Llanwern derailment - 6 May 1857
While the broad gauge railways had their fair share of accidents, there were several occasions where injury and death were reduced because the rolling stock had stayed upright due to the wider gauge. Also, broad gauge locomotives tended to be heavier than their standard gauge counterparts, and this sometimes protected the following carriages from worse damage. All railway accidents were investigated by a government appointed inspector, who identified the cause and made recommendations on any changes that needed to be made to reduce the likelihood of similar accidents in future.
The following are a selection of accidents involving broad gauge railways.
This was the first recorded accident on the Great Western Railway and was, in fact, witnessed by Brunel himself. At the time of the accident, the line had been opened from London as far as Faringdon Road (later renamed Challow), where a connecting coach service conveyed passengers to and from the west by road. In the early hours of the morning the night goods train hauled by Fire King (a Fire Fly class 2-2-2) approached at speed. The engine driver was standing motionless on the footplate and despite attempts by the train guard and those on the station to attract his attention, ran through the station and demolished the engine shed, killing the driver and injuring four others. The engine driver had been on duty for many hours and is believed to have fallen asleep on the footplate.
The mid-day express from Exeter to London hauled by Sultan (an Iron Duke class 4-2-2) carrying 200 passengers approached Shrivenham at full speed and collided with a cattle truck and horse box that station porters had pushed onto the main line in order to enable a wagon turntable to be used. The porters failed to notice the signal giving the "all clear" for the express, nor did they notify the station policeman (who was responsible for the signals). Sultan demolished the two wagons with virtually no damage to itself, but some of the debris fell back towards the line and hit the leading second class carriage, killing 6 passengers and injuring 13.
The day before the opening of the broad gauge line to Birmingham, a special train for Directors, officers and friends left London at 9 am for Birmingham. The train consisted of 10 carriages hauled by Lord of the Isles (an Iron Duke class 4-2-2). Only one of the carriages was equipped with a brake. In common with the rest of the Great Western Railway, the time interval between trains was controlled by Fantail signals which had three positions indicating stop, caution and all clear. For some reason, the special train had been timed to arrive at Banbury only 5 minutes after a local mixed passenger and goods train from Didcot. The local train was invariably late and 30 September was not an exception. The engine driver on the special had not travelled the route before and mistook a disused signal on the original Oxford to Banbury line for an "all clear". Consequently the special was travelling at high speed when it caught up to the local train at Aynho. The local train put on steam to try and clear the station, shedding a number of wagons at the rear of the train in the process. The special train had woefully inadequate brakes and the Lord of the Isles quickly demolished the wagons before finally coming to a halt. Fortunately no on was seriously injured and the stability provided by the wider gauge meant all the carriages remained upright.
The "Flying Dutchman" express hauled by a former Bristol & Exeter Railway 4-2-4T number 2001, left the track at about 60 mph (96 kph) killing the driver and fireman and injuring 14 passengers and two guards. The cause was eventually identified as poor track maintenance, and not, as originally thought, problems with the design of the locomotive, which had huge 8ft 10ins driving wheels. Again, injuries would have been much worse, had the carriages not remained upright.
A double collision occurred when the night passenger train from London stopped because of suspected problems with the engine. At the time, telegraph control of train movements had not be introduced, and lights were not used on the signals at night. As required in the operating rules, as soon as the train had made the unscheduled stop, the train guard had walked back along the track in order to lay a flare to warn following trains of the obstruction. However the engine problem was soon fixed and he was recalled to the train before he had a chance to do so. Before the train could resume its journey, the following postal train ran into it, followed shortly afterwards by a third train consisting of empty carriages. 14 passengers were injured in the collision.
In the early hours of the morning the signalman had crossed a standard gauge goods train onto the Up main line to enable a following train to pass. He then forgot about it and gave an "all clear" for a special boat train express from Plymouth. The express was a broad gauge train hauled by a 4-4-0T engine number 2051 with two carriages and a van and approached at high speed. The trains collided killing 10 of the 50 passengers and injuring 11 others, including the driver and fireman. That greater injury did not result, must, in part, be attributed to the stability of the broad gauge locomotives and rolling stock. This accident resulted in an improvement in signalling and the introduction of refuge sidings throughout the Great Western Railway.