Harrow Rail Disaster of 1952.

Our own member Dr. David Macveigh presented an amazing illustrated talk about the Harrow and Wealdstone Railway Disaster of 8th October 1952, the biggest peacetime ‘pile-up’ in railway history involving 3 trains, (up line) the stationary local commuter Tring to Euston; Perth to Euston night Express and the down line a double header Euston to Liverpool express travelling at 60 mph.

About 1500 people involved (passengers and on platform). There were 112 killed, 340 injured of which 84 were ‘life changing’. The timeline of events were described and the event could have been prevented in any number of ‘what ifs’ took place.  The scenario included fog regulation and the actions of the signalman who saw the disaster in font of his signal box. The driver and footplateman of the Perth train died so their evidence of events was not available.

The members were instructed on signalling procedures and the actions taken by the signalman to help understand the situation. The heroics of the 1st responders both the public and medics were described in some detail. The initial thoughts were that it was a signal error but the investigation established that all signals were set at danger and the extensive emergency actions taken by the signalman to try and prevent the collision proved in his favour. It was established that for whatever reasons (unknown), two danger signals were missed by the speeding Perth train which ploughed into the back of the commuter and the debris was struck by the down line Liverpool double header express passing through on the adjacent down line. Had such a signal been headed, it would have taken over half a mile for the train to stop.

Amazingly, all the extensive debris and line and infrastructure damage was repaired and keeping the lines open with no restrictions in less than a week, by the 14th of October. The slides of the recovery were amazing too.

There have been no accidents of this magnitude since as an Advanced Warning System  (AWS) was added to the nation’s signalling system. If the signals are set as Danger or Stop a magnetic device gives a visible and audible warning to the driver in his cab to avoid any missed visual signals.

The vote of thanks was given by Member Peter Lewis

For pictures and further information please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrow_and_Wealdstone_rail_crash

Poster by Press Officer Rick Purnell