From time to time, there were accidents on the railway. In the two pictures below, an accident occurred when a passenger train ran through a signal, crashing into the back end of a goods train. The photos depict smoking debris and wagon remains post-crash.
On 15 March 1925, a fatal crash occurred, as seen in the two following photos:
There had been ongoing testing on the Selby-Goole branch line, utilizing heavy goods engines from North Eastern Rail (NER), L&N W & L&Y and the old Great Western (GW) railways. The tests were run so that the engines undergoing testing traversed the bridge, moving at speeds between 5-45 MPH. During the final test, train conductors were told to drive as quickly as possible over the bridge and then to drive in reverse for one mile. During the tests, the driver of the NER train stopped on the line, and the following train undergoing testing, the L&N W train, carried out the test without ensuring that the track was clear. The conductor struck the idle NER train while moving at a speed of 60 MPH, killing the NER conductor on impact.
Above, a photo of a rail accident which occurred on 6 August 1921. On this day, two trains collided, though no fatalities were reported. In this instance, a Leeds-bound train started moving against a signal, and was struck by a GNR train.
Photos from Selby: The Past in Pictures: Part 1.
- Date
- 1920
- Ref no
- R2G/Rail/034
- Level
- Item
- Archive
- Selby : Abbot Staith
- Extent
- Five black and white photographs
- Theme
- Railway
- Decade
- 1920