Jimbob52
Member
Wednesday 12th June will see the anniversary of the accident at Armagh in1889, on the Great Northern Railway of Ireland. It has been described as the most significant railway accident in UK history because it led to the Regulation of Railways Act 1889.
The train was the annual Sunday School excursion organised by the Armagh Methodist Church, booked to run to via Newry to Warrenpoint. The train of fifteen coaches was heavily loaded and the engine provided was unable to cope with the gradient of the line which was operated on the time-interval system. The train left at 10.15. After travelling about 3 miles, the engine stalled near the top of a 1in 75 incline. The decision was taken to divide the train and take the front portion forward to a siding and return to collect the remaining coaches.
The coaches were fitted with a ‘simple’ non-automatic vacuum brake controlled by the driver, as opposed to a continuous vacuum brake. When the train was divided the only brake on the rear portion was the hand brake in the guard’s van plus some stones that had been placed behind the rear wheels. These stones were crushed when the engine set back slightly on starting and the guard’s brake was insufficient to hold the train. The rear portion ran backwards reaching a speed of about 40 mph until the coaches collided with the following train which had left Armagh at 10.39.
Sources differ but it is thought there were 88 fatalities (of whom 19 were children), making it the fourth worst accident in the UK.
Immediately following the accident, the Regulation of Railways Act was swiftly passed, becoming law on 30 August. It empowered the Board of Trade to order a railway company to adopt the block system of signalling with interlocking of points and signals; and to provide continuous brakes, self-applying and instantaneous in action and capable of being applied to every vehicle.
A poignant statue of a young girl holding a bucket and spade was erected in Armagh on the 125th anniversary of the disaster and there is a plaque on the wall outside the Methodist Church.
As well as the official report, the accident is the subject of a book by J R L Currie (‘The Runaway Train’, David & Charles, 1971). The Armagh District Council and Armagh County Museum also published a commemorative book, ‘The Fateful Day’, on the one hundredth anniversary of the disaster.
The train was the annual Sunday School excursion organised by the Armagh Methodist Church, booked to run to via Newry to Warrenpoint. The train of fifteen coaches was heavily loaded and the engine provided was unable to cope with the gradient of the line which was operated on the time-interval system. The train left at 10.15. After travelling about 3 miles, the engine stalled near the top of a 1in 75 incline. The decision was taken to divide the train and take the front portion forward to a siding and return to collect the remaining coaches.
The coaches were fitted with a ‘simple’ non-automatic vacuum brake controlled by the driver, as opposed to a continuous vacuum brake. When the train was divided the only brake on the rear portion was the hand brake in the guard’s van plus some stones that had been placed behind the rear wheels. These stones were crushed when the engine set back slightly on starting and the guard’s brake was insufficient to hold the train. The rear portion ran backwards reaching a speed of about 40 mph until the coaches collided with the following train which had left Armagh at 10.39.
Sources differ but it is thought there were 88 fatalities (of whom 19 were children), making it the fourth worst accident in the UK.
Immediately following the accident, the Regulation of Railways Act was swiftly passed, becoming law on 30 August. It empowered the Board of Trade to order a railway company to adopt the block system of signalling with interlocking of points and signals; and to provide continuous brakes, self-applying and instantaneous in action and capable of being applied to every vehicle.
A poignant statue of a young girl holding a bucket and spade was erected in Armagh on the 125th anniversary of the disaster and there is a plaque on the wall outside the Methodist Church.
As well as the official report, the accident is the subject of a book by J R L Currie (‘The Runaway Train’, David & Charles, 1971). The Armagh District Council and Armagh County Museum also published a commemorative book, ‘The Fateful Day’, on the one hundredth anniversary of the disaster.
