The engineer of the southbound train had been ordered to yield to the northbound traffic, but did not understand that there were two trains, setting up the head-on collision with the second train. The resulting crash severely injured Annie Oakley and killed many famous show animals, domestic and exotic, including 110 horses total.^[13]
• November 27,1901 - United States- Adrian, Michigan Collusion of two trains of the Wabash Railroad One mile east of Seneca, Michigan. The west bound train was carrying Italian Immigrants going west from New York. Estimates of casualties ranged from 12^[14] to 23^[15] to 50-80^[16] to 100 dead^[17] with at least 50^[18] to 125 injured.^[19] The Unknown dead were buried in Adrian's Oakwood Cemetery; the gravesite was marked September 25, 2016.^[20]
• December 6, 1901 – Germany – Frankfurt Central Station. The luxury train Ostend-Vienna-Express, about 90 minutes late, reached the Frankfurt Terminus at about 5 a.m. The air brake failed due to a faulty valve which remained closed.^[21] The locomotive over-ran the buffer stop, shot across the head of the platform and crashed through the opposite wall behind which the restaurant for 1st and 2nd class passengers was situated. There it came to a stop in midst of the tables covered with white table cloths and set for breakfast. The photograph of this scene became a favourite in most publications on the history of the Frankfurt Central Station. Nobody was hurt in the accident. In this early morning hour not many people were around, and the carriages of the Ostend-Vienna-Express had separated from the locomotive and remained on the rails. After a short time they were on their way to Vienna again. Some of the sleeping passengers hadn't even noticed the incident.^[22] The Ostend-Vienna-Express carried through-coaches between Ostend and the Orient Express.
• December 22, 1901 – United Kingdom – Liverpool, Dingle railway station. The line of the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) to Dingle railway station was worked by electrically powered trains. Access to this underground station was through a tunnel about half a mile long. On December 22, 1901 an engine of a train caught fire and the train stopped about 80 yards before reaching the station. Soon all the train was on fire as well as the station. Six people died. This was the first major accident caused by an electrically powered train.^[23]
• Unknown exact date. 1900 or 1901. Tallulah Falls Railroad. A raging fire destroys most of the city, as well as the tall wooden bridge which bisected the city. Though the exact cause is never determined, it is widely believed that sparks from a passing wood-burning locomotive caught the roof of a nearby house on fire, and the fire spread. Eighty percent of the city is burned to the ground, with only the station, and a few brick buildings surviving.

1902

• January 8, 1902 – United States – New York City, New York: A stopped New Haven express train from South Norwalk is rear-ended in the Park Avenue tunnel by a New York Central White Plains local, due to smoke and snow obscuring signals. Seventeen persons were killed and 36 injured, the worst rail accident in New York City history. The accident inspired the State Legislature to pass a law the next year prohibiting steam operation within the tunnels of New York City on the Park Avenue line south of the Harlem River.^[24]
• September 11, 1902 – India – A mail train plunges into a river at Mangapatnan due to a bridge washout. At least 100 people are killed.^[25][26]
• December 6, 1902 – Canada – Halifax, N.S., Six persons were killed in a wreck on the Inter-Colonial, the Canadian Government railway, at noon to-day near Belmont Station, seventy miles from Halifax. The Canadian Pacific express for Montreal rolled down an embankment, completely wrecking the locomotive, the postal, express, and baggage cars and several passenger cars.^[27]
• December 20, 1902 – Byron Springs, Contra Costa County, California, United States: The south-bound Stockton Flyer crashed into the rear of the disabled Los Angeles Owl, killing 20 and injuring 25. Both trains had departed from Oakland, California. Prominent California lawyer Frank Hamilton Short and journalist Chester Harvey Rowell were passengers on board the Owl. Neither was injured.^[28]
• December 24, 1902 – United Kingdom – A Glasgow and South Western Railway freight train is derailed at Carlisle, Cumberland due to the driver mistaking a siding for a running line.^[29]
• December 27, 1902 – Canada – Wanstead, Ontario. On the Grand Trunk Railway near Sarnia, a west-bound passenger express collided head-on with a freight train. Around thirty people were killed.^[30]

1903

• January 28, 1903, 3:30 am – United States – In what was later called the Esmond Train Wreck 14 people, including the engineers of both trains, are killed when the Benson, Arizona bound Crescent City Express (No. 8) collides head-on with the Tucson, Arizona bound Pacific Coast Express (No. 7). A communication error was determined to be the cause of the wreck—Night operator Clough is said to have admitted that he did not deliver a second order to Conductor Parker, which would have superseded the previous order for the Crescent City Express (No.8) to proceed to Vail Station. Had the second order been delivered, it would have allowed the Pacific Coast Express (No.7) to pass unscathed.^[31][32][33]
• July 15, 1903 – United Kingdom – A passenger train is derailed at Waterloo, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, due to excessive speed. Seven people are killed and 30 are injured.^[34]
• July 27, 1903 – United Kingdom – Glasgow St Enoch rail accident, Scotland: 16 killed when a train crashed into the buffers.
• August 1, 1903 – United Kingdom – A passenger train is run into by another train at Preston, Lancashire.^[35]
• August 10, 1903 – France – Paris Métro train fire, France: electrical fire on the Paris Métro near Couronnes station, 84 killed. This led to the adoption of multiple-unit train control (with a low-voltage control circuit) and a second, independent power supply for station lighting.

• August 23, 1903 – United States – Little Falls Gulf Curve crash of 1903, Little Falls, New York: Westbound New York Central special newspaper train derails due to excessive speed on a sharp curve killing the engine crew.
• September 27, 1903 – United States – Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia: Southbound Southern Railway passenger train No. 97, en route from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, North Carolina, derails at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville and plunges into the ravine below. Eleven are killed including the engine crew and a number of Railway Post Office clerks in the mail car right behind the tender. The wreck inspired a famous ballad, The Wreck of the Old 97, the 1920s recording of which by country singer Vernon Dalhart is sometimes cited as the American recording industry's first million-seller.
• October 22, 1903 – United Kingdom – A Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway express passenger train collides with a light engine at Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire due to a signalman's error. One person is killed.^[36]

• October 23, 1903 – Hebron, Indiana Pennsylvania Railroad One of the worst wrecks in the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Head-on collision.
• October 31, 1903 – United States – The Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana: A Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad football special carrying the Purdue University football team and fans to the annual Indiana University / Purdue University football game collides with a coal train. Seventeen passengers in the first coach are killed, including 14 members of the football team.
• November 14, 190 – United States – The crew of a broken down train at Kentwood, Louisiana fail to protect it. A following train runs into the rear; 32 people are killed and many more are injured.^[37]
• December 2, 1903 – Two trains collided in the town of Greenwood, Delaware during a blinding snowstorm, one loaded with cars of dynamite and naphtha, a petroleum liquid used to make lighter fluid. The result was a violent explosion that rained fire down upon the town, killing two people and injuring dozens, while leveling every building in the area of the wreck and setting several fires including 9 houses, the schoolhouse, a hotel, and numerous freight cars. Reports were that every pane of glass in every building in the town was broken. The explosion was felt across Sussex, Kent, and Caroline counties, but help was not quick to arrive as the Greenwood Volunteer Fire Company would not be established for another 20 years and all phone and telegraph lines in the town had been severed by the explosion. Eventually crews from Seaford Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. and Harrington Fire Company, Inc. arrived the next day to find the explosion had cut a hole big enough to bury the freight engine, homes literally turned on their sides from the blast, and much of the town destroyed, burned, or damaged. Over a week later, the Washington Post would report that it was not dynamite, but a secret military explosive that was loaded on the train and had caused the explosion, as investigators found the damage to be far too great for the reported contents of the train. The freight car in question had been loaded by the government and was en route to a facility in Newport News, Virginia containing, "a quantity of new explosive, a terrible instrument of death"
• December 23, 1903 – United States – Connellsville train wreck near Connellsville, Pennsylvania kills 66 people as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Dequesne Limited runs into timber dropped from a freight train.
• December 23, 1903 – United Kingdom – A Hull and Barnsley Railway passenger train collides with wagons on the line at Locomotive Junction, Springhead, Northumberland.^[38]

1904

• March 1904 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train derails at Gomshall, Surrey.^[39]
• August 7, 1904 – United States – Eden Train Wreck, near Eden Station north of Pueblo, Colorado, United States: Train caught in bridge washaway; 97 known dead; 14 missing
• August 14, 1904 – Shelby County, Ohio, United States; Collision of 2 electric trains. 4 killed/30 injured.^[40]
• August 31, 1904 – Canada – Richmond, Quebec: head-on collision between a special train from Montreal to Sherbrooke, and Passenger Train No. 5 from Island Pond, Vermont; 9 killed, including Member of Parliament Jean Baptiste Blanchet, and 23 injured.^[41][42]
• September 24, 1904 – United States – New Market train wreck, Jefferson County, Tennessee, United States: Two Southern Railway passenger trains, the Carolina Special and Local train No. 15, collide head-on near New Market, Tennessee near Hodges Switch when the crew of the local, a three-car consist, fails to take the siding to allow the Carolina Special to pass. The impact knocks the boilers off of both locomotives and the engine on the local is catapulted onto the first three wooden coaches of the Special. The impact causes the boilers of both locomotives to explode and the cars of the local passenger train to telescope. At the time, it was the worst wreck of its kind to ever occur in North America. Between 56 and 113 killed.
• October 10, 1904 – United States – Warrensburg, Missouri: An eastbound Missouri Pacific Railroad passenger train, en route to the St. Louis World's Fair, collides head-on with a freight train. Twenty-seven are killed and thirty injured^[43]
• December 23, 1904 – United Kingdom – Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom. Derailment. The 0245 am Great Central Railway express newspaper train from London Marylebone to Manchester derailed as it approached Aylesbury railway station from the south, approximately at the location of the junction with the Great Western Railway branch from Princes Risborough. Its speed carried the wreckage along the platforms of the station, and four of those on board the train, including the driver and fireman of the engine, and another driver and fireman travelling as passengers back to their home depot were killed. Two others, both railway staff, were seriously injured. A southbound train, ex Manchester, then collided with the wreckage at low-speed causing damage to rolling stock but no further casualties.^[44]
• 1904 – United Kingdom – A freight train hauled by London Brighton and South Coast Railway D1 class 0-4-2T locomotive 239 Patcham is derailed near Cocking, West Sussex.^[45]
• 1904 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway passenger train is derailed at Loughor Bridge, Glamorgan. Five people are killed and eighteen are injured. Excessive speed is found to be a major contributory factor.^[46]

1905

• January 19, 1905 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway express passenger train overruns signals and in a rear-end collision with another train at Cudworth, Yorkshire. Seven people are killed.^[47]
• March 10, 1905 – United Kingdom – A mixed train on the 3 ft (914 mm) gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway derails due to a combination of a faulty locomotive and faulty track.^[12]
• April 21, 1905 – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway passenger train in collision with a train of carriages being shunted at Huddersfield. Two people are killed. The train being shunted had passed a danger signal.^[48]
• June 27, 1905 – United Kingdom – A freight train is derailed at Church Pit Crossing, Wallsend, Northumberland.^[49]
• July 27, 1905 – United Kingdom – Hall Road rail accident, Liverpool, Lancashire to Southport line, 21 killed.
• August 7, 1905 – Germany – between Spremberg and Schleife on (Berlin-Görlitz railway), 19 people killed and 40 seriously injured in head-on crash as a result of an error by a dispatcher.^[50]
• September 1, 1905 – United Kingdom – Witham rail crash, Essex. 11 killed and 71 injured.
• September 11, 1905 – United States – Ninth Avenue derailment, Manhattan, New York. 13 killed and 48 seriously injured when a southbound train on the IRT Ninth Avenue Line was erroneously switched onto the 53rd Street curve to the Sixth Avenue line.
• October 24, 1905 – United Kingdom – a North Eastern Railway double-headed freight train is derailed at Winston, County Durham after platelayers removed a rail before it passed.^[51]
• December 6, 1905 – United Kingdom – The roof of Charing Cross station, London collapses, killing six people.

1906

• March 16, 1906 – United States – Two passenger trains are in a head-on collision between Adobe and Florence, on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, due to a train dispatcher's error. Thirty-four people are killed.^[52]
• April 6, 1906 – United Kingdom – A passenger train derails and fouls the adjacent line at Kirtlebridge, Dumfriesshire. The wreckage is run into by another passenger train. One person is killed and several are injured.^[53]
• June 26, 1906 – United States – Carson Hill, California, A four car freight train on the Sierra Railway's Angel's Branch carrying 15 Tons of dynamite exploded. The blast of the explosion was reportedly heard in Stockton, California, 80 miles to the east and a wheel from the boxcar carrying the dynamite was found embedded in the roof of a shed 5 miles away, 2 killed (2 crew).^[54]
• June 30, 1906 – United Kingdom – Salisbury rail crash, Salisbury, England: Racing express train derails, then collides with a milk train on a sharp curve, 28 killed (24 passengers, 4 crew).
• August 13, 1906 – United States – Elizabeth, New Jersey, Four boys were killed on the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks by an Eastbound Express. The accident occurred where three levels of tracks crossed over Broad Street.^[55]
• September 18, 1906 – Oklahoma Territory – Dover: Bridge across the Cimarron River collapses beneath a Rock Island train bound for Fort Worth, Texas from Chicago. The bridge was a temporary structure unable to withstand the pressure of debris and high water. Replacement with a permanent structure had been delayed by the railroad for financial reasons. Number of deaths is uncertain; estimates range from 4 to over 100.^{[56][57][58][59]}
• September 19, 1906 – United Kingdom – Grantham rail accident, Grantham, England: Evening sleeping-car and mail train from London to Edinburgh derailed, no definite cause ever established, 14 killed.
• October 28, 1906 – United States – 1906 Atlantic City train wreck: On the newly electrified West Jersey and Seashore Railroad a Sunday afternoon passenger train, traveling towards Atlantic City, New Jersey at forty miles per hour, derails on a draw (swing) bridge over a deep tidal channel. The train bumps along the ties for 150 feet (46 m) before departing the bridge and plunging into deep water. Fifty-three die in what will remain the worst U.S. drawbridge accident until the Newark Bay, New Jersey rail accident of September 15, 1958.
• November 24, 1906 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway freight train runs into the rear of another at Ulleskelf, Yorkshire due to its driver racing a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway express passenger train on an adjacent line and not keeping a lookout for his signals.^[60]
• December 28, 1906 – United Kingdom – Elliot Junction rail accident, Scotland; 22 killed.
• December 30, 1906 – United States – 1906 Washington DC train wreck: A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad locomotive running at full speed plows into a passenger train that had just pulled out of Terra Cotta (now Fort Totten) Station along the B&O Metropolitan Branch, telescoping the rear cars and taking the lives of fifty-three passengers.

1907

• January 16, 1907 – United Kingdom – Thingley Junction, Chippenham. Head-on collision between two Great Western Railway locomotives, River class 2–4–0 No. 70 "Dart" and Dean Goods No 2448. Both locos are badly damaged and are cut up on site.^[61]
• February 16, 1907 – United States – The newly electrified New York Central Railroad Harlem Division train jumps the tracks at Woodlawn Station, resulting in 20 deaths and 150 injuries.^[62]

• March 26, 1907 – United Kingdom – A passenger train is derailed on buckled track at Felling, County Durham. The signalman had been warned of the buckle by a member of the public but refused to be told to stop trains over the affected lines. Two people are killed and six are seriously injured.^[63]
• March 27, 1907 – United Kingdom – Two freight trains collide at Brocklesby. Lincolnshire.^[64]
• April 14, 1907 – Annsville, New York, United States – Blossvale crash of 1907, a two steam engine sixty car freight train derailed killing one fireman. ^[65]
• May 11, 1907 – United States – Passenger excursion train derails near Surf, California. 32 persons were killed and many others injured.^[66]
• June 1907 – United Kingdom – A luggage train is derailed by trap points at Silkstream Junction, Hendon, Middlesex due to the driver misreading signals.^[67]
• July 1907 – United States – A freight train and passenger train are in a head-on collision near Salem, Michigan due to an error by the freight train driver. Thirty people are killed.^[68]
• August 28, 1907 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway freight train overruns signals and is derailed at Goswick, Northumberland. Two people are killed and one is seriously injured.^[69]

• September 3, 1907 – Canada – Horseshoe Curve Wreck Canadian Pacific Railway – Between Cardwell and Caledon, Ontario. Seven people were killed and 114 injured (out of about 600) in the wreck, which was caused by high speed.
• September 15, 1907 – United States – Canaan, New Hampshire: Quebec to Boston Express wreck; 25 people killed, with nearly 39 injured. The southbound express (No. 30), heavily loaded with passengers returning from the Sherbrooke Fair, collided at 4:26 a.m. on a foggy Sunday morning with a northbound Boston & Maine Railroad freight train (No. 267). The accident, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Canaan Station, was "due to a mistake in train dispatcher's orders." On March 17, 1907 Chas Anderson was killed due to an accident while working on the railroad. He left behind a wife Jennie and 3 children Otto, Loren, and Francis Anderson.
• September 28, 1907 – United Kingdom – Newport rail accident, Newport, Wales: 1 killed.
• September 1907 – United States – A freight train and a passenger train are in a head-on collision near Canaan, New Hampshire. Twenty-six people are killed.^[68]
• October 15, 1907 – United Kingdom – Shrewsbury rail accident, Shrewsbury, England: Evening sleeping-car and mail train from Manchester to the west of England derailed, probably due to driver error, 18 killed.

1908

• February 2, 1908 – United Kingdom – The driver of a Great Central Railway train knocked himself and his fireman out when he sneezed. The train derailed due to excessive speed at Ryhill, Yorkshire.^[70]
• April 20, 1908 – Australia – Sunshine train disaster, Melbourne: Rear-end collision, kills 44 and injures around 400.
• May 21, 1908 – Belgium – An express train is diverted into a bay platform at Contich, which is occupied by a passenger train, due to a signalman's error. Forty people are killed and over 100 are injured.^[71]
• August 25, 1908 – United States – Seaboard Railway Train Number 74. Lumpkin, Georgia. The heavy rain caused the tracks to cave in. It was 1:00AM in the morning and it was difficult to see. Both the engineer and fireman were killed. The train engine rolled over, however, the passenger cars remained in tack thus circumventing more deaths.
• October 8, 1908 – United Kingdom – an overloaded North Eastern Railway freight train runs away and crashes at Masham, Yorkshire.^[72]

1909

• January 14, 1909 – France – a train from Paris to Le Mans collides with another train. Orville and Katharine Wright were amongst the passengers.^[73]
• January 22, 1909 – United Kingdom – two Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway locomotives are shunted into a siding at Hindley & Blackrod Junction, Lancashire, but one of them is foul of a running line. A passenger train collides with it, killing one person and injuring 33.^[74]
• February 2, 1909 – "United States" – Two trains on the Seaboard Air Line Railway collided head on some six miles east of Abbeville, near Long Cane trestle about half past ten o'clock Tuesday night.^[75]
• March 5, 1909 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train overruns signals at Tonbridge Junction, Kent and is in collision with a mail train. Two people are killed and eleven are injured.^[76]
• April 2, 1909 – United Kingdom – The locomotive of a Caledonian Railway express passenger train loses a driving wheel due to the failure of its crank axle. The train is derailed near Crawford, Lanarkshire.^[77]
• May 29, 1909 – United Kingdom – A freight train is derailed near the Kilton Viaduct, Skinningrove, Yorkshire due to subsidence.^[78]
• August 8, 1909 – United Kingdom – A freight train is derailed on heat buckled track at Hartley, County Durham.^[79]
• August 19, 1909 – United Kingdom – A passenger train is derailed at Friezland, Cheshire. Both train crew are killed.^[63]

1910s

1910

• January 21, 1910 – Canada – Spanish River derailment Northern Ontario: Canadian Pacific Railway's westbound Soo Express derails while crossing the bridge at Spanish River. 44 people die and many more are injured.
• January 29, 1910 – United Kingdom – A London, Brighton and South Coast Railway express train derails at Stoat's Nest, London due to a faulty wheelset on one of the carriages. Seven people are killed and 65 injured.^[80]
• February 14, 1910 – United States – Near Elkton, Kentucky, engine and two cars of Elkton & Guthrie Railroad passenger train No. 84 derail, resulted in fatal injuries to engineer and fireman.^[81]
• March 1, 1910 – United States – The Wellington, Washington avalanche: in Wellington, near the Cascade Tunnel, Washington, approximately 100 are killed when a snow avalanche pushes two trains off a cliff. The trains had been stopped at a mountain depot; the passenger train halted by an avalanche ahead of it, and then trapped by an avalanche behind it. Passengers and rail employees mostly stayed on board the stopped trains, which were subsequently struck squarely by another avalanche.
• March 4, 1910 – Canada – 1910 Rogers Pass avalanche British Columbia: An avalanche kills 62 men clearing the snow of a preceding avalanche from the Canadian Pacific Railway's transcontinental railroad, near the summit of Rogers Pass through the Selkirk Mountains.
• March 21, 1910 – United States – Green Mountain train wreck, Iowa, United States: A Rock Island Railroad passenger train derails, killing 52 passengers and severely injuring scores of others.
• June 9, 1910 — Canada — A freight train derails near Marathon, Ontario killing three people. The locomotive and boxcars plunge into Lake Superior, sinking in 235 feet (72 m) of water. They are discovered in 2016 and 2014 respectively.^[82]
• August 15, 1910 – United States – Two trolley cars of the Gettysburg Electric Railway collide near Devil's Den, ejecting people onto rocks, resulting in one fatality. A similar collision occurred during the 1913 Gettysburg reunion, and trolley incidents on the Gettysburg Battlefield included failed tracks, sabotage, and lightning strikes.
• November 15, 1910 – United Kingdom – An express freight train overruns signals and crashes into the rear of another freight train at Darlington, County Durham. The driver may have fallen asleep at the controls.^[83]
• December 6, 1919 – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway passenger train runs into the rear of another at Willesden Junction, Middlesex. Three people are killed and more than 40 are injured.^[84]
• December 24, 1910 – United Kingdom – Hawes Junction rail crash, Cumbria, England: A busy signalman forgets about a pair of light engines on the main line and allows an express train to follow them into the same section, causing a collision which killed 12.

1911

• January 23, 1911 – United Kingdom – Pontypridd railway accident. Collision between a passenger train and coal train on the Taff Vale Railway at Hopkinstown. 11 killed, four seriously injured.
• April 29, 1911 – United States – Martin's Creek, New Jersey. Teacher's train wreck.^[85]
• May 29, 1911 – United States – Indianola train wreck. Collision between two passenger trains at Indianola, Nebraska killing 18 and injuring 32.^[86]
• July 11, 1911 – United States – outside of Bridgeport, Connecticut: The Federal Express, carrying the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team on a trip from Philadelphia to Boston, plunges down an 18-foot (5.5 m) embankment, killing 14 passengers.^[87] No one from the team is killed.
• August 13, 1911 – United States – Fort Wayne, Indiana: The Pennsylvania Railroad's Penn Flyer derails at Fort Wayne. Almost immediately, the derailed equipment is struck by an oncoming freight train, killing four and injuring 57.
• November 23, 1911 – France – A bridge collapses under a passenger train at Montreuil-Bellay, killing 22 people.^[25]
• December 13, 1911 – United Kingdom – A freight train runs away near Wombwell, Yorkshire and crashes into wagons being shunted at Darfield Main. Two people are killed.^[72][88]
• December 15, 1911 – United Kingdom – A freight train is derailed near Lartington Quarry, County Durham when the driver brakes too severely. During recovery operations, a steam crane overturns.^[89]

1912

• January 11, 1912 – United States – Hempstead, New York – A milk train rams into the back of a stationary passenger car at Hempstead (LIRR station) sending it past the end of the line, across Fulton Avenue into the O. L. Schwenke Land & Investment Company Building. One operator and one conductor killed.^[90]
• March 18, 1912 – United States – San Antonio, Texas – A Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad locomotive, Number 704, suffers a boiler explosion at the Southern Pacific roundhouse in San Antonio, Texas, killing 36 to 41 people and injuring another 50 in the deadliest locomotive explosion in United States history.
• June 21, 1912 – United Kingdom – A Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway passenger train is derailed on the Charlestown Curve, Yorkshire. Four people are killed and eleven are hospitalised.^[91]
• July 4, 1912 – United States – Corning train wreck – Corning, New York: A Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad express train crashes into the rear of a stalled excursion train near Corning on Independence Day, killing 39.
• August 29, 1912 – United Kingdom – a light engine collides with a rake of nine carriages at Vauxhall. One passenger is killed and 43 injured.^[92]
• September 17, 1912 – United Kingdom – Ditton Junction rail crash. Driver misreads signals resulting in 15 deaths.
• November 27, 1912 – United States – Glen Loch wreck. Pennsylvania Railroad express train at Glen Loch, Pennsylvania with four deaths and more than two dozen injuries.^[93]

1913

• January 1, 1913 – United States – Guyandotte River bridge accident: A too heavy locomotive goes onto the Guyandotte River bridge, which is being repaired. Bridge collapses and 7 {engineer and 6 workmen} are killed.
• March 3, 1913 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway passenger train is in a rear end collision with an electric multiple unit at Manors station, Newcastle upon Tyne due to a signalman's error. Forty-nine people are injured.^[94]
• March 11, 1913 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train overruns buffers at Ramsgate Town, Kent due to an error in connecting the train's brakes. Ten people are injured.^[95]
• June 25, 1913 – Canada – Ottawa train accident: A train heavily loaded with immigrants derails near Ottawa. Spreading rails sends two immigrant cars into river. 8 die and approximately 50 are injured.
• July 12, 1913 – United Kingdom – A Great Eastern Railway express train runs into the rear of a light engine at Colchester, Essex due to a signalman's error. Three people are killed and fourteen are injured.^[96]
• July 26, 1913 – Denmark – Bramminge train accident: A train derails near Bramming due to heat-stressed rails. 15 die and about 80 are injured.
• August 8, 1913 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway locomotive overruns signals at Yeovil Pen Mill, Somerset and collides with a passenger train. Two people are killed.^[97]
• September 1, 1913 – United Kingdom – Ais Gill rail crash, Cumbria, England: Distracted engine crew pass signals at danger, and crash into train stalled on gradient. 14 killed, 38 seriously injured.
• September 1, 1913 – United States– New Haven, Connecticut. 21 Killed.^[98]
• October 25, 1913 – United Kingdom – Two Southe eastern & Chatham Railway passenger trains collide at Waterloo Junction, London. Three people are killed.^[99]
• October 28, 1913 – United Kingdom – A freight train becomes divided near Lockwood, Yorkshire. Forty-six wagons run away and are derailed, with eight of them being wrecked.^[100]
• 1913 – United Kingdom – a Great Central Railway freight train is derailed at Torside, Derbyshire after the crew of the locomotive are overcome by fumes in the Woodhead Tunnel.^[45]

1914

• March 13, 1914 – Australia – Exeter crossing loop collision, New South Wales. A freight train entering the Exeter station collided head-on with a mail train being removed from the track in anticipation of the arrival of the freight train. Fourteen people were killed in the accident.
• April 14, 1914 – United Kingdom – A North British Railway express passenger train collides with a freight train at Burntisland, Fife due to a signalman's error.^[101]
• June 17, 1914 – United Kingdom – An excursion train departs from Reading station, Berkshire against signals. An express passenger train is in a sidelong collision with it, killing one person.^[102]
• June 18, 1914 – United Kingdom – Baddengorm Burn, Carr Bridge, Scotland: Cloudburst washed away the foundations of a bridge, which collapsed as a passenger train crossed it. The train split in two, with one coach falling into the burn, drowning 5 people. ^[103]
• June 27, 1914 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train departs from Cannon Street station, London against a danger signal and collides with another train. One person is killed.^[99]
• August 5, 1914 – United States – Neosho, Missouri, there was a head-end collision between a Missouri and North Arkansas gasoline motor car and a Kansas City Southern passenger train on the Kansas City Southern Railway near Tipton Ford, Mo., resulting in the death of 38 passengers and 5 employees and the injury of 34 passengers and 4 employees. The collision caused the pipes and tanks carrying the gasoline to burst, permitting its ignition, at once enveloping the entire car in flames, making the work of rescue impossible. Many of the passengers were burnt beyond recognition.

1915

• January 1, 1915 – United Kingdom – Ilford rail crash, The 7:06 express from Clacton to London passed both distant and home signals. The express crashed into the side of a local train that had been crossing the tracks. 10 killed, 500 injured (including those reporting shock).
• March 18, 1915 – United Kingdom – A Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway express passenger train overruns signals and is in a rear-end collision with an empty stock train at Smithy Bridge, Lancashire. Four people are killed and 33 are injured.^[104]
• May 22, 1915 – United Kingdom – In the Quintinshill rail crash near Gretna Green, Scotland, a troop train collides with a stationary passenger train and another passenger train crashes into the wreckage, which also involves two stationary freight trains. The passenger cars are wooden-bodied and a serious fire ensues. The stationary passenger train was forgotten by a careless signalman, who had himself arrived on it, following improper operating practices during a shift change at this busy location. This is the deadliest railway accident in British history, with 226 fatalities and 246 people injured.
• August 14, 1915 – United Kingdom – Weedon rail crash Express train derails after the track on the up main line is forced out of alignment by a detached coupling rod from a passing locomotive heading a down express. 10 passengers killed, 21 injured.
• December 15, 1915 – United Kingdom – A landslide near Warren Halt, Kent buries three people. A South Eastern and Chatham Railway train is derailed inside Martello Tunnel. The line is closed until 1 August 1919.^[105]
• December 17, 1915 – United Kingdom – St Bedes Junction rail crash, passenger train collides with banking engine in thick fog, 19 killed.

1916

• February 2, 1916 – United Kingdom – The Penistone Viaduct in Derbyshire collapses under a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway freight train due to subsidence.^[106]

• February 22, 1916– United States – Connecticut: New Haven Railroad. Nine are killed.^[107][108]
• April 3, 1916 – United Kingdom – A London Brighton and South Coast Railway passenger train is derailed between Crowborough & Jarvis Brook and Buxted, East Sussex.^[109]

1917

• January 3, 1917 – United Kingdom – Ratho rail crash: The unsafe use of hand signals results in 12 deaths.
• January 13, 1917 – Romania – Ciurea rail disaster at Ciurea: A passenger train overloaded with soldiers and refugees runs away down a bank between Bârnova and Ciurea, derailing at Ciurea station after being diverted onto a loop line. Between 600 and 1,000 killed in the derailment and subsequent fire.
• September 15, 1917 – United Kingdom – Ten carriages carrying troops run away at Catterick Camp, Yorkshire and crash near Catterick Bridge. Three soldiers are killed.^[110]
• December 12, 1917 – France – Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment, (Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne near Modane on the Culoz–Modane railway): Carrying French troops from Italy, a grossly overloaded military train derails near the entrance of the station at Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, after running away down a steep gradient from the entrance of the Fréjus Tunnel; brake power was insufficient for the weight of the train. 425 killed in the derailment and subsequent fire, 423 soldiers and 2 train employees. The military had forced the driver to run the overloaded train. This accident was the worst ever in France.^[111]
• December 14, 1917 – United States – Two Southern Railway passenger trains collide at 0815 hrs. near Clemson College, South Carolina with the fireman and baggageman on one (train no. 46) killed, both engines demolished and cars leaving the rails and one overturning down an embankment. Train Nos. 43 and 46 strike each other on a curve, one mile north of Calhoun, South Carolina. Blame was laid on an operator's failure to give orders to the crew of Train No. 46 at Seneca, South Carolina.^[112]
• December 20, 1917 – United States – Shepherdsville train wreck, a rear end collision in Shepherdsville, Kentucky kills 49 people.

1918

• January 14, 1918 – United States – A Houston and Texas Central Railway passenger train derails at Hammond, Texas. 17 killed, 10 injured.
• January 18, 1918 – United Kingdom – Two Cambrian Railways freight trains were in a head-on collision at Parkhall, Shropshire due to irregular operation of tablet instruments by signalmen at Oswestry North and Ellesmere Junction signal boxes. The design of the circuitry connecting the instruments and the weather were contributory factors.^[113]
• April 11, 1918, – France – Twenty-nine men of the 4th Battalion Kings (Liverpool Regiment) killed in a troop train explosion. They were buried in the military cemetery at Chocques in the Pas de Calais.^[114]
• April 15, 1918, – United States – Central Islip, New York (now Islandia, New York) – Long Island Rail Road troop train leaving Camp Upton derails at Foot's Crossing (now the NY 454 bridge). Originally believed to be a result of enemy sabotage, but later found to be caused by defective rails. 3 soldiers dead and 36 soldiers injured.^[90]
• April 18, 1918 – United Kingdom – A London Brighton and South Coast Railway freight train becomes divided with the result that four wagons come to rest in Redhill Tunnel, Surrey. A signalman's error allows the following train to crash into the wagons. The line is blocked for two days.^[110]

• June 22, 1918 – United States – Hammond circus train wreck, near Hammond, Indiana: An empty Michigan Central Railroad troop train collides into the rear end of the stopped Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train, resulting in 86 deaths and 127 injured. The engineer of the troop train had been taking "kidney pills" which had a narcotic effect and he was asleep at the throttle. Alonzo Sargent, the engineer, survived the collision in which his train struck the circus train's caboose and four sleeping cars. This accident would be recreated, Hollywood-style, in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth, released in 1952.

• July 9, 1918 – United States – Great train wreck of 1918, Nashville, Tennessee: Two Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway trains collide head-on. 101 killed, 171 injured at Shops Junction-West Nashville, Tennessee.
• August 8, 1918 – France – German ammunition train entering Harbonnières station is shelled by advancing British Mark V tanks. The train explodes; a following troop train on an adjacent track is stopped and captured by British troops.^[115]
• August 11, 1918 – United Kingdom – A fire at the North Eastern Railway carriage sheds at Heaton, Northumberland destroys 34 vehicles. They are all replaced by new vehicles with identical running numbers.^[116]

• September 13, 1918 – Netherlands – Weesp train disaster, Weesp, Netherlands. Heavy rainfall caused the embankment leading to the Merwedekanaal bridge to become unstable. When a passenger train approached the bridge the track slid off the embankment, causing the carriages to crash into each other and the locomotive to hit the bridge. 41 persons were killed and 42 injured. In the aftermath of the disaster, it was decided to establish a dedicated study of soil mechanics at the Delft University of Technology.

• October 1, 1918 – Sweden – : Getå Railroad Disaster, the worst train accident in the history of rail transport in Sweden. A passenger train runs off the rails because of a landslide in Getå (currently Norrköping Municipality). 42 die, 41 injured.

• October 2, 1918 - United States - A burning trestle over Cox creek, two miles north of Arcadia, Kansas caused the wrecking of Frisco Passenger train No. 101 at about 5 PM. Engineer A.F. McCullough and Fireman Charles Mahan remained at their posts trying to stop the train. McCullough and Mahan lost their lives but saved all others on board. The engine and coal tender collapsed the weakened bridge burying McCullough and Mahan in their cabs. The passengers escaped from their coaches before the entire train was consumed by fire. ^[117]
• November 1, 1918 – United States – The Malbone Street Wreck occurs on the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) in New York City when an inexperienced motorman (pressed into service due to a strike by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers) drives one of the system's subway trains too quickly into a very sharp curve, derailing the train in a tunnel, killing at least 93 and injuring over 100.

1919

• January 12, 1919 – United States – Genesee County, New York. The New York Central Southwestern Limited rammed the back of the Wolverine at South Byron. A Pullman sleeping car was pushed upward and fell on top of another Pullman sleeper, killing 22 people.^[118]
• May 5, 1919 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway freight train is in a rear end collision with another at Paddock Wood, Kent due to driver error.^[119]
• August 14, 1919 – United States – Wood County, West Virginia. A Baltimore & Ohio Railroad switching engine collides with a streetcar operated by the Parkersburg Interurban Trolley System carrying a number of children on a church picnic. 15 people were killed by scalding when the steam lines ruptured.^[120]
• September 1, 1919 – United States – Hubbard Woods crossing, Chicago, Illinois. A Chicago & Northwestern passenger train strikes Mary Tanner, a pedestrian whose shoe was caught on the rail while crossing the tracks, killing her. The impact also killed her husband William Fitch Tanner and grievously injured John Miller, a railroad flagman, when they refused to give up trying to free her.^[121]
• October 16, 1919 – United States – Marlboro, New Jersey. On the Freehold-Atlantic Highlands branch of the Central of New Jersey Railroad. Locomotive and Baggage car leave track. Train struck a truck at a grade crossing 300 yards west of the Marlboro NJ station. The train overturned with tracks torn off, the engine lay on its side. The forward cars were torn loose and were turned at right angles. Resulted in one death as the engineer, Michael Mooney was scalded to death.^[122]
• November 1, 1919 – Denmark – Vigerslev train crash, Denmark: An express train collided at speed with a stopped train due to a dispatcher error. 40 people were killed and about 60 injured.
• / December 20, 1919 – United States – Onawa train wreck, Maine. A Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train running through Maine but between Canadian cities collides head-on with a freight train, killing 23.
• December 22, 1919 – United States – Near Topeka, Kansas. Engineer David E. Hartigan, Sr., 23 years as an engineer for the Rock Island Railroad, was returning to St. Joseph, Missouri from Topeka, Kansas with a train load of Christmas shoppers, some even standing in the aisles. Every seat in the eight coaches were occupied. A freight train was accidentally sent on a collision course with the passenger train and they met near Elmont, Kansas. Mr. Hartigan stuck to his cab applying the brake until the collision. Mr. Hartigan was scalded to death. His sacrifice possibly saved 200 persons from death or injury. Forty people were slightly injured. No one was killed.^[123]

1920s

1920

• February 14, 1920 – United Kingdom – Two North Eastern Railway freight trains are involved in a head-on collision near Goole, Yorkshire.^[124]
• March 14, 1920 – United States – Bellows Falls, VT.^[125] The crew of a southbound freight incorrectly read the train order, confusing "Bartonsville" for "Bellows Falls". Instead of waiting at Bartonsville, they instead proceeded South, followed by a collision with a northbound passenger train at Williams River. 6^[126] to 10 fatalities reported.
• March 31, 1920 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway passenger train is derailed at York.^[124]
• March 9, 1920 – United Kingdom – A Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway freight train becomes divided at Pendlebury, Lancashire. The rear portion runs away, pushing the banking locomotive downhill. They are derailed by catch points.^[127]
• March, 1920 – United States – Deerfield, Illinois. A locomotive boiler explosion kills 1 and injures 3.^[128]

1921

• January 26, 1921 – United Kingdom – Abermule train collision, Montgomeryshire, Wales: faulty operation of train tablet leads to head-on collision killing 17 people.
• February 27, 1921 – United States – Porter, Indiana over 37 people killed when the Canadian on the Michigan Central railroad and the Interstate Express on the New York Central Railroad crashed at a cross track. The Michigan Central Train, bound for Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec, overshot a block signal and derailed by a derailed device. the New York Central train crashed into the already wrecked Michigan Central train at 60 mph.^[129]
• September 18, 1921 – Norway – Nidareid train disaster in Trondheim. Confusion and unfortunate circumstances lead to a head-on collision between two passenger trains killing 6.
• October 5, 1921 – France – A collision between two passenger trains occurs in the Batignolles Tunnel, Paris due to a signalman's error. At least 28 people are killed in the ensuing fire.^[130]

1922

• March 23, 1922, – United States – Azusa, California, a passenger train was wrecked after hitting one of the city's steamrollers. The engineer and foreman were killed, while the stream roller driver jumped to save his own life.^[131]

• May 1, 1922, – United States – Alton, Illinois, C&A passenger train strikes fire engine on its way to a fire, at a grade crossing at 9th and Piasa Streets, Alton, Illinois, USA. The driver and officer on the fire engine seat were injured; two other firefighters jumped off. The fire engine, only a year old, was squeezed between the moving passenger train and a parked coal car, and was beyond repair. The broken pieces of the fire engine had to be hauled away in a truck, and a new fire engine had to be purchased to replace it. Alton Evening Telegraph, May 1, 1922.
• July 2, 1922, – United States – Winslow Junction Train Derailment, New Jersey: on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway's Atlantic City Railroad line near the Winslow Tower, at shortly before 11:30pm, a derailment of Train 33 with Philadelphia and Reading Railway Eng. No. 349. The final toll was 7 dead and 89 injured.^[132]
• August 21, 1922; – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train departs from Milton Range Halt, Kent against signals and is in collision with another train. Three people are killed.^[99]
• December 13, 1922, – United States – Humble, Texas: Traveling at moderate speed, Houston East & West Texas Railway passenger train No. 28, bound for Shreveport, sideswipes a light engine at Humble Station. The force of the collision breaks off the boiler check valve on the light engine; 22 are killed and 11 injured when high-pressure steam enters the first three passenger coaches. Cause attributed to watchman error.

1923

• February 13, 1923 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway express passenger train overruns signals and is on a rear-end collision with a freight train at Retford, Nottinghamshire. Three people are killed.^[133]
• March 30, 1923 – "United States" – Columbus, Ohio, A westbound Big Four Flyer en route from Boston to Cincinnati hit an automobile at a grade crossing. the 3 occupants of the car were killed, along with the engineer, the fireman, and an editor for the Warren Democrat, another 14 were injured.^[134]
• April 15, 1923 – United Kingdom – A freight train is in a head-on collision with a passenger train at Curry Rivel, Somerset due to a signalman's error. Nine people are injured.^[135]
• July 5, 1923 – United Kingdom – A freight train and an express passenger train collide at Diggle, Lancashire, killing four people.^[136]
• July 6, 1923 – New Zealand – Ongarue railway disaster, New Zealand. Southbound express ploughs into mudslide killing 17. A railway worker in charge of a gang also died at the scene of cerebral haemorrhage – verified from news reports of the day.

• September 1, 1923 – Japan – Nebukawa Station, Odawara: A landslide caused by 1923 Great Kanto earthquake hit Nebukawa station and a train approaching. 112 passengers killed and thirteen injured.
• September 27, 1923 – United States – Glenrock train wreck near Glenrock, Wyoming: A Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad passenger train fell through a bridge washaway at Cole Creek, killing 30 of the train's 66 passengers. This marks the worst railroad accident in Wyoming's history.^[137]
• December 23, 1923 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway express passenger train overruns signals at Belford, Northumberland and collides with a locomotive.^[138]

1924

• April 23, 1924 – Switzerland – Two passenger trains are in a head-on collision at Bellinzona due to a pointsman's error and the driver of one of the trains passing a danger signal. A lack of interlocking is a major contributory factor. Fifteen people are killed.^[139]
• April 26, 1924 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway electric multiple unit overruns signals and is in a rear-end collision with an excursion train at Euston station, London.^[133]
• July 28, 1924 – United Kingdom – A passenger train overruns signals and collides with another at Haymarket station, Edinburgh, Lothian. Five people are killed.^[140]
• November 3, 1924 – United Kingdom – The Lytham rail crash occurs when the lead tyre of a locomotive suddenly fractures. 14 people are killed in the subsequent derailment as the train hit a bridge and then a signal box.

1925

• January 3, 1925 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway freight train is derailed at Tir Phil, Glamorgan when the trackbed is washed away.^[141]
• January 30, 1925 – Ireland – Owencarrow Viaduct Disaster. Four killed as a train is blown off a viaduct in Donegal in winds approaching 120 mph (190 km/h).
• June 9, 1925 – Australia – near Traveston, South East Queensland. Derailment near Traveston of the Rockhampton Mail train on a high timber trestle bridge. Ten people were killed and 48 injured when a passenger car and the luggage van plunged off the bridge, and another passenger car was pulled on its side. It resulted in baggage cars being specially built for passenger trains and ended, for a time, the use of goods vehicles on passenger trains.^[142]
• June 16, 1925, – United States – The Rockport train wreck occurred in Rockport, New Jersey (near Hackettstown) when a seven car Lackawanna Railroad passenger train special, travelling from Chicago to Hoboken, encountered road debris that had washed onto the Hazen Road grade crossing following a torrential rainstorm. The train derailed, and two cars landed adjacent to the locomotive, with escaping steam scalding numerous passengers. Fifty-one persons died (including all but one of the train crew). Passengers were destined for Bremen, Germany. A small memorial plaque marks the site of the wreck.
• June 18, 1925 – United Kingdom – a Metropolitan Railway electric locomotive collides with carriages at Baker Street, London. Six people are injured.^[143]
• August 20, 1925 – United States – A head-on collision between two passenger trains on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad near Granite, Colorado which resulted in 2 deaths and the injury of 107. Found to be the result of human error and a blistering report followed: "It would be difficult to imagine a more inherently dangerous system, or lack of system, for the operation of trains...".^[144]
• August 22, 1925 – Isle of Man – A train hauled by No.3 Pender ran into Douglas station with insufficient braking power as the brakesman had been left behind at Union Mills. The driver of the train was killed. Vacuum brakes were introduced on the Isle of Man Railway as a result of the accident.^[145]
• October 27, 1925 – United States – The Sunnyland passenger train derailed and tumbled down an embankment as it approached Victoria, Mississippi, killing 20.^[146]

1926

• March 14, 1926 – Costa Rica – El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica: A train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás, resulting in 248 deaths and 93 wounded.^[147]
• May 26, 1926 – United Kingdom – During the General Strike of 1926, a London and North Eastern Railway passenger train is deliberately derailed by miners south of Cramlington, Northumberland.^[148][95]
• May 26, 1926 – Australia – Caulfield, Victoria: Caulfield railway accident, night time collisions of a six-car electric multiple unit with another six-car electric multiple unit at Caulfield Railway Station resulting in three deaths and numerous injuries.^[149]
• June 7, 1926 – Spain – Barcelona: The famous architect Antoni Gaudí was run over by a tram and died a few days later.
• June 19, 1926 – United States – Just west of Manayunk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Mr. Charles Elliott, a laborer for the Pennsylvania Railroad, was struck and killed by the Passenger Extra 1524 Train at 13:26, traveling east, 550 feet east of the Miquon Station, the first station outside the Philadelphia city limit. He was 59 years old, single, and lived with his niece Ms. Andrews at Shawmont. He had worked for the Schuylkill Division for 35 years.^[150][151]
• August 7, 1926 – United Kingdom – Manors (East) station, Newcastle upon Tyne: Night-time collision of an LNER six-car electric multiple unit at 35 mph with a goods train at a junction injures a courting couple travelling in an otherwise unoccupied first-class compartment next to the luggage van. A search lasting several hours in the wreckage of the driving cab fails to find any trace of the driver, although the dead man's handle is discovered to have been tied down with two handkerchiefs thus allowing the multiple unit to proceed without a driver at the controls. The body of the driver is later found one mile further back, having been killed and dragged out of the luggage van door by impact with a bridge pier.^[152]
• August 13, 1926, – United States – Calverton, New York – Long Island Rail Road's Shelter Island Express train jumps the tracks and crashes into the Golden's Pickle Works factory, resulting in six deaths.^[90]
• August 30, 1926 – United Kingdom – A passenger train is in collision with a charabanc on a level crossing at Naworth, Cumberland due to errors by the crossing keeper and a lack of interlocking between signals and the gates, Nine people are killed.^[140]
• September 5, 1926, – United States – Waco, Colorado – Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad's Scenic Limited running southeast, exceeds the rated speed for this part of the tracks and crashes into the Arkansas River, resulting in 27 deaths and 50 injuries. Crash site is about 15 miles south of Leadville. Locomotive, tender, and six cars plunge into the Arkansas River. Crash report says that the engineer was attempting to make up time since the train was running 25 minutes late.^[153]
• September 8, 1926 – United Kingdom – The driver of a passenger train loses control on greasy rails and the train overruns buffers at Leeds.^[154]
• September 13, 1926 – Australia – Murulla railway accident, Murulla: Goods wagons on a siding come uncoupled, roll down a slope and smash into an oncoming mail train, resulting in 27 deaths and 37 injuries.
• September 23, 1926 – Japan – A Tokyo-Shimonoseki limited express derailed at Hataga river bridge at eastern Hiroshima, in an incident caused by heavy rain and flooding, killing 34, another 39 are injured.^[155]
• November 5, 1926 – United Kingdom – A milk train becomes divided near Bramshot Halt, Hampshire. Due to the failure of the guard to protect the train, a passenger train runs into it. One person was killed.^[156]
• November 19, 1926 – United Kingdom – A defective private owner coal wagon is derailed at Parkgate and Rawmarsh, Yorkshire. Further wagons are derailed and partly bring down a signal post. A passing express passenger train collides with the signal post, ripping out the side of the carriages. Eleven people are killed.^[157]
• November 24, 1926 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway passenger train overruns signals at Upney, Essex and is in a rear-end collision with another passenger train. Six hundred and four people are injured.^[158]
• December 23, 1926, Rockmart, GA, USA. The Northbound Ponce de Leon crashed head on into the Southbound Royal Palm, resulting in 19 deaths and 115 injuries. It was remembered later on as the world famous folk song, "Wreck of the Royal Palm" by Vernon Dalhart.

1927

• February 14, 1927 – United Kingdom – Hull Paragon rail accident: one signalman operates his lever too early, defeating the interlocking mechanism, just as another signalman operates the wrong lever. The resulting head-on collision kills 12.
• February 27, 1927 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train is in collision with a light engine near Penistone, Derbyshire due to an error by the driver of the light engine.^[159]
• March 1927 – United Kingdom – a train is derailed at Wrotham, Kent.^[156]
• July 6, 1927 – Argentina – Mendoza, Argentina 30 Chilean army cadets are killed on their way to Buenos Aires.^[160]
• August 20, 1927 – United Kingdom – A passenger train derails due to poor track at Bearstead, Kent. The locomotive is repaired and returned to service on 23 August, but is involved in another accident the next day.^[156][161]
• August 24, 1927 – United Kingdom – Sevenoaks railway accident: Water in the tanks of a locomotive sloshes so hard that the train derails, killing 13.

1928

• March 12, 1928 – Ceylon – Katukurunda: Two trains collide head-on into one another at high speed, crushing several compartments and killing 28 people.^[162]
• June 27, 1928 – United Kingdom – Darlington rail crash, head-on collision kills 25.
• June 1928 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway mail train is derailed at Swinderby, Lincolnshire.^[163]
• July 2, 1928 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway freight train is derailed at Pinwherry, Wigtownshire. Both locomotive crew are killed.^[164]
• July 9, 1928 – United Kingdom – B2X class locomotive No. B210 is in a sidelong collision with an electric multiple unit at London Bridge due to the driver misreading signals. Two people are killed and nine are injured, six seriously.^[165]
• August 17, 1928 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway express passenger train collides with a lorry on a level crossing near Shepreth, Cambridgeshire and is derailed.^[166]
• August 27, 1928 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway passenger train overruns the buffers at Euston, London, injuring 30 people.^[166]
• August 1928 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish railway train is derailed at Ashton-under-Hill, Worcestershire.^[163]
• October 13, 1928 – United Kingdom – Charfield railway disaster, Gloucestershire, England: Leeds to Bristol night mail train fails to stop at signals and collides with a freight train being moved into a siding. The mail train derails and then collides with another freight train on the main line. Gas lighting on the passenger coaches of the mail train causes an intense fire, destroying four coaches. An estimated 16 die, and 41 injured according to official report.
• October 25, 1928 United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway express passenger train runs into the rear of a freight train near Dinwoodie, Dumfriesshire due to a signalman's error. Four people are killed and five are injured.^[167]

1929

• January 17, 1929 – United States – near Aberdeen, Maryland: Pennsylvania Railroad train bound for Baltimore rear-ends a freight, then a third train hits the derailed freight. 5 dead, 38 injured. An unlit semaphore stop signal was invisible in heavy fog. Bandleader Fletcher Henderson, traveling with several of his musicians, is among the injured but conducts an engagement in Baltimore that night.
• January 1929 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train overruns signals at Ashchurch, Gloucestershire and collides with a freight train. Three people are killed.^[168]
• February 2, 1929 – United Kingdom – Due to a signalman's error, a passenger train is diverted into the bay platform at Bridgeton Cross, Renfrewshire and crashes into a horsebox. Many people are injured.^[169]
• February 12, 1929 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway express passenger train is in a head-on collision at Doe Hill, Derbyshire due to a signalman's error. Two people are killed.^[170]
• June 9, 1929 – United Kingdom – a London and North Eastern Railway steam railcar 220 Waterwitch overruns signals at Marshgate Junction, Yorkshire and comes to stand foul of the main line. It is struck by an express passenger train.^[171]
• August 25, 1929 – Germany – Buir: The D29, running from Paris to Warsaw, derails some 300 metres west of Buir station, near the town of Düren. Due to ongoing construction work, the train is supposed to be diverted to a siding, but the train driver given wrong instructions in Düren notices the signal too late, entering the siding at 100 km/h instead of 50 km/h. 13 passengers are killed as the train derails, 40 are hurt. This led to the introduction of the La, the German railways' book of temporary speed restrictions on the network and the distant signals indicating to expect the home signal showing to slow down if necessary.^[172]
• October 4, 1929 – United Kingdom – The driver of a freight train passes a danger signal at Tottenham Hale, London. An express passenger train runs into it.^[173]
• November 20, 1929 – United Kingdom – Bath Green Park runaway — Bath, Somerset, England: A freight train runs away and crashes in Bath Green Park goods yard, killing the driver and two railway employees in the yard, and severely injuring the fireman. The runaway was caused by the crew being overcome by fumes while travelling through Combe Down Tunnel.^[174]

See also

• List of London Underground accidents

References

Sources

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• Reed, Robert C. (1968). Train Wrecks – A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line. New York: Bonanza Books. ISBN 978-0-517-32897-2. 
• Rolt, L. T. C.; Kichenside, G. M. (1982). Red for Danger: A history of railway accidents and railway safety (4th ed.). Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8362-0. OCLC 9526651. 
• Shaw, Robert B. (1978). A History of Railroad Accidents, Safety Precautions and Operating Practices. LCCN 78104064. 
• Smith, Peter (1978). Footplate over the Mendips. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Company. ISBN 0-86093-022-X. 
• Spence, Jeoffry (1975). Victorian & Edwardian Railways from old photographs. London: Batsford. ISBN 0 7134 3044 3. 
• Trevena, Arthur (1980). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 1. Redruth: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-01-X. 
• Trevena, Arthur (1981). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 2. Redruth: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-03-6. 
• Vaughan, Adrian (1989). Obstruction Danger. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 1-85260-055-1. 

External links

• Railroad train wrecks 1907–2007