Armagh 1889: The basics

On Wednesday, 12 June 1889 a train carrying 940 men, women and children on a day out to the seaside met with disaster. 80 would be killed in the resulting twin collisions. Yet, out of this tragedy came a glimmer of hope: the Railway Regulation Act 1889 which made it a legal requirement for railways to have interlocking with points and signals; to use the block system of working; and to have automatic, continuous brakes.

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[johnclayden]

A splendid presentation. I remember first reading about this accident years ago in L.T.C Rolt's book, 'Red for Danger'.

[MJC]

I always get a shiver up my spine when I hear about this absolutely chilling horror story, glad you covered it is an easy and bite-sized way.

[raymondwelsh]

I would love to see you cover the Granville railway disaster in Sydney Australia in 1977. 83 deaths and many more injured. It was a classic case of Government and railway management interfering to save money and trying look good. Love your videos and keep them coming.🇦🇺

[Arkay]

I can't wait for the brake episode

[felixtheswiss]

Thanks for this story, as a system engineer for railway brakes i always say that brakes are the most important part of a train, here we hear why that is the case!

[amazingdecks]

While I don't enjoy hearing about disasters, I do like to hear of effective measures resultant. A very good and informative video - as usual. Thanks.

[KPen]

the freakiest thing about this disaster to me, is the fact that the men could keep pace with the carriages rolling down the grade, just by walking

[JohnWayne-ni]

Great video on the Armagh Rail Disaster. It's tragic to hear about the lives lost, but it's good to know that it led to important safety regulations. If you're interested in learning more, I'd also recommend checking out 'The Armagh Rail Disaster, Ireland's Deadliest Rail Crash' by Hand Drawn History

[raymondwelsh]

I read Red For Danger. I was struck by an incident in the mid 18 hundreds prior to lock, block and brake. Trains would be released at 5 minutes intervals. One train stalled in a tunnel and a couple more piled into the wreckage before anything could be stopped. Interesting times when greed ruled.🇦🇺

[pras]

There was another accident (in Victorian or at least pre-WW1 times) where a stand-in guard was found to have turned the brake screw the wrong way when trying to stop a train. Which way to turn the handle was not standardised. Unfortunately I cannot find the reference to it.
When I re-read the details of the Armagh 1889 accident I was left wondering whether the porter / acting-guard Thomas Henry did not make a similar mistake in the rear brake-van. If we assume that the hand brake was actually partly on (but not enough to lock the wheels) when the train was travelling up the gradient from Armagh then this could be at least a partial explanation of why the train stalled. This would mean that, once the train was stalled, when Thomas Henry was trying to apply the handbrake he was actually releasing it.
The rear brake-van was smashed to pieces in the accident and no-one appears to have considered this afterwards.

[ajaxengineco]

Incidentally - the BoT did an experiment and found that an engine of the same class actually had no difficulty drawing 15 coaches over the line and that McGrath's stall was quite inexplicable - they put it down to driver inexperience with the route. I am wondering whether the coaches they tested with had any extra weight to simulate passengers?

[paulhitchcock]

Good stuff! Looking forward to the piece about train brakes.

It's important to remember though that not all lines placed saving money above safety. Notably, the not especially prosperous L.B.S.C.R. adopted the automatic air brake well over ten years before Armagh, even demonstrating the system in France. This system was both crisper in operation and more expensive than the automatic vacuum brake.

[delurkor]

Very loose connection, my great-grandfather, Richard Moreland, emigrated from County Armagh in the 1880's, and settled in Philadelphia, PA. My sister some years ago found his citizenship papers, where he fore-swore any allegiance to the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

[charliescott]

Great video as always. PS Enjoyed your article on Liverpool and Manchester "curiosities" in current edition of Backtrack

[hawkerhellfire]

There does seem to be some conflicting info that rather than the engine being short of steam it was blowing off when it came to a halt, the stop just being because it was completely and utterly overloaded.

[maxz.]

Hey Anthony, for a video in the near future would you mind touching upon the importation of engines from other countries to be used on railways in Britain, or any of the other British islands?

[PaulinesPastimes]

Good concise video. Such a cascade or poor decisions, it's a heart breaking story. Did this accident also contribute to the demise of the practice of locking people in the compartments? That always seemed like a potentially lethal idea to me. I recently rode in a 6 wheel wooden coach from the 1880s on the Victorian Goldfields Railway as part of the Heritage Week activities and it was the first time I had been in a coach with no door handles in the inside. You had to put the window down to use the handle on the outside but at least they weren't locked!

[mikebrown]

I wonder did the adoption of the simple continuous vacuum brake lead to a reduction in the number of brake carriages contributing to the inability to hold the detached portion?

[garryferrington]

George Westinghouse invented the air brake (not vacuum brake) after seeing an engine run into the back of another train because the engineer simply couldn't stop. He made some good money out of it, too.

[matthewtymczyszyn]

Are you all right? I know it’s a sad story but you sound a bit choked up. Is Covid still going around?