List of rail accidents (1900–1909)

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This is a list of rail accidents from 1900 to 1909.

1900

• February 16, 1900 – United Kingdom – a Cleator and Workington Junction Railway freight train derailed when the formation was washed away by heavy rain.^[1]

February 20, 1900 Dublin.

• February 20, 1900 – United Kingdom – A Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway freight train overran the buffer stops at Harcourt Street station, Dublin and ran through the end wall of the station. 0-6-0 locomotive Wicklow was suspended over Hatch Street immediately after the collision.^[2]
• April 30, 1900 – United States – The Cannonball Express, en route from Memphis, Tennessee to Canton, Mississippi, with Jonathan Luther John "Casey" Jones as engineer, collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. The engineer of the Cannonball, Casey Jones, was the only fatality.
• June 16, 1900 – United Kingdom – Slough. Great Western Railway express train from Paddington ran into rear of local train at Slough station, killing five people and seriously injuring 35.^[3][4]
• June 23, 1900 – United States – McDonough, Georgia: A Southern Railway train from Macon, Georgia bound for Atlanta ran into a washout over Camp Creek near McDonough and plunged 60 feet (18 m) into the swollen creek below before bursting into flames, killing 39 of the 49 aboard. The flagman, J.J. Quinlan, acted heroically, running all the way to town and alerting the telegraph operator to the disaster before procuring a length of rope and saving two female passengers.^[5]
• July 24, 1900 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train derailed at Amberswood, Lancashire killing one.^[6]
• August 30, 1900 – United States – On the Great Northern Railway, 18 loaded freight cars separated off the rear of an eastbound train, ran away backwards, and after 16 miles crashed into a business car at the rear of a westbound passenger train at Nyack, Montana. Three people were killed in the business car and 33, all railway employees, in the next car forward.^[7]
• 1900 – United States – The Lonesome Gap viaduct on the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap and Louisville Railroad collapsed when a double-headed freight train drove over it, against standing orders that such trains were not to cross the viaduct.^[8]

1901

• June 8, 1901 – United States – A double-header freight train collided with a stopped freight train carrying 12 tons of dynamite on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad in Vestal, New York killing five and injuring seven.^[9][10]
• October 29, 1901 – United States – Linwood, North Carolina. The second of two northbound special trains carrying part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show towards Danville collided head-on with a southbound Southern Railway freight train carrying a load of fertilizer. The engineer of the southbound train had been ordered to yield to the northbound traffic, but did not understand that there were two trains, setting up the head-on collision with the second train. The resulting crash severely injured Annie Oakley and killed many famous show animals, domestic and exotic, including 110 horses total.^[11]
• November 27, 1901 – United States – Adrian, Michigan. Two trains of the Wabash Railroad collided one mile east of Seneca, Michigan. The west bound train was carrying Italian immigrants going west from New York. Estimates of casualties ranged from twelve^[12] to 23^[13] to 50-80^[14] to 100 dead^[15] with at least 50^[16] to 125 injured.^[17] The unknown dead were buried in Adrian's Oakwood Cemetery; the gravesite was marked September 25, 2016.^[18]
• December 6, 1901 – Germany – Frankfurt Central Station. The luxury train Ostend-Vienna-Express, about 90 minutes late, reached the Frankfurt Terminus at about 5 a.m. The air brake failed due to a faulty valve which remained closed.^[19] The locomotive over-ran the buffer stop, shot across the head of the platform and crashed through the opposite wall behind which the restaurant for 1st and 2nd class passengers was situated. There it came to a stop in midst of the tables covered with white table cloths and set for breakfast. The photograph of this scene became a favorite in most publications on the history of the Frankfurt Central Station. Nobody was hurt in the accident. In this early morning hour not many people were around, and the carriages of the Ostend-Vienna-Express had separated from the locomotive and remained on the rails. After a short time they were on their way to Vienna again. Some of the sleeping passengers hadn't even noticed the incident.^[20] The Ostend-Vienna-Express carried through-coaches between Ostend and the Orient Express.
• December 22, 1901 – United Kingdom – Liverpool, Dingle railway station. The line of the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) to Dingle railway station was worked by electrically powered trains. Access to this underground station was through a tunnel about half a mile long. On December 22, 1901 an engine of a train caught fire and the train stopped about 80 yards before reaching the station. Soon all the train was on fire as well as the station. Six people died. This was the first major accident caused by an electrically powered train.^[21]

1902

• January 8, 1902 – United States – New York City, New York: A stopped New Haven express train from South Norwalk was rear-ended in the Park Avenue tunnel by a New York Central White Plains local, due to smoke and snow obscuring signals. Seventeen persons were killed and 36 injured, the worst rail accident in New York City history. The accident inspired the State Legislature to pass a law the next year prohibiting steam operation within the tunnels of New York City on the Park Avenue line south of the Harlem River.^[22]
• March 30, 1902 – South African Republic – Between Barberton and Kaapmuiden, a passenger train ran away descending a gradient toward a sharp curve and a bridge over a gully where it derailed and one car fell into the gully killing at least 44 passengers.^[23]
• August 16, 1902 – Canada – A Canadian Pacific Railway westbound freight train ran into the tail end of a stopped freight train. This incident occurred about 200 yards (180 m) east of the station depot at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. The train crew members involved were unhurt but the body of a suspected hobo was found as the wreckage was cleared.^[24]
• September 1, 1902 – United States – A Southern Railway train derailed at Berry, Alabama, killing 21 people.^[23]
• September 11, 1902 – India – A mail train plunged into a river at Mangapatnam due to a bridge washout. At least 100 people were killed.^[25][26]
• September 1, 1902 – France – A signalman's error diverted a Chemins de Fer du Nord express to Cambrai into a siding at Arleux. Most of the train cars derailed; 20 people were killed and 41 injured.^[23]
• December 6, 1902 – Canada – Nova Scotia, Six persons were killed in a wreck on the Intercolonial Railway, the Canadian Government railway, at noon near the station at Belmont, seventy miles from Halifax. An express train for Montreal rolled down an embankment, completely wrecking the locomotive, the postal, express, and baggage cars and several passenger cars.^[27]
• December 20, 1902 – United States – Byron, California. The south-bound Stockton Flyer crashed into the rear of the disabled Los Angeles Owl, killing 20 and injuring 25. Both trains had departed from Oakland. Prominent California lawyer Frank Hamilton Short and journalist Chester Harvey Rowell were passengers on board the Owl. Neither was injured.^[28]
• December 26, 1902 – Canada – Wanstead, Ontario. On the Grand Trunk Railway near Sarnia, a westbound passenger express collided head-on with a freight train. Around thirty people were killed.^[29]

1903

• January 27, 1903 – United States – The engineer of the Central Railroad of New Jersey Reading Express was distracted by engine trouble and failed to see signals. At Graceland, Scotch Plains, New Jersey, the train crashed into the rear of another passenger train that was slowed by a hot box killing 23.^[30]
• January 28, 1903 – United States – Esmond Train Wreck – 14 people, including the engineers of both trains were killed when the Benson, Arizona bound Crescent City Express (No. 8) collided head-on at 3:30 am with the Tucson, Arizona bound Pacific Coast Express (No. 7) due to a communication error. A night operator did not deliver a second order to the conductor, which would have superseded the previous order for the Crescent City Express (No.8) to proceed to Vail Station. Had the second order been delivered, it would have allowed the Pacific Coast Express (No.7) to pass unscathed.^[31][32][33]
• March 18, 1903 - Canada - Two Canadian Pacific Railway freight trains collided head-on near Etobicoke (Islington), Ontario.^[34]
• June 27, 1903 – Spain – A train on the line between Bilbao and Zaragoza derailed at San Asensio and fell into a river, killing 90 to 100 people.^[30]
• July 7, 1903 – United States – Due to a misread train order, a passenger and a freight train on the Southern Railway collided at Rockfish, Virginia, killing 19 passengers and four crew members.^[30]
• July 15, 1903 – United Kingdom – A passenger train derailed at Waterloo, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, due to excessive speed killing seven and injuring thirty.^[35]
• July 27, 1903 – United Kingdom – Glasgow St Enoch rail accident, Scotland: A train crashed into the buffers killing 16.
• August 1, 1903 – United Kingdom – A passenger train was run into by another train at Preston, Lancashire.^[36]
• August 7, 1903 – United States – Two special trains carrying the Benjamin Wallace Circus collided at Durand, Michigan, killing twenty-two people, two camels, and an elephant. The second train's driver failed to notice a warning flare when the first train stopped, and his brakes were not properly charged.^[30]
• August 10, 1903 – France – Paris Métro train fire, France: electrical fire on the Paris Métro near Couronnes station killed 84. This led to the adoption of multiple-unit train control (with a low-voltage control circuit) and a second, independent power supply for station lighting.

The aftermath of the Wreck of the Old 97. (September 27, 1903)

• August 23, 1903 – United States – Little Falls Gulf Curve crash of 1903, Little Falls, New York: Westbound New York Central special newspaper train derailed due to excessive speed on a sharp curve killing the engine crew.
• September 27, 1903 – United States – Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia: Southbound Southern Railway passenger train No. 97, en route from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, North Carolina, derailed at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville and plunged into the ravine below. Eleven are killed including the engine crew and a number of Railway Post Office clerks in the mail car right behind the tender. The wreck inspired a famous ballad, The Wreck of the Old 97, the 1920s recording of which by country singer Vernon Dalhart is sometimes cited as the American recording industry's first million-seller.
• October 22, 1903 – United Kingdom – A Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway express passenger train collided with a light engine at Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire due to a signalman's error killing one.^[37]

The first coach of the Big Four special, where the Purdue football team was seated, lies crushed between the second coach and a coal tender. (October 31, 1903)

• October 23, 1903 – United States – Hebron, Indiana. A head-on collision; one of the worst wrecks in the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
• October 31, 1903 – United States – The Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana: A Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad football special carrying the Purdue University football team and fans to the annual Indiana University / Purdue University football game collided with a coal train killing seventeen passengers in the first coach, including fourteen members of the football team.
• November 11, 1903 - Canada - a Canadian Pacific Railway freight train collided head-on with another freight train at Indian Head, Saskatchewan damaging both trains. The engineer was charged with "driving an engine while in a state of intoxication" and referred to the Supreme Court of Canada.^[38]
• November 14, 1903 – United States – The crew of a broken down train at Kentwood, Louisiana failed to protect it causing following train to run into it killing 32 people are injuring many more.^[39]
• December 2, 1903 – United States - Two trains collided in the town of Greenwood, Delaware during a blinding snowstorm, one loaded with cars of dynamite and naphtha, a petroleum liquid used to make lighter fluid. The result was a violent explosion that rained fire down upon the town, killing two people and injuring dozens, while leveling every building in the area of the wreck and setting several fires including nine houses, the schoolhouse, a hotel, and numerous freight cars. Reports were that every pane of glass in every building in the town broke. The explosion was felt across Sussex, Kent, and Caroline counties, but help was not quick to arrive as there was no local Fire Company and all phone and telegraph lines in the town had been severed by the explosion. Eventually crews from Seaford Volunteer Fire Department and Harrington Fire Company arrived the next day to find the explosion had cut a hole big enough to bury the freight engine, homes literally turned on their sides from the blast, and much of the town destroyed, burned, or damaged. Over a week later, the Washington Post reported that it was not dynamite, but a secret military explosive that was loaded on the train and had caused the explosion, as investigators found the damage to be far too great for the reported contents of the train. The freight car in question had been loaded by the government and was enroute to a facility in Newport News, Virginia containing, "a quantity of new explosive, a terrible instrument of death"
• December 23, 1903 – United States – Connellsville train wreck near Connellsville, Pennsylvania killed 66 people as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Dequesne Limited ran into timber dropped from a freight train.
• December 23, 1903 – United Kingdom – A Hull and Barnsley Railway passenger train collided with wagons on the line at Locomotive Junction, Springhead, Northumberland.^[40]

1904

• March 1904 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train derailed at Gomshall, Surrey.^[41]
• July 3, 1904 – United States – A Wabash Railroad train derailed on a sabotaged switch at Litchfield, Illinois killing twenty-four^[42]
• August 7, 1904 – United States – Eden Train Wreck, near Eden Station north of Pueblo, Colorado. A train was caught in bridge washaway killing at least 97.
• August 14, 1904 – United States – Shelby County, Ohio. Two electric trains collided killing four and injuring thirty.^[43]
• August 31, 1904 – Canada – Richmond, Quebec, a head-on collision between a Grand Trunk Railway special train from Montreal to Sherbrooke, and Passenger Train No. 5 from Island Pond, Vermont killed nine including Member of Parliament Jean Baptiste Blanchet, and injured 23.^[44][45]
• September 24, 1904 – United States – New Market train wreck, Jefferson County, Tennessee, United States, two Southern Railway passenger trains, the Carolina Special and Local train No. 15, collided head-on near New Market, Tennessee when the crew of the three-car local failed to take the siding to allow the Carolina Special to pass. The impact knocked the boilers off both locomotives and the engine on the local was catapulted onto the first three wooden coaches of the Special. The impact caused the boilers of both locomotives to explode and the cars of the local passenger train to telescope. At the time, it was the worst wreck of its kind to ever occur in North America. Between 56 and 113 were killed.
• October 10, 1904 – United States – Warrensburg, Missouri, an eastbound Missouri Pacific Railroad passenger train, en route to the St. Louis World's Fair, collided head-on with a freight train killing twenty-seven and injuring thirty.^[46]
• December 23, 1904 – United Kingdom – Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom. The 0245 am Great Central Railway express newspaper train from London Marylebone to Manchester derailed as it approached Aylesbury railway station from the south, approximately at the location of the junction with the Great Western Railway branch from Princes Risborough. Its speed carried the wreckage along the platforms of the station, and four of those on board the train, including the driver and fireman of the engine, and another driver and fireman travelling as passengers back to their home depot were killed. Two others, both railway staff, were seriously injured. A southbound train, ex Manchester, then collided with the wreckage at low-speed causing damage to rolling stock but no further casualties.^[47]
• 1904 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway passenger train derailed at Loughor Bridge, Glamorgan killing five and injuring eighteen. Excessive speed was a major contributory factor.^[48]

1905

• January 19, 1905 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway express passenger train overran signals and collided with the rear or another train at Cudworth, Yorkshire killing seven people.^[49]
• March 10, 1905 – United Kingdom – A mixed train on the 3 ft (914 mm) gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway derailed due to a combination of a faulty locomotive and faulty track.^[50]
• April 21, 1905 – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway passenger train collided with a train of carriages being shunted at Huddersfield killing two people. The train being shunted had passed a danger signal.^[51]
• May 11, 1905 – United States – The engineer of a Pennsylvania Railroad freight train stopping at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania applied the brakes too abruptly causing the unbraked cars at the rear to derail the ones in front of them, fouling an adjacent track where they were struck by the Cincinnati Express. The derailed cars contained 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) of dynamite which exploded killing twenty passengers and three railwaymen.^[52]
• June 17, 1905 – United States – Patapsco, Carroll County, Maryland: Two trains collided head-on on the Western Maryland Railroad due to a failure to obey train orders killing 26.^[52]
• July 27, 1905 – United Kingdom – Hall Road rail accident, Liverpool, Lancashire to Southport line killed 21.
• August 7, 1905 – Germany – between Spremberg and Schleife on (Berlin-Görlitz railway), a head-on crash, caused by an error by a dispatcher, killed 19 and seriously injured 40.^[53]
• August 17, 1905 – United States – An Atlantic Coast Line excursion train carrying six cars of black passengers from Kinston, North Carolina, to Norfolk, Virginia, ran through an open drawbridge near Bruce Station, 6 mi (10 km) from Norfolk. The locomotive and first car were submerged in 12 ft (3.7 m) of water, and two more cars left the track; at least three people were killed, and a total of 20 to 30 killed or injured, including the bridge tender.^[54]
• September 1, 1905 – United Kingdom – Witham rail crash, Essex killed 11 and injured 71.
• September 11, 1905 – United States – Ninth Avenue derailment, Manhattan, New York. A southbound train on the IRT Ninth Avenue Line was erroneously switched onto the 53rd Street curve to the Sixth Avenue line killing 13 and seriously injuring 48.
• October 6, 1905 – Russia – At Rostov, a derailment of the mail train to Vladivostok killed 27 people and injured 35.^[52]
• October 24, 1905 – United Kingdom – a North Eastern Railway double-headed freight train derailed at Winston, County Durham after platelayers removed a rail before it passed.^[55]
• December 6, 1905 – United Kingdom – Charing Cross roof collapse – The roof of Charing Cross station, London collapsed killing six people.
• December 31, 1905 – Russia – A collision at Lebedyn station (now in Ukraine) killed 30 people.^[56]
• December 31, 1905 – Russia – Two military trains collided between Znamenska and Trepovka killing twenty soldiers.^[56]

1906

• March 16, 1906 – United States – Two passenger trains collided head-on between near Adobe station, between Portland and Florence, Colorado, on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, due to a train dispatcher's error; thirty-four people were killed.^[57]
• April 6, 1906 – United Kingdom – A passenger train derailed and fouled the adjacent line at Kirtlebridge, Dumfriesshire. The wreckage was hit by another passenger train killing one and injuring several others.^[58]
• June 26, 1906 – United States – Carson Hill, California: A four car freight train on the Sierra Railway's Angel's Branch carrying 15 Tons of dynamite exploded. The blast of the explosion was reportedly heard in Stockton, California, 80 miles (130 km) to the east and a wheel from the boxcar carrying the dynamite was found embedded in the roof of a shed 5 miles (8.0 km) away; two crewmen were killed.^[59]
• June 30, 1906 – United Kingdom – Salisbury rail crash, Salisbury, England: A speeding express train derailed and collided with a milk train on a sharp curve killing 28 (24 passengers, 4 crew).
• August 13, 1906 – United States – Elizabeth, New Jersey: Four boys were killed on the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks by an Eastbound Express. The accident occurred where three levels of tracks crossed over Broad Street.^[60]
• September 18, 1906 – United States – Dover, Oklahoma Territory: A bridge across the Cimarron River collapsed beneath a Rock Island train bound for Fort Worth, Texas from Chicago. The bridge was a temporary structure unable to withstand the pressure of debris and high water. Replacement with a permanent structure had been delayed by the railroad for financial reasons. Estimates of the number of fatalities range from 4 to over 100.^{[61][62][63][64]}
• September 19, 1906 – United Kingdom – Grantham rail accident, Grantham, England: Evening sleeping-car and mail train from London to Edinburgh derailed, no definite cause ever established; fourteen killed.
• October 28, 1906 – United States – 1906 Atlantic City train wreck: On the newly electrified West Jersey and Seashore Railroad a Sunday afternoon passenger train, traveling towards Atlantic City, New Jersey at forty miles per hour, derailed on a draw (swing) bridge over a deep tidal channel. The train bumped along the ties for 150 feet (46 m) before departing the bridge and plunging into deep water. Fifty-three died in what was the worst U.S. drawbridge accident until the Newark Bay, New Jersey rail accident of September 15, 1958.
• November 12, 1906 – United States – At Woodville, Porter County, Indiana, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the crew of an eastbound freight did not realize that westbound passenger train 47 was running in two sections and collided with the second section killing 43.^[65]
• November 24, 1906 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway freight train runs into the rear of another at Ulleskelf, Yorkshire due to its driver racing a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway express passenger train on an adjacent line and not keeping a lookout for his signals.^[66]
• December 28, 1906 – United Kingdom – Elliot Junction rail accident, Scotland: 22 killed.
• December 30, 1906 – United States – 1906 Washington DC train wreck: A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad locomotive running at full speed ran into a passenger train that had just pulled out of Terra Cotta (now Fort Totten) Station along the B&O Metropolitan Branch, telescoping the rear cars and taking the lives of fifty-three passengers.

1907

• January 2, 1907 – United States – At Volland, Kansas, a Rock Island Railroad operator, who obtained his position assisting the dispatcher by falsifying his age and experience, failed to ensure that the westbound California Fast Mail, which was waiting for an eastbound train, received an order to wait for a second one. It departed and collided with the second train. Thirty passengers on the Mail were killed, as well as a tramp riding the roof of the eastboud train.^[67]
• January 16, 1907 – United Kingdom – Thingley Junction, Chippenham. A head-on collision between two Great Western Railway locomotives, River class 2–4–0 No. 70 "Dart" and Dean Goods No 2448 badly damaged both engines; both were unsalvageable and cut up on site.^[68]
• February 16, 1907 – United States – A train on the newly electrified New York Central Railroad Harlem Division jumped the tracks at Woodlawn Station, resulting in 20 deaths and 150 injuries.^[69]

Aftermath of Felling derailment. (March 26, 1907)

• March 26, 1907 – United Kingdom – A passenger train derailed on buckled track at Felling, County Durham. The signalman had been warned of the buckle by a member of the public but refused to be told to stop trains over the affected lines. Two people were killed and six seriously injured.^[70]
• March 28, 1907 – United States – A Southern Pacific Railroad train was derailed by a "misplaced switch" at Colton, California killing 22.^[71]
• April 14, 1907 – United States – Blossvale crash of 1907 – Annsville, New York. A two steam engine sixty car freight train derailed killing one fireman.^[72]
• May 11, 1907 – United States – A Southern Pacific Railroad special excursion train carrying Shriners from Buffalo, New York derailed approximately 65 miles (105 km) north of Santa Barbara, California between Point Concepcion the mouth of the Santa Ynez River killing 32 people and injuring many others.^[73][74]
• May 11, 1907 - United States - A Santa Fe Railroad passenger train derailed one mile west of Joseph City, Arizona due to failure of a baggage car truck that was not sufficiently sized for the speed of the train. Several people were injured. ^[75]
• July 20, 1907 – United States – A freight train and passenger train on the Pere Marquette Railway collided head-on near Salem, Michigan, due to the freight train crew misinterpreting the intent of a badly written train order. Thirty people were killed.^[76][71]
• August 4, 1907 – France – A bridge at Les Ponts-de-Cé collapsed under a Chemins de fer de l'État train running from Angers to Poitiers. The locomotive, tender, and two cars fell into the Loire; 27 people were killed and 15 injured.^[71]
• August 28, 1907 – United Kingdom – A North Eastern Railway freight train overran signals and derailed at Goswick, Northumberland killing two and seriously injuring one.^[77]
• September 3, 1907 – Canada – Horseshoe Curve Wreck Canadian Pacific Railway – Between Cardwell and Caledon, Ontario. Seven people were killed and 114 injured (out of about 600) in the wreck, which was caused by high speed.
• September 15, 1907 – United States – On the Boston and Maine Railroad, northbound freight train 267 received a train order referring to southbound passenger train 34 instead of train 30, the Quebec to Boston Express, which is 20 minutes ahead of it and is heavily loaded with passengers returning from the Sherbrooke Fair. Consequently, trains 267 and 30 collided at 4:26 a.m. on a foggy Sunday morning, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Canaan station; 25 or 26 people were killed and about 40 injured.^[76][78]
• September 19, 1907 – Mexico – Encarnación: an express passenger train for El Paso, Texas, collided with a freight train that should have waited for it; about 63 people were killed and 43 injured. Reportedly, the engineer of the freight fled home to the United States, was arrested, and admitted responsibility.^[79]
• September 28, 1907 – United Kingdom – Newport rail accident, Newport, Wales killed one person.
• October 15, 1907 – United Kingdom – Shrewsbury rail accident, Shrewsbury, England: An evening sleeping-car and mail train from Manchester to the west of England derailed, probably due to driver error killing 18.
• October 26, 1907 – United Kingdom – At West Hampstead station on the Metropolitan Railway in London, the signalman thought a train had left and overrode the interlocking so he could accept the following train. In fact the first train was still standing at the platform, concealed by a thick fog. Both trains were electric multiple units and when they collided the leading car of the second train telescoped into the rear car of the first. Three people were killed and eleven seriously injured.^[80]
• November 25, 1907 – Spain – An express to Valencia derailed just before a bridge between Cambrils and Hospitalet, and most of the train fell into a river. Of about 70 to 90 people on board, at least 20 were killed and all but two of the rest were injured.^[79]
• December 25, 1907 – India – Two passenger trains collided killing 22 people due to a stationmaster's error with a train order. The source gives the location only as "North-Western State".^[79]

1908

• January 4, 1908 - Canada - A broken rail caused of the derailment of the eastbound express passenger train near Biscotasing, Ontario on the Lake Superior Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway killing two and injuring many.^[81]
• February 2, 1908 – United Kingdom – The driver of a Great Central Railway train knocked himself and his fireman out when he sneezed. The train derailed due to excessive speed at Ryhill, Yorkshire.^[82]
• April 20, 1908 – Australia – Sunshine train disaster, Melbourne: Rear-end collision, killed 44 and injured around 400.
• April 25, 1908 – Mexico – A train carrying pilgrims from the shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe collided at Gargantua siding, near Maltrata killing 28.^[79]
• May 21, 1908 – Belgium – An express train was diverted into a bay platform occupied by a passenger train at Kontich due to a signalman's error. Forty people were killed and over 100 injured.^[83]
• May 1908 – India – A tablet system failure allowed two tablets to be issued for passenger trains on the same section. They collided head-on between Dasna and Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, and burned so intensely as to prevent an accurate count of the dead. About 120 were killed and over 50 injured.^[84]
• July 28, 1908 - Canada - The Pacific Express passenger train was operating in two sections. At Hemlo, Ontario on the Lake Superior Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the following section of the Pacific Express passenger train ran into the rear of the section ahead killing one passenger and injuring others.^[85]
• August 25, 1908 – United States – Seaboard Railway train number 74, Lumpkin, Georgia. Heavy rain caused the tracks to collapse causing the engine to roll over killing the engineer and fireman. The passenger cars remained intact preventing more deaths.
• September 25, 1908 – United States – On the Northern Pacific Railroad, two trains collided head-on at Young's Point (near Billings, Montana), after one of the engineers failed to yield priority to the other killing 23.^[86]
• September 26, 1908 – Germany – Gleisdreieck, Berlin: On the Hochbahn (an elevated portion of the Berlin U-Bahn), a train from Leipziger Platz (now Potsdamer Platz) station violated signals and collided with a train coming from Bülowstraße at the point where their tracks converged to go to Möckernbrücke. One car was knocked to the ground killing 21 and seriously injuring 18. Afterwards, the driver at fault was sentenced to prison and the routes were reconfigured to cross instead of converging.^[86][87]
• October 14, 1908 – United States – Metz, Michigan: An evacuation train operated because of forest fires derailed at a trestle bridge weakened by the flames killing 35, mostly women and children.^[88]
• 1908 – India – Two passenger trains collided on a single-track section of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway, killing 79 people and injuring 119.^[89]
• 1908 – India – An express train ran past signals and collided with a freight on the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway killing 26.^[89]

1909

• January 14, 1909 – France – a train from Paris to Le Mans collided with another train. Orville and Katharine Wright were among the passengers.^[90]
• January 15, 1909 – United States – Dotsero, Colorado, near Glenwood Canyon: Two trains collided head-on on the single track due to a failure to obey train orders killing 20.^[89]
• January 22, 1909 – United Kingdom – two Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway locomotives were shunted into a siding at Hindley & Blackrod Junction, Lancashire, but one of them did not completely clear the main line. A passenger train collided with it, killing one person and injuring 33.^[91]
• February 2, 1909 – United States – Two trains on the Seaboard Railroad collided head-on on Long Cane trestle, approximately six miles east of Abbeville, South Carolina, at about 10:30 pm, killing three crewmen. Reportedly, one of the engineers had his watch set wrongly by an hour.^[92]
• February 3, 1909 – United States – Powersville, Missouri: Two livestock trains on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway collided head-on, killing four crewmen.^[93]
• February 4, 1909 – United States – Near University Heights in the Bronx, New York City, a group of laborers repairing tracks on the New York Central Railroad were struck by a construction train killing six injuring several others.^[94]
• February 24, 1909 – Ecuador – Riobamba: A northbound train derailed due to a track defect and dropped 100 feet (30 m) down a cliff, killing 25 people and injuring 40.^[89]
• March 5, 1909 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train overran signals at Tonbridge Junction, Kent and collided with a mail train killing two and injuring eleven.^[95]
• April 2, 1909 – United Kingdom – The locomotive of a Caledonian Railway express passenger train lost a driving wheel due to the failure of its crank axle causing the train to derailed near Crawford, Lanarkshire.^[96]
• April 21, 1909 – United Kingdom – At Cardiff, Wales, a driver returned his 0-6-2 tank engine to the shed because the injectors will not work and the pressure gauge was reading 200 psi (1.4 MPa) although the safety valves should have opened open at 160 psi (1.1 MPa). The pressure gauge was correct; the safety valves had been misassembled. The pressure rose until the boiler exploded and flew 45 yards (40 m) through the air killing three.^[97]
• June 1, 1909 - Canada - The Canadian Pacific Railway's eastbound Imperial Limited express passenger train ran into an open switch at Hobon, a station west of Chapleau, Ontario on the CPR's Lake Superior Division, causing damage to the locomotive and the mail car. The body of an unauthorized and unidentified rider was found in the wreckage.^[98]
• August 19, 1909 – United Kingdom – A passenger train derailed at Friezland, Cheshire killing the crew. ^[70]
• October 18, 1909 – Canada – A passenger train derailed near Ramsey on the Lake Superior Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway when it encountered a herd of cattle being driven along the railroad right-of-way. Several cars were derailed causing only slight injuries to passengers.^[99]
• November 28, 1909 – Canada – A Great Northern Railway train derailed by a washout at Sapperton, British Columbia, killing 22 people.^[89]
• December 13, 1909 – United States – The New York Central Railroad's New York Central Limited, eastbound from St. Louis, collided at North East, Pennsylvania, on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, with the rear of a stationary Chicago-Boston train killing at least six. Early reports incorrectly stated that the New York Central train was the Twentieth Century Limited.^{[100][101][102]}

See also

• List of London Underground accidents

References

Sources

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External links

• Railroad train wrecks 1907–2007