List of rail accidents (1930–49)

1930

• January 6, 1930 – United Kingdom – The rear carriages of a Southern Railway passenger train from Hastings to London are partially buried by a landslip near Wadhurst tunnel. The train is divided and the front part continues on to Tunbridge Wells, where it arrives 100 minutes late.^[1]
• March 6, 1930 – United Kingdom – a London, Midland and Scottish Railway passenger train departs from Culgaith station, Cumberland against signals. It is in collision with a ballast train at Langwathby station, Cumberland. Two people are killed and four are seriously injured.^[2]
• March 22, 1930 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway Royal Scot express passenger train is derailed at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire when a crossover is taken at excessive speed.^[3]
• April 7, 1930 – Japan – Ōita: Perhaps due to a blasting accident at the colliery, some dynamite ends up in a train's coal supply. When it explodes, the locomotive and several cars are wrecked, 17 people are killed and two seriously injured, and a forest fire is ignited.^[4]
• April 16, 1930 – USSR – At Domodedovo, now in Russia, some denatured alcohol spilled in a train is accidentally ignited. The fire kills 45 people and seriously injures 23.^[4]
• May 20, 1930 – USSR – At Chernaya on the Moscow-Kazan line (all these places are now in Russia), the collision of a passenger and a freight train kills 28 and severely injures 29.^[4]
• June 29, 1930 – USSR – A train from Irkutsk (now in Russia) to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia) is derailed near its destination due to a signalman's error; 22 are killed and 28 seriously injured.^[4]
• July 16, 1930 – Romania – The collision of a passenger and a freight train between Petrova and Vișeu Bistra kills 22 people.^[4]
• December 27, 1930 – China – A passenger train on a branch line of the Peking-Mukden Railway (those cities are now Beijing and Shenyang) is deliberately wrecked by bandits; the locomotive boiler explodes and 20 passengers are kidnapped for ransom. Altogether 80 people are killed.^[5]

1931

• January 3, 1931 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway passenger train is derailed at Carlisle, Cumberland due to excessive speed through a curve. Three people are killed.^[6]
• January 17, 1931 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway newspaper train departs from Thorpe-le-Soken station, Essex against signals and is in a head-on collision with a light engine at Great Holland. Two people are killed.^[7]
• March 22, 1931 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway express passenger train is derailed at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire due to excessive speed through a crossover. Six people are killed.^[6]
• April 20, 1931 – China – Following heavy rain, an embankment collapses under a passenger train from Humchun to Kowloon, Hong Kong (now in China). At least 30 are killed and 20 to 30 seriously injured.^[5]
• April 29, 1931 – Egypt – The rear cars of a passenger train from Alexandria to Cairo, crowded with passengers due to the Eid al-Adha holiday, catch fire on the approach to Benha station. Many passengers jump from the moving train rather than waiting for the station. Altogether 48 people are killed.^[5]
• May 27, 1931 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway passenger train overruns signals and is in a head-on collision with another passenger train at Fakenham East station, Norfolk. One person is killed and fifteen are injured.^[8]
• June 17, 1931 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway mail train overruns signals and is involved in a rear-end collision with an express freight train at Crich, Derbyshire. Two people are killed and seventeen injured.^[9]
• September 13, 1931 – Hungary – Soon after leaving Budapest, an international express en route to Paris and Ostend is destroyed by a dynamite bomb on a bridge at Biatorbágy. Most of the train falls 100 feet (30 m); 22 passengers are killed. The bomber, Szilveszter Matuska, pretends to be a victim and sues the railway, but police checking his story become suspicious. Eventually he is given a death sentence, which is then commuted.^[5][10]
• late September, 1931 – USSR – A troop train southwest of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia) explodes with heavy loss of life.^[5]
• December 1931 – United Kingdom – At Dagenham Dock, Essex, a London and North Eastern Railway passenger train runs into wagons from the preceding freight train, which had been left on the line after a coupling broke. Two people are killed.^[11]

1932

• January 2, 1932 – USSR – At Kosino, just outside Moscow, a train moving at 40 mph (64 km/h) hits the rear of a stopped suburban train. Although there is time, nobody acts to protect the wreckage and a train of empty freight wagons crashes into it. Altogether 68 people are killed and 130 injured, and 11 railwaymen are arrested for criminal negligence.^[12]
• July 17, 1932 – South Africa – At Leeudoorn Stad (now Leeuwdoringstad), southwest of Orkney, a freight train is destroyed by the explosion of over 300 long tons (300 t) of dynamite in 52 wagons. Two craters 40 feet (12 m) deep are left, 5 people killed, 7 injured, and 250 yards (230 m) of track destroyed.^[12]
• September 14, 1932 – Algeria – Turenne rail accident: A 14-car troop train of the French Foreign Legion derails in the Atlas Mountains and plunges 250 feet (76 m) into a gorge. 57 legionnaires and most of the train's crew die; 223 are injured.
• October 16, 1932 - France - A passenger train rams a freight train near Cérences station, Manche, Normandy, and caroms down a steep grade, splintering the lead coaches. Five men and two women are killed and fifteen others injured, all being residents of the local area where the accident occurred.^[13]
• October 18, 1932 - Russia - Heavy loss of life occurs when the Black Sea express train, coming from Sotchi, strikes a freight car that had been mistakenly switched to the express tracks at Lublinoff station, eleven kilometers from Moscow, telescoping five cars, three of them passenger coaches.^[14] Casualties include 36 killed and 51 injured. On October 31, the Soviet government sentences to death the station master whose negligence caused the accident. Three others also sharing responsibility receive prison terms.^[15]
• December 14, 1932 – Switzerland – A collision in the Gutsch Tunnel on the Zürich–Lucerne line kills at least six people.^[16]

1933

• March 4, 1933 – United Kingdom – Great Western Railway freight train is struck by a landslide at Vriog, Merionethshire. The locomotive is pushed into the sea, both engine crew are killed.^[17]
• March 17, 1933 – Manchukuo (now part of China) – A passenger train is stopped between Chengchitun and Ssupingkai (now Siping) due to a "dislocation of the rails" and a freight train collides with its rear, killing 50 people and injuring 70.^[18]
• May 25, 1933 – United Kingdom – A Southern Railway passenger train is derailed at Raynes Park, London and comes to rest foul of the adjacent line. A passing express train collides with it, killing five people and injuring 35. The cause was a failure to implement a speed restriction during permanent way works.^[19]
• July 10, 1933 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway express passenger train collides with a freight train at Little Salkeld, Cumberland due to a signalman's error. One person is killed.^[20]
• September 5, 1933 – United States – A milk train goes through a stop signal and collides with a stopped Erie Railroad passenger train in Binghamton, New York. 14 people are killed, and 30 are injured.^[21]
• September 8, 1933 – United Kingdom – A passenger train runs into four wagons which had been left on the line at Bowling Basin, Dunbartonshire during shunting operations. Five people are injured.^[11]
• October 24, 1933 – France – A Chemins de fer de l'État express from Cherbourg to Paris derails at 65 mph (105 km/h) between Saint-Élier and Conches-en-Ouche, and part of the train falls into the river Iton; 36 people are killed and 68 injured.^[18]
• December 23, 1933 – France – Lagny-Pomponne Railroad Disaster: Rear-end collision of Paris-Nancy express and Paris-Strasbourg fast train between Lagny-sur-Marne and Pomponne (Seine-et-Marne), 17 mi (23 km) out of Paris. 204 are killed and 300 injured aboard the Nancy express as its 7 wood coaches are smashed. The driver of the Strasbourg train had passed a signal at danger in darkness and fog, but the "Crocodile" acoustic warning system was found to have failed because the contacts had iced over. The Compagnie de Chemin de Fer de l'Est was ordered to pay FFr44,000,000 in compensation to victims' families.

1934

• February 18, 1934 – Italy – Near Populonia, on the single-track line from Campiglia Marittima to Piombino, a gasoline-powered railcar going 75 mph (120 km/h) collides with a steam special and catches fire. Of 48 passengers in the railcar, 34 are killed.^[22]
• February 26, 1934 - United States - Seven passengers and two enginemen are killed and some 40 others injured when a Fort Wayne Division Akron to Pittsburgh train of the Pennsylvania Railroad derails one mile short of Penn Station, its destination, just before 2200 hrs. Hitting a frozen switch, the pony truck on locomotive 1638 derails, turning the engine and tender over an embankment into Merchant Street and smashing a signal tower "to splinters" in the process.^[23] Two Pullman cars behind the motive power derail but stay upright, but a following coach and diner drop 20 feet to the street when their couplings break. It is in the coach that the fatalities occur.^[24]
• February 26, 1934 - United States - The Pennsylvania Railroad express, the Fort Dearborn, struck a truck at a grade crossing in a snowstorm at Delphos, Ohio. The engine overturned and seven cars derailed, killing the engineer and fireman, the truck driver, and injuring four more.^[24]
• March 4, 1934 – USSR – At a station 5 miles (8.0 km) from Moscow (now in Russia), a stationary train is struck by another one, killing 19 and injuring 52. The enginemen of the second train are sentenced to death and three other railwaymen to prison.^[22]
• March 12, 1934 – USSR – At Tavatuy, which is northwest of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg, both places now in Russia), a passenger train runs past signals and crashes into a freight; 33 are killed and 68 injured.^[22]
• March 14, 1934 – El Salvador – The explosion of 7 tons of dynamite on a train at La Libertad, a port southwest of San Salvador, kills at least 250 people and injures about 1,000, and destroys many homes. Also involved in the fire are 4,000 cases of gasoline and 15,000 sacks of coffee.^[22][25][26]
• September 6, 1934 – United Kingdom – Two London Midland and Scottish Railway passenger trains collide at Port Eglington Junction, Glasgow, Renfrewshire due to the driver of one of them misreading signals. Nine people are killed and 58 are injured.^[27]
• September 28, 1934 – United Kingdom – Winwick rail crash, near Warrington: overworked signal box crew forget a train halted at a signal and allow another train into section; 12 people killed.
• November 1934 – United Kingdom – a London and North Eastern Railway passenger train collides with a lorry on a level crossing at Wormley, Hertfordshire and is derailed. Both locomotive crew are killed.^[28]
• December 27, 1934 – United States – Powellton, West Virginia: A train carrying miners and their families suffers a boiler explosion. The boiler shot up into the air and landed on the first coach crushing seventeen people to death.^[29]

1935

• January 6, 1935 – USSR – At Porbelo on the railway from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) to Moscow, all now in Russia, an express from Leningrad to Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia) is stopped by a broken rail. The following train, an express to Moscow, runs past signals and crashes into it, killing 23 and badly injuring 56. Seven railwaymen are convicted of criminal negligence.^[30]
• February 25, 1935 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway passenger train is derailed at Ashton-under-Hill, Worcestershire due to a combination of defective track and locomotive design. One person is killed.^[31]
• March 13, 1935 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway express freight train is halted at Kings Langley, Hertfordshire due to a defective vacuum brake. A milk train runs into its rear and a coal train runs into the wreckage of the two trains. The line is reopened the next day.^[32][33]
• April 11, 1935 – United States – Rockville, Maryland: A school bus driver, returning students to Williamsport, Maryland from a field trip at 11:30pm, does not notice the reflective signs at a grade crossing and drives his bus into the path of an oncoming Baltimore & Ohio train. 14 students are killed, 15 others injured. In violation of a Maryland law requiring watchmen at crossings until midnight, the B&O had kept a watchman on duty only until 10pm.^[34]
• June 15, 1935 – United Kingdom – Welwyn Garden City rail crash: Signalman's error. 14 killed 29 injured.
• June 25, 1935 – Ireland – Dún Laoghaire, Ireland: The Drumm Train, a Battery Electric Multiple Unit, runs into a landslide between Dún Laoghaire and Sandy Cove. The train is derailed and is consequently damaged by fire.^[35]

Overseas Railroad rescue train at Islamorada, 1935.

• September 2, 1935 – United States – Islamorada, Florida: The upper Florida Keys are hit by the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. A 10-car rescue train is sent by the Florida East Coast Railway to evacuate hundreds of World War I veterans from government work camps, but is washed from the tracks when the Overseas Railroad is engulfed by a storm surge at Islamorada. Total train fatalities not known (at least 408 estimated storm deaths). Railway link to Florida Keys is left destroyed.
• October 16, 1935 – Brazil – In the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, an express hits a stationary passenger train, killing 20 and injuring over 100.^[30]
• December 13, 1935 – United States – Dearing, Georgia: Three trainmen were killed and ten others injured in the head-on collision of two Georgia Railroad at the station in this town near Augusta. The train bound from Augusta to Atlanta overran a switch and struck a train bound to Augusta from Atlanta which was standing at the depot.^[36]
• December 24, 1935 – Germany – Großheringen: A double-headed express from Berlin to Basel runs past signals and crashes into an Erfurt-Leipzig local on the junction next to a bridge. Some wreckage and bodies end up in the river Saale; 33 people are killed, 7 missing, and 27 seriously injured.^[37]

1936

• 15 January 1936 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway freight train divided at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire leaving six wagons on the main line. A following sleeping car express hauled by King Class locomotive 6007 King William III runs into the wagons at almost 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). Two people are killed.^[38]
• April 16, 1936 – Japan – At the Sumitomo Mine in Tadakuma, Iizuka, the cable snaps on the cable railway used by workers, and the emergency brakes do not hold. The 9-car train runs away and 52 people are killed, 2 missing, and 28 injured.^[39]
• June 22, 1936 – USSR – At Karymskoye, now in Russia, a train is allowed to set out while the track ahead is occupied. The rear-end collision kills 51 people and injures 52; the stationmaster is sentenced to death and eight other people to prison.^[39]
• October 1, 1936 – Poland – A German passenger train from Berlin to Piala (now Baltiysk, Russia) ) collides with a freight at Lamberg in the Polish Corridorm, killing 20 people and injuring 150.^[39]
• October 10, 1936 – Colombia – A trainload of troops is sent to combat bandits; the two rear cars break away, perhaps because of sabotage, and overturn, killing 30 people and injuring 40.^[40]
• 1936 – United Kingdom – A Southern Railway boat train catches fire at Winchester station, Hampshire due to an electrical fault.Hall

1937

• January 16, 1937 – China – Sheklung: Aboard an express from Hong Kong (now in China) to Canton (now Guangzhou), fire broke out in the third-class section. One source refers to a passenger setting fire to a toy made of celluloid,^[40] another to a sulfuric acid explosion.^[41] The train has neither continuous brakes nor any way to notify the driver. The three rear cars of the train are completely burned and bodies of passengers who jumped are scattered along the tracks.^[41] Altogether 112 people are killed and at least 40 injured.^[40]
• 15 February 1937 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway express passenger train derailed at Sleaford North Junction, Lincolnshire due to excessive speed on a curve killing four and injuring 15.^[42][43]
• March 1, 1937 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway passenger train collided with a freight train at Langley, Buckinghamshire and derailed killing one and injuring six.^[44]
• March 8, 1937 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway passenger train derailed at Langrick, Lincolnshire due to defective track.^[42]
• March 1937 – USSR – An official announcement states that 72 employees of the Soviet Railways have been found responsible for an accident in Siberia (now in Russia) and executed, and another 3,000 railway officials are under arrest; presumably this is actually part of the Great Purge.^[39]
• April 2, 1937 – United Kingdom – Battersea Park rail crash, London: two passenger trains collided killing 10 and injuring 17. The signalman believed there was a fault with his equipment and overrode the interlocking.
• April 26, 1937 – United States – Dominguez Canyon rail crash, Colorado: A D&RGW passenger train crashed into gully about 8pm, due to burned out trestle killing 2 and injuring 7. The engineer, CD Freeman, and the fireman, FS Perkins, were killed when the train fell through the unsupported rails due to the trestle having burned out earlier in the day. The crash was at about 8pm so there was insufficient light to see that the trestle had burned out; the crash was ruled accidental.
• June 13, 1937 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway passenger train derailed south of Durham due to the driver misreading signals. Nine people were injured.^[45]
• June 28, 1937 – United Kingdom – A Southern Railway passenger train overruns signals and crashed into an electricity substation at Swanley Junction), Kent. The train had been ordered to make an unscheduled stop at Swanley but the driver was not told of this. Four people were killed.^[46]
• July 17, 1937 – British India – An express from the Punjab to Howrah derailed on damaged track at Bihta, and four cars telescope together; 107 people wre killed and about 65 injured. The Bihta deputy traffic controller was convicted for allowing trains to run at full speed after the track damage was reported. Testing reveals that the damage was caused by the Class XB locomotives in use on the line, which are prone to dangerous oscillations when running at speed.^[47][48][49]
• July 29, 1937 – France – At Villeneuve-Saint-Georges station just outside Paris, railway staff became confused as to whether PLM railway train 107 is going toward Melun or its actual destination of Nîmes. The power-operated switch was moved while the train was crossing it at 50 mph (80 km/h), and the derailment killed 29 people.^[50]
• November 16, 1937 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway steam railcar overran a signal and diverted into a short siding. It overran the buffers and collided with a signal box at Ealing, London.^[51]
• November 17, 1937 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway passenger train overran signals and was in a rear-end collision with an express passenger train at Coppenhall Junction, Crewe, Cheshire.^[52]
• November 18, 1937 - Canada - Thirteen cars of a Canadian Pacific Railway train derailed near Red Rock, Ontario with some of the cars falling onto the adjacent CNR track effectively blocking traffic on both railroads.^[53]
• December 4, 1937 – Spain – A 10-car steam train and a 2-car electric one collided at Valencia, killing 20 people.^[50]
• December 10, 1937 – United Kingdom – Castlecary rail accident, Scotland: A London and North Eastern Railway Edinburgh-Glasgow commuter express, traveling 70 mph (110 km/h) in white-out conditions, rear-ended a local train standing in the station killing 35 killed and injuring 179 injured, most seriously. The local had been running late.

1938

• January 3, 1938 – China – A train from Canton (now Guangzhou) to Hankou (now Wuhan) is derailed by subsidence at Shinchow. At least 100 people are killed and injured.^[54]
• January 3, 1938 – China – A train from Canton (now Guangzhou) to Wachung hits debris in a tunnel damaged by Japanese bombs; 42 are killed.^[54]
• January 16, 1938 – China – Fire breaks out, possibly due to arson, aboard an express on the Kowloon-Canton Railway, Kowloon then being in Hong Kong and now in China, and Canton now being Guangzhou. There are 87 people killed and 30 injured, all in one car of the train.^[55]
• January 21, 1938 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train collides with an empty coaching stock train at Oakley Junction, Bedfordshire due to a signalman's error. Three people are killed and 46 injured.^[56]
• March 29(?), 1938 – Spain – At a level crossing near Valencia, a train crashes into a gasoline truck and catches on fire; 39 people are killed.^[57]
• April 4, 1938 – Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) – While running through a narrow cutting between Plumtree and Tsessebe (near the border with Bechuanaland, now Botswana), an international express from Bulawayo to Cape Town collides head-on with a freight train whose crew has been given erroneous train orders. Altogether 26 people are killed and 22 injured; rescue is impaired by the inaccessible location, but some uninjured passengers give first aid to the victims.^[57]
• June 19, 1938 – United States – Custer Creek train wreck near Saugus, Montana – Milwaukee Road Olympian plunges into Custer Creek when a 25-year-old bridge, weakened by heavy rain, collapses; 47 people killed, many victims in a tourist sleeper that is submerged in 20 feet of water for almost 36 hours. Some bodies recovered as far as 50 miles downstream.^[58]
• July 30, 1938 – Jamaica – near Balaclava Station, five overcrowded cars derail; 32 killed, 70 injured.^[59]
• August 21, 1938 – British India – At Vadamadura on the South Indian Railway, flood damage to a bridge derails a crowded train, killing 33 people and injuring 93.^[60]
• August 19, 1938 – United Kingdom – A Great Western Railway express passenger train is diverted into a siding at Newport, Monmouthshire due to a signalman's error. The train crashes through the buffers but comes to rest short of the River Usk.^[61]
• September 25, 1938 – Spain – On a single-track section at Martorell, northwest of Barcelona, a special train from Vilafranca del Penedès collides with a regular train from the coast.^[62]
• December 1, 1938 – United States – A school bus carrying 39 students in Sandy, Utah pulled onto a railroad track crossing during a snowstorm. A train emerged from the storm killing the bus driver and 23 students.^[63]
• December 19, 1938 – Brazil – On the Central Railway of Brazil, a passenger train crew picks up the wrong order and collides with a freight train between João Ayres and Sitio; 42 people are killed and at least 70 injured.^[62]
• December 24, 1938 – Romania – At Etulia (now in Moldova), two passenger trains collide head-on on single track due to a misunderstanding between stationmasters. One is a local; the other is carrying soldiers going on leave. Altogether 93 people are killed, including a general and two colonels, and 147 are injured.^[62]

1939

• January 5, 1939 - Canada - The derailment of a westbound Canadian Pacific Railway freight train near Nelson, British Columbia results in death and injuries to the head-end train crew.^[64]
• January 12, 1939 – British India – At Hazaribagh on the East Indian Railway, saboteurs remove a 36-foot (11 m) length of rail. The locomotive of the Dehra Dun Express from Howrah actually makes it across the gap and regains the rails, but the track is sufficiently damaged that the rest of the train is derailed, with 21 deaths and 71 injuries. A reward offer of 25,000 rupees fails to lead to a prosecution. This is one of 131 sabotage attempts against the railway in a 10-year period.^[65]
• January 26, 1939 – United Kingdom – An empty fish train runs into the back of a passenger train near Hatfield, Hertfordshire.^[51]
• January 26, 1939 – United Kingdom – A passenger train runs into the back of another near Hatfield. Two people are killed and seven are injured.^[51]
• February 11, 1939 – Spain – Sarrià-Sant Gervasi: a workman's train runs away downhill, crashing into a stationary wagon and then the rear of another train; 53 are killed and at least 100 injured.^[66]
• April 13, 1939 – Mexico – During the period of disruption following the nationalization of Mexico's railways, trains from Guadalajara and Laredo, Texas, collide and 12 passenger cars are destroyed; at least 26 people are killed.^[66]
• April 17, 1939 – British India – At Majhdia, 66 miles (106 km) from Calcutta (now Kolkata) on the Eastern Bengal Railway, the North Bengal Express collides with the Dacca Mail (Dacca is now Dhaka, Bangladesh), killing 35 people including two Bengal legislators, and injuring 31.^[66]
• April 27, 1939 – United States – A log truck across the track sends a Union Pacific passenger train flying off the tracks in the Washington State town of Bucoda; several passengers, truck driver and crew members killed, and multiple cars are destroyed.^[67]
• June 1, 1939 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway express passenger train collides with a lorry on a level crossing at Hilgay Fen, Norfolk and is derailed. Four people are killed and twelve injured.^[68]
• June 8, 1939 – United Kingdom – Two passenger trains collide at Manchester Central station, Lancashire due to one of them departing against a danger signal.^[69]
• August 5, 1939 – United Kingdom – A London, Midland and Scottish Railway express passenger train is derailed at Saltcoats, Ayrshire when vandals place rocks on the line. Four people are killed.^[70]
• August 5, 1939 – United Kingdom – Workmen building a new military camp crossing the Southern Railway line at Bramshot Halt struck by express train. Three killed and others seriously injured.^[71]
• August 12, 1939 – United States – 1939 City of San Francisco Derailment – An act of sabotage sends the City of San Francisco flying off a bridge in the Nevada desert; 24 passengers and crew members are killed, and five cars are destroyed. This case remains unsolved.^[72]
• September 2, 1939 – France – A collision at Les Aubrais kills 35 and injures 77.^[73]
• October 8, 1939 – Germany – At Gesundbrunnen in Berlin, an express from Sassnitz collides with another passenger train, killing 20 people.^[73]
• October 14, 1939 – United Kingdom – Bletchley, Buckinghamshire: the London Midland and Scottish Railway Night Scot express passenger train collides with a LNWR Class G1 locomotive that was adding a van at the rear of a Euston-Inverness passenger train at Bletchley railway station, demolishing a part of the station. Five people are killed and over 30 are injured.^[74] Both drivers of the Night Scot failed to observe several signals properly.^[75]
• October 16, 1939 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway train is involved in an accident at Winwick Junction, Cheshire. The report into the accident is declared secret due to World War II.^[76]
• October 21, 1939 – Mexico – A freight train from Veracruz to the Pacific coast, with workers and their families on board, derails and catches fire between Santa Lucrecia and Matías Romero; 40 are killed.^[73]
• October 26, 1939 – Germany – An accident at St. Valentin (now in Austria) kills at least 20 people and seriously injures 30.^[77]
• October 30, 1939 – Italy – An electric train from Milan to Rome gets only as far as Lambrate before colliding with an express from Venice; about 20 are killed.^[77]
• November 12, 1939 – Germany – On the single-track branch line, now in Poland, between Cosel and Bauerwitz (now Koźle and Baborów), a signalman's error at Rosengrund (now Zakrzów) causes a collision of two crowded local trains between there and Langlieben (now Długomiłowice). There are 43 people killed and 60 injured.^[77]
• November 20, 1939 – Germany – At Spandau in Berlin, nine people are killed in a collision.^[78]
• November 26, 1939 – Germany – Nieder Wöllstadt: 15 people are killed in a collision.^[78]
• December 1, 1939 – Romania – A construction special, carrying workers and materials for a new branch from Avrig to nearby Mârșa, runs away downhill and crashes near Sibiu; 20 people are killed and 16 seriously injured.^[77]
• December 12, 1939 – Germany – Hagen: A head-on collision kills 15 people.^[78]

Genthin rail crash memorial.

• December 22, 1939 – Germany – Genthin rail disaster: collision when train D180 drives into previous delayed and overcrowded train D10 from Berlin to Cologne. 278 killed, 453 injured. Highest number of fatalities ever in an accident in Germany.
• December 22, 1939 - Germany - Markdorf, Lake Constance: Mistake of a traffic controller leads to a head-on collision of a passenger train and a cargo train. 101 killed, 47 injured.
• December 30, 1939 – Italy – A troop train stops at Torre Annunziata to be overtaken by the Calabria express, but cannot be sidetracked because the points are frozen. The troop train is ordered to proceed, but the express runs past signals and crashes into it, killing 29 people.^[78]

1940

• January 29, 1940 – Japan – At Ajikawaguchi Station in Osaka, a crowded commuter train crashes into gasoline tank cars, and burns; about 181 passengers are killed, and different sources give the number injured as 82, 92,^[79] 100,^[80] or 669.^[81]
• February 4, 1940 – United Kingdom – A train runs into a landslip at Watford Tunnel, Hertfordshire and is derailed. One person is killed, six are injured.^[82]
• late February, 1940 – Mexico – An express en route to the United States collides with a freight train at Querétaro, killing 20 people.^[81]
• March 4, 1940 – Japan – In Yamagata Prefecture, a train emerges from a tunnel onto a bridge that has been destroyed by an avalanche. The locomotive and leading cars fall 75 feet (23 m), killing 37 people.^[81]
• March 5, 1940 – Finland – During the Winter War, children are being evacuated to neutral Sweden. At Iitala, near Tampere, during a blizzard, an evacuation train on the Helsinki to Tornio line collides head-on with a train that overran signals, and catches fire. Of the 21 people killed, 16 are children (including three from one family) and two are mothers.^[81]
• March 12, 1940 – Finland – Turenki: a troop train and a freight train collided after being let on the same piece of track by mistake, leaving 39 people dead and 69 injured. This is still the worst train accident in Finland.^[83]
• March 14, 1940 – United States – Alamo Texas: An oncoming train collided with a truck carrying more than 40 agricultural workers, killing 34 people ranging in ages from ten to 48. The collision at the railroad crossing on Tower Road in Alamo resulted in the most deaths on a Texas highway in the 20th century. Historical Marker has been added to commemorate the passing of the great agricultural workers as well as a gathering during this time yearly.^[84]
• March 17, 1940 – Yugoslavia – A train on the line connecting Karlovac (now in Croatia) and Ljubljana (now in Slovenia) is derailed by a landslide between Ozalj and nearby Zaluka (both now in Croatia); 20 are killed.^[81]
• April 19, 1940 – United States – Little Falls Gulf Curve crash of 1940 – Little Falls, New York, United States: The New York Central Lake Shore Limited, running from New York City to Chicago derailed due to excessive speed on a curve killing 31 and injuring nearly 140. The train had left Albany 21 minutes behind schedule and the engineer was trying to make up time.^[85]
  

  Memorial plaque for 1940 Lakeshore Limited derailment in Little Falls, New York.
• May 5, 1940 – France – A train from Paris to Montluçon is wrecked when flood-weakened bridge collapses under it between Épineuil-le-Fleuriel and Vallon-en-Sully; 33 are killed and 46 seriously injured.^[86]
• May 18, 1940 – France – Morgny-la-Pommeraye: During the mass movement of people resulting from the German invasion of Belgium, a train of Belgian refugees collides with a train of French refugees, killing 53 people killed and 128 injured; the driver at fault is prosecuted for negligent homicide.^[87][86]
• July 31, 1940 – United States – Doodlebug Disaster – Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, United States: The PRR "Doodlebug", a gasoline-electric interurban car, fails to take a siding and collides with an oncoming freight, causing the gas tanks to explode. The crew jump before the crash; all 43 passengers die as the wreck burns too intensely to allow rescuers near for half an hour. A federal investigation suggests the Doodlebug's driver had become disoriented due to carbon monoxide in a poorly ventilated cab.
• August 5, 1940 – British India – The Dacca Mail (Dacca is now Dhaka, Bangladesh) on the Eastern Bengal Railway is derailed at Jairampur, 80 miles (130 km) from Calcutta (now Kolkata) by track sabotage; 34 people are killed and 50 injured.^[88]
• October 14, 1940 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway express passenger train is derailed at Wembley, Middlesex when a platform barrow falls onto the track. A number of people are killed and many are injured.^[27]
• November 4, 1940 – United Kingdom – Norton Fitzwarren rail crash, England: A Great Western Railway train driver reads the signals for the main track when his train is on the relief track that ends there, and runs off the end of it. Coaches telescope, killing 27 and injuring 75. Contributory causes include a nonstandard placement of signals and the invisibility of the tracks during the wartime blackout.
• November 14, 1940 – German-occupied Belgium – A train from Tienen collides with a stationary train in Diegem station, just outside Brussels; 21 are killed.^[88]
• November 19, 1940 – German-occupied Norway – Freight and passenger trains collide at Malvik, 10 miles (16 km) east of Trondheim; 22 are killed. Sabotage is suspected.^[89]
• December 3, 1940 – Spain – Velilla de Ebro: A westbound express from Barcelona is supposed to wait on a side track for an express from Madrid to Barcelona, but overshoots and the trains collide head-on at 4:00 am in −10 °C (14 °F) weather, killing 47 people and injuring at least 64.^[89]
• December 19, 1940 - United States – The Seaboard Air Line Sunbeam and an Atlantic Coast Line freight collide at a right angle crossing at Zephyr Hills, Florida, killing Benjamin J. Green, engineer of the Sunbeam, in his cab, and injuring ten of the passengers and crew. "Trainmen on both railroads said they did not know what caused the accident, but believed the automatic signals had gone wrong. Normally, the passenger train would have had the right of way, they said."^[90]
• December(?) 1940 – Mexico – A repair train derails near Iguala and falls down a cliff. There are 71 deaths.^[89]

1941

• January 6, 1941 – Hungary – An accident at Berettyóújfalu kills 20 soldiers.^[89]
• February 10, 1941 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway passenger train overruns signals and runs into the rear of an express train at Harold Wood, Essex. Seven people are killed and seventeen are seriously injured.^[91]
• February 15, 1941 – Spain – During a storm, an electric train on the metre-gauge railway from San Sebastián to Bilboa loses power and stops on a bridge at Zumaia. Then the wind increases and blows three cars of the train off the bridge and into the river below, killing 20 people and injuring over 100.^[89]
• February 21, 1941 – United States – Piedmont & Northern train no. 5, west-bound through a curve near Fairmont Station, eight miles W of Spartanburg, South Carolina, strikes rear of stopped freight. Flagman jumps from electric ex-Pennsylvania Railroad combine no. 350 before impact with steel caboose, but engineer killed. Fifteen other passengers in following ex-PRR trailer are injured.^[92]
• mid-March, 1941 – Chile – An accident at Calera kills 20 people and injures at least 60.^[89]
• April 23, 1941 – Uganda Protectorate – A derailment near Kampala kills 20 people.^[89]
• May(?) 1941 – Japanese Taiwan – At Kyujo, freight train from Takao (now Kaohsiung) crashes head-on into a passenger train from Keelung; 200 people are killed or injured.^[93]
• July 2, 1941 – United Kingdom – An express train and a freight train collide at Slough, Buckinghamshire. Five people are killed and 25 are injured.^[94]
• July 20, 1941 – Italy – On a viaduct near Como, an object protruding from a freight train smashes into a passenger train carrying workers to Germany; 30 are killed.^[93]
• August 9, 1941 – Canada – a Canadian National Railways passenger train collides with a stationary engine at the Turcot Yards, Montreal, Quebec... the fireman is killed and the engineer is severely injured in the resulting boiler explosion. 53 of the passengers are injured.
• September 16, 1941 – Japan – Aboshi Station: an express from Tokyo runs past signals and crashes into a stationary train for Kyoto; 63 people are killed and 67 injured, 19 seriously, and the driver of the express is detained by police.^[95]
• November 2, 1941 – France – At Paris Austerlitz station, an express from Orléans crashes into an empty train, killing 21 and injuring 7.^[95]
• December 3, 1941 - Canada - A Canadian Pacific Railway train approaching Ottawa, Ontario, suddenly leaves the tracks, resulting in the death of the locomotive engineer and injuring 29 others.^[96]
• December 21, 1941 – Italy – An accident to the funicular on Mount Vesuvius kills 25 people.^[95]
• December 27, 1941 – Germany – In a snowstorm, a Berlin-Warsaw express crashes into a stationary train between Frankfurt an der Oder and Posen (now Poznań, Poland). There are 38 deaths.^[93]
• December 28, 1941 – German-occupied France – On the line between Armentières and Berguettes (now Isbergues), two passenger trains collide head-on between Laventie and La Gorgue. One source says 56 people are killed and 40 injured;^[93] another says from 67 to perhaps over 100 dead.^[97]
• December 30, 1941 – United Kingdom – Eccles rail crash (1941); Collision in fog kills 23.

1942

• April 25th, 1942 - United States - Southern Railway 1401 and it's sibling locomotive #1403 hit a stalled truck on the crossing in Norcross, Georgia. Both engines were double heading a Washington to Atlanta passenger train when it hit the stalled truck and turned onto their sides along with the passenger cars. No one was killed, but one of the engineers suffered a broken arm and several passengers were shaken. The two occupants of the truck leaped for safety and escaped injury.^[98]
• May 16, 1942 – British India – In what is now Pakistan, Hurs sabotage the track to derail the Punjab Mail train to Lahore between Tando Adam Khan and nearby Odero Lal, derailing the locomotive and 6 cars. The dacoits then attack the passengers and steal their valuables. Altogether 22 people are killed, including a minister of the Sindh government, and 26 injured.^[99]
• September 4, 1942 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway freight train is derailed by trap points at Todmorden, Yorkshire due to the driver missing signals under blackout conditions. Both locomotive crew are injured.^[61]
• October 17, 1942 – China – Some 500 Japanese are killed or injured when a troop train hits a Chinese mine near Shanhsiatu in northern Kiangsi (now Jiangxi) province.^[100]
• November 4, 1942 – United Kingdom – a Southern Railway electric multiple unit runs into the rear of another at Waddon, Surrey due to a signalman's error. Two people are killed.^[101]
• December 27, 1942 – Canada – In bad weather at Almonte, Ontario, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, a passenger train en route from Chalk River to Ottawa stops with its rear outside the station and no one goes back to protect it. As the signal is cleared for the train to leave, the engineer of the next train, a special troop train, mistakes it for his own and crashes into the first train. There are 36 people killed and 200 injured.^[99]

1943

• January 4, 1943 – Germany – An express runs into the back of a stationary train between Hanover and Wunstorf, killing 20 people and seriously injuring another 20.^[102]
• January 22, 1943 - Canada - The locomotive engineer and the fireman of a Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train are killed at Tapley, Ontario when their engine leaves the tracks pulling the baggage car and a passenger coach with it. They are the only casualties. The passengers are shaken up but not seriously injured.^[103]
• April 29, 1943 - Canada - Seventeen passengers are slightly injured when a Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train leave the rails approximately seven miles west of Chapleau, Ontario. The suspected cause is a broken rail.^[104]
• June 3, 1943 – British India – Near Akola on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, a mail train from Bombay to Calcutta (now Mumbai and Kolkata) collides at full speed with a goods train; 50 are killed and 100 injured.^[102]
• June 4, 1943 – New Zealand – Hyde railway accident, New Zealand: Train derails taking a curved cutting at over twice the rated speed. 21 killed, 47 injured. Engineman found to have been drunk on duty; served 3 years for manslaughter.
• July 6, 1943 – Turkey – In Istanbul, the funicular cable on the Tünel snaps. One train is braked to a stop, but the other train runs away and one car smashes out of the lower station and into the street; at least one person is killed and 20 taken to hospital.^[105][106] Some accounts indicate as many as 18 dead and 44 injured, with both trains running away.^[102]
• August 30, 1943 – United States – At Wayland, New York, the Lackawanna Limited, flagship passenger train of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad sideswiped a local freight that had not cleared into a siding. 28 killed, 110 injured.^[107][108]
• September 6, 1943 – United States – Frankford Junction train wreck, 79 people are killed, and 117 injured when the Pennsylvania Railroad's Congressional Limited derails in Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, due to an axle bearing overheating. The accident occurred as the signalman at Frankford Junction was telephoning the next tower to stop the train.
• October 6, 1943 – German-occupied France – Chalon-sur-Saône: An express for Lyon crashes into a derailed fright train, killing 21 people and injuring about 90.^[109]
• October 29, 1943 - Canada - The westbound Canadian Pacific Railway transcontinental passenger train has four cars derail approximately 40 miles east of Chapleau, Ontario. The injuries to passengers and train crew are slight.^[110]
• November 14, 1943 – British India – The Indo-Ceylon Boat Mail derails at 3:30 am at Serndhanur, between Cuddalore Junction and Viluppuram, killing 39 people and injuring 88.^[111][112]
• December 16, 1943 – United States – Rennert railroad accident, North Carolina; 74 people were killed on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad when the northbound Tamiami Champion struck the derailed rear three carriages of the southbound Tamiami Champion.

1944

Train wreck near St. Malo France August 1944.

• January 3, 1944 – Spain – Torre del Bierzo rail disaster: Near Torre del Bierzo on the line between León and A Coruña, passenger and mail train runs away following a brake failure and collides in a tunnel with short train being shunted; this destroys the signal cables so that an oncoming coal train cannot be warned and it collides with the wreckage, which burns. Estimates of the death toll range from the official 78 to probably exaggerated figures of over 500.^{[113][114][115]}
• January 11, 1944 – Spain – An accident near Arévalo kills 37 people.^[113]
• January 16, 1944 – United Kingdom – Ilford rail crash (1944), England: an express passenger train from Norwich to London Liverpool Street station passes a signal set at danger, and runs into the back of an express passenger train from Yarmouth. 9 killed.
• January 20, 1944 – Germany – At Porta Westfalica station, in the Weser gorge on the line between Hanover and Osnabrück, an express crashes into a stationary train; 53 are killed and 62 injured.^[113]
• March 3, 1944 – Italy – Balvano train disaster: 530 people riding a freight train die of carbon monoxide poisoning when the locomotive stalls in a tunnel.
• June 2, 1944 – United Kingdom – Soham rail disaster, England: The leading wagon of a train carrying American ammunition to a base in Essex caught alight; the burning wagon was pulled clear of the other fifty, but it exploded killing the fireman and signalman.
• July 6, 1944 – United States – At High Cliff, 3 miles east of Jellico, Tennessee, a troop train carrying new recruits on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, traverses a series of reverse curves at 45 mph (72 km/h) when the speed limit is 35 mph and the track is somewhat defective. The locomotive and 4 leading cars derail and fall 50 feet (15 m) into a small river called the Clear Fork; 35 people are killed and about 100 or more injured.^[116][117]
• July 1944 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway passenger train is derailed by faulty points at Pannal, Yorkshire.^[118]
• August 4, 1944 – United States – Stockton train wreck, derailment caused by broken rail kills 47 in Stockton, Georgia
• September 3, 1944 – Japan – Gokurakubashi (Mount Koya) bound train was traveling on a climb gradient of Nankai Koya Line, has a sudden stop and fire broke out from under the floor in Wakayama Prefecture. In an incident caused by as a flaw to how to hang the brake stop where it was inspected, it was derailed by a curve overthrow interval train to reverse-way traveling the steep gradient of 50 per mil. 71 people were killed and 138 were injured.^[119]
• September 18–20, 1944 – United States – A Great Northern Railway (GN) freight train collides with a Northern Pacific Railway (NP) freight near Castle Rock, Washington, on the NP. The wreckage blocks the eastbound track, so eastbound trains must use the westbound track without the protection of automatic signals. While doing this the next day, the crew of an eastbound GN special passenger train throws out a fusee to protect the train, but it burns out and the following eastbound train, another GN special with presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey aboard, crashes into the first train. The following day the NP suffers another accident when a dispatcher's error causes two freights to collide at a closing speed of 60 mph (100 km/h) on the Hoquiam branch. Altogether 4 people are killed and 69 injured in the three crashes.^[120]
• November 2, 1944 – Romania – A military train and goods train collide at Craiova, killing 60 and injuring 100.^[120]
• November 7, 1944 – Puerto Rico – Passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico due to excessive speed on a descent. 16 killed; 50 injured.
• November 8, 1944 – United States – Nine killed and 125 injured when, at dawn, the first section of the westbound Southern Pacific Challenger jumps the tracks and hurtles into a ditch three miles (5 km) west of Colfax.^[121]
• November 14, 1944 - United States - Newport, Pennsylvania - Two Pennsylvania Railroad freights collide head-on at about 2200 hours ET on a track normally reserved for westbound traffic. About five minutes later, a westbound special troop train, headed from New York to Chicago, strikes the wreck. Injuries included the engineer and fireman of the westbound freight, and two porters and an enlisted man on the passenger special.^[122]
• November 24, 1944 – Poland – Collision of two trains (German supply train and Polish passenger train) in Barwald Sredni, occupied Poland. 130 people killed and over 100 wounded.^[123]
• December 31, 1944 – United States – Bagley train wreck near Ogden, Utah kills 48.

1945

• January 10, 1945 – United Kingdom – Ballymacarrett rail crash, East Belfast. Collision in fog. 22 killed, 27 injured.
• January 11, 1945 – France – A collision at Rozières-sur-Mouzon, on the line between Nancy and Dijon, kills 23 people and injures 9.^[124]
• January 18, 1945 – France – At the branch-line terminus of Saint-Valery-en-Caux, a 45-car train full of American troops runs away and crashes through the buffer stop. One source says 84 people are killed and 226 injured;^[124] another says 89 killed and 152 injured.^[125]
• February 1, 1945 – Mexico – At El Cazadero in Querétaro, two passenger trains both going to the festival at San Juan de los Lagos collide and three of the cars catch fire; 127 are killed.^[124]
• February 4, 1945 – United Kingdom – King's Cross railway accident, London, England: a train for Leeds departs from platform 5 into the uphill Gasworks Tunnel, but begins sliding backwards on slippery rails, and with few lights in the tunnel, the driver does not notice. With the points changed behind the train, it is now moving toward the occupied platform 10. A signalman's attempt to divert it is a few seconds too late and derails the rear car (now leading) instead. It collides with a signal gantry, killing 2 passengers, and with the train in platform 10.
• March 6, 1945 - Canada - A Westbound Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train encounters a broken rail and all nine passenger cars derail at Zorra, Ontario. The first two cars of this train turn over while the remaining seven remained upright.^[126]
• March 22, 1945 – British India – In what is now Pakistan, a passenger train from Karachi to Rohri is rear-ended at Jungshahi by a goods train; 24 are people killed and 43 injured.^[127]
• May 21, 1945 – United States – Piqua, Ohio, United States: a seventeen-car west bound troop train, travelling on the Pennsylvania Railroad line, derails at high speed. Eight cars plunge down a 20-foot (6.1 m) embankment, injuring 24 of the 400 soldiers on board; poor track maintenance due to wartime personnel shortages is blamed.^[128]
• June 13, 1945 – Italy – At Baschi, near Orvieto on the line from Florence to Rome, the driver of a freight train including 15 tank cars of gasoline misinterprets a hand signal and proceeds, colliding head-on with a passenger train with many Italian and some British soldiers aboard. The resulting fire is so devastating that the number of dead can only be estimated, as about 70; 100 people are taken to hospital with injuries.^[127]
• June 15, 1945 - United States - Near Milton, Pennsylvania: The Buffalo-bound Pennsylvania Railroad Dominion Express derails, killing some 18 aboard. Wreck crews recover the bodies of 14 passengers and two crew five hours after the accident, which also injures at least 27 others seriously enough for hospitalization.^[129]
• July 16, 1945 – Germany – Aßling: A US Army train carrying tanks runs into a passenger train which had stalled due to an engine breakdown after the American signalman tells the freight train to proceed despite the track still being occupied. About 110 German POWs are killed as the mostly wooden coaches of the passenger train are destroyed.^[130]
• July 21, 1945 – United Kingdom – A London Midland and Scottish Railway express passenger train overruns signals and collides with a freight train that is shunting at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. Two people are killed and 31 are injured.^[131]
• July 27, 1945 – France – At Saint-Fons, near Lyon, a passenger train and a munitions train collide, igniting not only the wreckage but also the local gas works. Different sources say 4 people are killed and 27 injured,^[132][133] or "numerous passengers" killed,^[134] or about 150 people killed.^[127]
• August 9, 1945 – United States – Michigan train wreck: The first section of the Great Northern's Empire Builder is stopped by a hot box at Michigan City, North Dakota. The crew does not protect the rear, and the second section plows into it; 34 are killed and about 50 injured.^[127]
• August 13, 1945 – British-occupied zone of Germany – Two trains carrying soldiers on leave collide head-on at Goch on the single-track branch from Krefeld, reopened only a week before; 21 people are killed.^[127]
• September 2, 1945 – United Kingdom – Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England. A Streatham to Newhaven empty coaching stock train, failed to stop after being signalled into a siding. It ran through the buffer stops and into the buttress of Haywards Heath Tunnel, killing the driver and fireman. It had been diverted into the siding, in order to reverse onto the up line, as the down line had been taken out of service by an engineering possession.^[135]
• September 4, 1945 – France – Due to a signalman's error, a military mixed train consisting of 8 passenger cars followed by 4 empty freight wagons, and 19 tank cars of gasoline is diverted into a siding at Kédange-sur-Canner where it crashes into a stationary freight train. The resulting fire spreads to the passenger cars; 39 people are killed and 34 injured.^[127]
• September 4, 1945 - United States - The second section of the EB double-headed AT&SF California Limited derails at Arcadia, California, ~one mile from the Santa Anita racetrack, killing the engineer, four passengers, and injuring 115 others. Company officials place blame on the engineer for excessive speed but an investigation by Los Angeles county authorities suggests that a broken rail may have been responsible.^[136]
• September 7, 1945 – United Kingdom – The bank of the Shropshire Union Canal fails near Sun Bank Halt, Denbighshire and causes the trackbed of the Ruabon to Barmouth Line to be washed away for 40 yards (37 m). A Great Western Railway mail and freight train is derailed, with all vehicles except a brake van destroyed in the ensuing fire. One person is killed and two are injured.^[137]
• September 9, 1945 – Argentina – A passenger train derails in Iturbe, Jujuy, killing 36 and injuring more than 50.^[138][139]
• September 12, 1945 - United States - The Pennsylvania Railroad's Washington-to-Detroit Red Arrow strikes a stalled automobile at Tiro, Ohio, derailing the locomotive and seven cars. At least 14 are injured.^[140]
• September 21, 1945 – France – On the Vernaison bridge, located not in Vernaison but over the Isère at Romans-sur-Isère, with one track still out of service due to wartime damage, a mixed train is signaled onto the single remaining track and collides head-on with a Micheline en route from Grenoble to Valence, and there is a fire; 30 people are killed and 106 injured.^[141][142]
• September 29, 1945 - United States - The fireman on the AT&SF California Limited receives steam burn injuries when the locomotive and two baggage cars pile up against a freight locomotive and two or three cars which derail at Turner, Missouri, before the express can be flagged.^[143]
• September 30, 1945 – United Kingdom – Bourne End rail crash, England: train fails to slow down for temporary diversion to slow lines and derails, 43 killed.
• November 15, 1945 – Spain – A mail and a freight train collide at Fuensanta, near Huércal-Overa in Almería province, killing 20 people.^[141]

1946

• January 1, 1946 – United Kingdom – Lichfield rail crash, Point failure results in 20 deaths.
• January 5, 1946 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway freight train becomes divided south of Durham. The train is stopped at Browney but the second part of the train crashes into it. The wreckage causes a false clear signal to be given, and an express passenger train travelling in the opposite direction crashes into it. Ten people are killed and eight are seriously injured.^[118][144]
• February 10, 1946 – United Kingdom – A combination of driver and signalman's errors results in London and North Eastern Railway passenger train being derailed at Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. An express passenger train crashes into it, followed by another minutes later. Two people are killed.^[145]
• March 4, 1946 – British India – A freight train collides head-on with the Dehra Dun Express at Baghauli; 60 people are killed, including both drivers, and 48 injured, most of the casualties being in a third-class car.^[146]
• March 20, 1946 – Brazil – Aracaju train crash, 185 are killed and 300 injured in Brazil's worst ever train crash when a train derails descending a steep gradient near Aracaju, capital of Sergipe state.
• April 26, 1946 – United States – Naperville train disaster in Naperville, Illinois: Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Advance Flyer, stopped in Naperville station to check the running gear, is rammed by the Burlington's Exposition Flyer, coming through on the same track at 80 mph (130 km/h). 47 killed, some 125 injured.
• July 17, 1946 – United Kingdom – Two passenger trains collide at Victoria Station, London. Seven people were hospitalised.^[147]
• July 28, 1946 – British India – At Bhatni Junction on the Oudh and Tirhut Railway, a train to Katihar is struck in the rear by one going to Allahabad, killing 223 people.^[146]
• August 3, 1946 - United States - in Wayne County, New York, four Clyde were killed when westbound New York Central passenger train, estimated by some workers to be traveling over 70 mph bore down on the men as they were trying to remove a bolting machine on a curve on track 1. A freight train was passing them on track 2 at the time of the fatality which was set as 1:25 EST. All victims were veterans with the railroad.^[148]
• August 21, 1946 – United States – near Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States: The Mail Express Number 6 was eastbound at the time of the accident and had passed through Rock Springs at 2:07 a.m. The train was due to arrive in Rawlins at 2:55 a.m. but had derailed about 2:20 a.m. The train derailment occurred about a mile west of the Thayer junction. References: The Rawlins Daily Times, Rawlins, Wyoming, Wednesday, August 21, 1946, Volume LVIII, Number 162, pages 1 and back page and Thursday, August 22, 1946, Volume LVIII, Number 163, pages 1 and 6. Early reports the wreck had been caused by a broken rail or an open switch were not confirmed by Union Pacific. Cause of the derailment was still undetermined on August 22, 1946 and officials were quoted as saying that they doubted it would be announced. Seven men injured and one died. The deceased was the engineer, David Francis Michie, born 4 July 1886 who died on 21 August 1946 in Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyoming at 12:20 a.m. of severe burns he suffered in the derailment.^{[149][150][151]}
• September 20, 1946 – United Kingdom – near Catford, south east London: A London Victoria to Ramsgate passenger train derails on a curve at 40 mph (64 km/h). Seven of the nine carriages leave the track, with the first four dropping to the bottom of the 20-foot (6.1 m) embankment. One passenger from the first carriage is killed. Derailment was due to poor track.^[152]
• September 23, 1946 – British India – On the Oudh and Tirhut Railway, the Lucknow Express is derailed between Dighwara and Barra Gopal, killing 27 and injuring 70.^[146]
• October 4, 1946 – British India – At Ongole on the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, a goods train collides with the Madras to Calcutta (now Chennai and Kolkata) mail, killing 36 and injuring 81.^[146]
• November 12, 1946 – France – A freight train runs past two danger signals and collides with a stationary local passenger train at Revigny-sur-Ornain, killing 31 people, almost half of them schoolchildren.^[146]
• December 13, 1946 – United States – near Coulter, Ohio, United States: The Pennsylvania Railroad's Golden Triangle sleeper train derails in darkness when it strikes the wreckage of 2 freight trains which had rear-ended half an hour earlier on an adjacent track. 19 killed, 139 injured. Most of the dead are soldiers on furlough from Fort Dix, New Jersey, seated in two day coaches at the front of the train.^[153]
• 1946 – United States – MP 85.5 (Winona), C&G CAGY locomotive #506 a 2-8-2 built as Fort Smith & Western #25, a converted Camelback locomotive, picked a switch and struck a line of tank cars waiting in a siding; killing the engineer of the train and severely injuring the fireman. The exact cause is unknown, but believed to have been caused by a previous crew not closing a switch fully.^[154]

1947

• January 2, 1947 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway express passenger train overruns signals and crashes into the rear of another at Gidea Park, Essex. Two people are killed and 45 are hospitalised.^[155]
• January 21, 1947 – United Kingdom – a Southern Railway electric multiple unit is run into by an empty passenger train at South Bermondsey, London.^[156]
• February 18, 1947 – United States – Blair County, Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania Railroad's "Red Arrow" from Pittsburgh to New York derailed at Bennington Curve west of Horseshoe Curve at 3:22 am local time. The train was going at excessive speed. Two of the PRR K4s engines slid down the mountain, along with several coaches. Of the 155 passengers on board, 24 died and 104 were injured (including crew). Ten of 15 cars derailed.^[157]
• February 25, 1947 – Japan – Hachikō Line derailment: A Japanese Government Railways passenger train derails on a sharp curve on the Hachikō Line between Komagawa and Higashi-Hannō stations due to excessive speed, causing four cars to roll off the track and into a field, killing 184 and injuring 495 in the worst rail accident in Japan since World War II.^[158]
• April 3, 1947 – United States – Downers Grove train wreck, Illinois, USA: The Twin Cities Zephyr, traveling at about 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) through the Downers Grove depot, strikes a heavy caterpillar tractor which had fallen from a freight train only seconds earlier. At least 3 die and more than 30 are injured.
• April 9, 1947 - United States - Raton, New Mexico - Eastbound Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Train No. 18, Super Chief, derails southwest of Raton, New Mexico, with two cars near the middle of the 13-car consist overturning. At least 26 suffer injuries. The three-unit diesel power set breaks away from the cars with the lead unit's nose coming to rest on a trestle over a dry river bed, and one diesel overturns. Only the last two cars remain on the rails, with the others jack-knifed across the roadbed. Railroad officials said that there 149 aboard the train.^[159]
• April 12, 1947 – United Kingdom – A passenger train is derailed near Keighley, Yorkshire when a bridge collapsed under it due to storm damage.^[160]
• May 1, 1947 – United States – Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, USA: Two huge inch-thick steel plates on a Pennsylvania Railroad freight train strike and cut open the side of the first coach of the 15-car New York to St. Louis American, killing at least four passengers and injuring 40 others in a 1:47 a.m. EST accident five miles W of the town. The steel plates are then jolted onto another track of the four-track mainline, derailing a third train, a freight.^[161][162]
• May 5, 1947 – Australia – Camp Mountain rail accident, Queensland: A picnic train derails after taking a sharp curve too fast on the Dayboro line to the north-west of Brisbane. 16 killed.
• May 17, 1947 – British India – In what is now Bangladesh, on the metre-gauge Akhaura–Laksam–Chittagong line of the Bengal and Assam Railway, an express train derails between Kamalasagar and Nayanpur and cars roll down an embankment, killing 36 people and injuring 58.^[163]
• May 30, 1947 – United States – The engineer and fireman of the Frisco railroad's Florida Special are killed in a derailment near Mansfield, Missouri. Two passenger cars leave the rails but remained upright and none of the passengers sustained injury.^[164]
• June 3, 1947 – United States – Two crew members of a northbound train and one of a southbound train are killed when two Monon Railroad freight trains collide head-on twelve miles north of Lafayette, Indiana after the southbound train fails to take the Ash Grove siding.^[165]
• June 15, 1947 – Argentina – A passenger train collides with a cow in La Cruz, Corrientes, killing 18 and injuring 48.^[166]
• July 21, 1947 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train is derailed at Grendon, Buckinghamshire due to defective track. Five people are killed and 64 are injured.^[167]
• July 23, 1947 – China – A passenger train en route from Shanghai to Tientsin (now Tianjin) hits a mine planted by Communist guerillas; 27 people are killed and 12 seriously injured.^[163]
• July 26, 1947 – Switzerland – Two trains collide between Biberbrugg and Einsiedeln. Ten people are killed and 73 are injured.^[168]
• August 9, 1947 – United Kingdom – A London and North Eastern Railway passenger train runs into the rear of another at Doncaster, Yorkshire due to a signalman's error. Twenty-one people are killed and 188 are injured.^[169]
• August 23, 1947 – Soviet-occupied zone of Germany – Train passengers bring on board a leaking can of gasoline and a package of nitrate film, and a cigarette starts a fire. The train is stopped at Velten, near Berlin, but as people hurry toward the only exit, a man stumbles, blocking the way. There are 24 people killed and 35 injured.^[170]
• September 1, 1947 – Canada – Dugald train disaster, Dugald, Manitoba: A Canadian National Railway excursion train fails to take the siding and collides with the No. 4 Transcontinental that was standing on the main line. 31 people were killed, most by fire breaking out in two gas-lit wooden cars on the excursion train.
• October 24, 1947 – United Kingdom – South Croydon rail crash, South London, England: Signalman improperly uses release key to free signals. Two commuter trains collide in thick fog, 32 killed.
• October 26, 1947 – United Kingdom – Goswick rail crash Flying Scotsman express fails to slow for diversion and derails; 28 are killed.
• November 6, 1947 – United Kingdom – A collision occurs between two Southern Railway electric multiple units at Motspur Park, London due to a fogsignalman's error. Four people are killed and twelve are injured.^[171]
• November 6, 1947 – United Kingdom – A Southern Railway passenger train overruns signals at Herne Hill, London and collides with an electric multiple unit. One person is killed and nine are injured.^[172]
• November 26, 1947 – United Kingdom – Near Farnborough, Hampshire, England. A Bournemouth West to London Waterloo train is halted near Farnborough due to the failure of signalling system's power supply. The following train, from Ilfracombe, is erroneously admitted into the section, and strikes the rear of the Bournemouth train at 20 mph (32 km/h), killing one passenger.^[173]
• December 3, 1947 – France – At Arras, striking railway workers remove 30 metres (100 ft) of rail, without disrupting the track circuit that might warn signalmen. A night mail train going from Paris to Tourcoing derails and 21 people are killed.^[174]
• December 22, 1947 – French-occupied zone of Germany – Two trains to Dortmund, one from Munich and one from Freiburg, collide at Neuwied; 42 are killed and 116 injured.^[174]
• 1947 – United States – MP 69.5 CAGY (Columbus & Greenville Railroad), Locomotive #506 derails after striking another train in the rear. Engine crew are killed, and the locomotive falls onto its side, becoming mired in the mud and embankment. Railroad tries to raise the engine, but upon being unable to do so, opt to simply scrap the locomotive in place, cutting it off even with the ground where it lies.^[154] #506 had previously been involved in another accident the year prior, as well as a few minor derailments.

1948

• January 23, 1948 – United Kingdom – A passenger train formed by a 6PUL and a 6PAN electric multiple unit overruns signals at London Bridge and collides with an empty stock train formed of two 6PAN units. Three people are killed and 34 are injured,^[175]
• February 17, 1948 – France – Freight and passenger trains collide head-on at Thumeries on the line between Douai and Lille; at least 22 are killed and 30 injured.^[176]
• February 22, 1948 – Switzerland – Wädenswil, Lake Zurich: a Swiss South Eastern Railway train runs away down a steep incline and crashes into a house after being diverted into a siding to avoid a collision with other trains. Twenty-one people are killed. A separate switch determined whether the main control handle applied power or used the motors for braking, and the driver had failed to select braking and therefore was inadvertently accelerating the train.^{[168][177][178]}
• March 21, 1948 – Italy – On a passenger train being assisted by a bank engine in the rear, a passenger operates the emergency signal near Spoleto. Two of the passenger cars crash together hard enough to telescope, presumably because the bank engine had separated from the rear of the train and crashed into it when the train was braked. There are 4 people killed and 60 injured.^[178]
• April 17, 1948– United Kingdom – Winsford rail accident (1948): Signalling error results in 24 deaths.
• May 15, 1948 – India – The Dehra Dun Express from Howrah is derailed near Dhanbad, possibly by sabotage, while on an embankment 40 feet (12 m) high; 31 people are killed and 101 injured, 19 seriously.^[179]
• July 17, 1948 – United Kingdom – An express train and a local train collide at Ardler Junction, Scotland. Two people are killed and seven are injured, one seriously. The local train overran signals, with a signalman's error in accepting the train when the express had been accepted being a contributory factor.^[180]

New Southgate

• July 17, 1948 – United Kingdom – The locomotive of an express passenger train is derailed in Barnet Tunnel, Hertfordshire. On leaving the tunnel, the train is derailed on a crossover at New Southgate, Middlesex. One person is killed. A combination of faulty track and excessive speed is found to be the cause.^[181]
• July 29, 1948 – French-occupied zone of Germany – A tank car, loaded with Dimethyl ether and parked within the industrial complex of BASF at Ludwigshafen, leaks and explodes, releasing other chemicals. Over 200 people are killed and over 3,500 injured, most of them suffering from poisonous gases, and 300,000 m² (74 acres) of the plant is destroyed.^[182][183]
• August 11, 1948 – United Kingdom – A London Transport electric multiple unit is derailed at Arnos Grove, Middlesex.^[184]
• September 14, 1948 – South Korea – About 15 miles (24 km) north of Taijon (now Daejeon), a passenger train crashes into the rear of another train; 40 people are killed and nearly 60 injured, most of them U.S. troops.^[179]
• October 28, 1948 – Turkey – A special train carrying People's Party members to Ankara to celebrate the Republic of Turkey's 25th anniversary derails near the end of its trip; 100 are killed and 150 injured.^[179]
• November 23, 1948 – India – At Jullunder (now Jalandhar) Cantonment station on the Eastern Punjab Railway, a special train carrying refugees because of the partition of India is backing into the station. Passengers are riding on the roof and the belongings of one of them fall on the track; the train derails, killing 21 people and injuring 106.^[185]
• November 24, 1948 – India – A train on the Eastern Punjab Railway, carrying refugees from Ambala Cantonment into Pakistan following the partition of India, travels only 11 miles (18 km) to Shambhu before crashing on a dead-end track; 171 people are killed and 300 injured.^[186]
• November 30, 1948 – United Kingdom – locomotive 4150 is running round its train at Lapworth when it is in collision with a passenger train hauled by 5022 Wigmore Castle, which had overrun signals.^[187] Eight passengers were injured.^[188]

1949

• February 13, 1949 – Spain – At Mons La Nueva in Catalonia, an express from Barcelona to Madrid derails and three cars go 130 feet (40 m) down an embankment into a dry river.^[186]
• February 18, 1949 – France – An express from Nancy to Dijon collides with a locomotive at Port d'Atelier, near Amanca. Two wooden passenger cars are crushed between the steel cars in front of and behind them. Before dying of his injuries, the driver of the express manages to protect the wreck site by laying down detonators and notifying the crossing keeper. Altogether 43 people are killed.^[186]
• February 19, 1949 – United Kingdom – A freight train becomes divided at New Southgate, Middlesex. The rear portion runs away, but is not derailed at catch points due to a signalman's error. The wagons enter the main line and are run into by a parcels train.^[189]
• April 24, 1949 – United States – Smith County, Tennessee, Gordonsville, 10 persons were killed coming home from church at approximately 10:30 pm^[190] when a loaded locomotive hit them at a high rate of speed. The family, in two trucks, was returning from church services. The driver, Jessie Bennett, aged 50, was blind in one eye. He was killed along with his wife, 45, and three of their sons, aged 12, 10, and 8. Also killed were the Bennett's daughter, 24, her husband, 24, their daughter, aged 1, the brother of the driver, aged 49, and a close family friend, 17.^[191][192]
• April 25, 1949 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train overran signals and was derailed at Douglas Park Signal Box, Motherwell, Lanarkshire. Signalman suspected of moving the points under the train.^[193]
• April 28, 1949 – South Africa – In the suburbs of Johannesburg, on the line from Langlaagte to Midway station in Soweto, two successive electric trains are stopped for signals when a third one crashes into the second and pushes it forward to hit the first. Altogether 70 people are killed and 166 injured.^[186]
• August 17, 1949 – Japan – Matsukawa derailment: A Japanese National Railways train derails in Fukushima Prefecture, killing three crewmembers.^[194]
• October 11, 1949 – Argentina – A passenger train collides with a freight train in Palermo, Buenos Aires, killing 18 and injuring more than 80.^[195]
• October 22, 1949 – Poland – An express from Gdańsk to Warsaw derails on a curve at Nowy Dwór, overturning several cars; over 200 are killed (pl).^[196]
• November 16, 1949 – South Africa – At night, a train returning hundreds of migrant workers from Witwatersrand to Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) crosses a bridge in Waterval Boven, 70 metres (230 ft) above the Elands River. As it reaches the far end, both locomotives derail; at least 7 cars fall off the bridge and another 6 overturn. There are 64 deaths and 117 people injured.^[197][198]