Title

The Railway Accident at Abbotts Ripton, Huntingdon: general view of the scene of the accident, 1876. Creator: Crane.

Caption

The Railway Accident at Abbotts Ripton, Huntingdon: general view of the scene of the accident, 1876. On 21 January 1876, the Edinburgh-London Special Scotch Express was involved in a collision, during a blizzard, with a coal train on the Great Northern Railway main line. A second collision occurred minutes later when an express to Leeds crashed into the wreckage obstructing the northbound line. Thirteen passengers died, and 53 passengers and 6 traincrew members were injured. Factors included signal failure, bad weather and poor visibility. Snow and ice on the wires by which the semaphore arm should be moved had meant that when signalmen had changed levers from the normal 'all clear', the signals did not fully move to 'danger'. The accident (and subsequent inquiry) led to fundamental changes in British railway signalling practice. From "Illustrated London News", 1876. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Reference

HRM23A81_027

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

License type

Rights managed

Available size

47,6Mb (4,8Mb) / 16,5in x 11,2in / 4960 x 3355 (300dpi)

Keywords

weather transport transportation England season people technology communication communications railways train arts snow art failure clothes British railway color death accident dress fuel location signals disaster century public transport Britain onlookers catastrophe newspapers press clothing print wreckage concept crash incident coal signalling cambridgeshire APPAREL B&W freight train collision engraved engraving Failed wintry Goods Train Colour 19th century black & white black and white B W deaths white and black onlooker nineteenth century steam locomotive The Print Collector Great Northern Railway Illustrated London News on-looker TGN train crash ILN winter Flying Scotsman newspaper Crane R Crane GNR 19th-century clothing & dress fashion & clothing on-lookers Abbotts Ripton