The Goswick rail crash occurred on 26 October 1947 near the village of Goswick,

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England. The '' Flying Scotsman'' express from Edinburgh Waverley to London King's Cross failed to slow down for a diversion and derailed. Twenty-eight people were killed, including the talented Scottish biochemist, John Masson Gulland. It was the last major accident to occur on British railways before their nationalisation on 1 January 1948.

Overview

The train was scheduled to divert from the fast line to a goods loop at Goswick,

, between

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

and Morpeth, because of engineering work. This required a significant reduction in speed, but the driver failed to react to a cautionary signal approaching the diversion and the train entered a turnout at approximately . The engine, A3 Class No. 66 "Merry Hampton", and most of the train derailed and overturned, though the dining car kept going down the line for . The driver, fireman and guard had all failed to read or react to the notice of the diversion posted at

Haymarket depot Haymarket Depot, also known as Haymarket Motive Power Depot and Haymarket Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD), is a railway traction maintenance depot situated inside Edinburgh, Scotland, next to Haymarket railway station and Murrayfield Stadium. ...

. The driver, who was held principally at fault, had also allowed an unauthorised passenger on to the footplate who may have distracted his attention. He claimed to have missed the distant

signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

due to smoke from the engine obscuring his view. The home signal had been cleared to allow the train to draw up slowly to the points, but the signalman was exonerated because he could not judge the speed of the train until it was too late. A similar accident had occurred two years earlier at Bourne End,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, killing 43 people.

Similar accidents

Bourne End rail crash The Bourne End rail crash occurred on 30 September 1945 when a sleeper train from Perth to London Euston derailed, killing 43. The cause was driver error, possibly compounded by ambiguous signalling regulations. Overview The train was the 1 ...

- overspeed through turnout * Jokela rail crash - Finland * Milton rail crash - England

References

Sources

* * *
Railways Archive account, including official Accident Report

External links

British Pathe newsreel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goswick Rail Crash Railway accidents and incidents in Northumberland Railway accidents in 1947 1947 in England History of Northumberland 20th century in Northumberland Derailments in England Accidents and incidents involving London and North Eastern Railway 1947 disasters in the United Kingdom October 1947 in the United Kingdom Rail accidents caused by a driver's error

Overview

Similar accidents

See also

References

Sources

External links