Killingworth
Established Member
I'm always impressed with the level of detail included in railway accident reports, and that goes back over 100 years to the early days of railways.
Back in 1907 there was a spectacular derailment at Dore & Totley Station Junction when the second oi two locomotives ended on the station platform. Speeding obviously!
But there were no electronic records of actual speed back then. 2 drivers, 2 firemen, 2 guards and signalmen all denied excessive speed. However, signalmen along the line out of Sheffield recorded times of all actions very accurately. How long did it take to travel how many miles? It was very likely to have been going too fast as it took the junction as the drivers tried to make up for a delayed departure from Sheffield.
But why did the tender of the second loco derail? That was more obscure and it was good that the investigation didn't just accept it was down to speed. There was more to it. Uneven wheel flange wear appears to have caused one wheel to jump the track over the well maintained junction. That discovery lead to more attention being paid to wheel wear.
The suspicion probably remained that this wasn't the first time express trains had taken the junction too fast. It took quite a few more years before the slow and fast tracks were swapped down the Sheaf Valley thus avoiding the need for fast trains to have to cross over at that point. It's very impressive that the comprehensive report was published just 3 months after the accident. They had to investigate a lot more accidents back then.
See; https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=2460
Back in 1907 there was a spectacular derailment at Dore & Totley Station Junction when the second oi two locomotives ended on the station platform. Speeding obviously!
But there were no electronic records of actual speed back then. 2 drivers, 2 firemen, 2 guards and signalmen all denied excessive speed. However, signalmen along the line out of Sheffield recorded times of all actions very accurately. How long did it take to travel how many miles? It was very likely to have been going too fast as it took the junction as the drivers tried to make up for a delayed departure from Sheffield.
But why did the tender of the second loco derail? That was more obscure and it was good that the investigation didn't just accept it was down to speed. There was more to it. Uneven wheel flange wear appears to have caused one wheel to jump the track over the well maintained junction. That discovery lead to more attention being paid to wheel wear.
The suspicion probably remained that this wasn't the first time express trains had taken the junction too fast. It took quite a few more years before the slow and fast tracks were swapped down the Sheaf Valley thus avoiding the need for fast trains to have to cross over at that point. It's very impressive that the comprehensive report was published just 3 months after the accident. They had to investigate a lot more accidents back then.
See; https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=2460
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