1. 1880

2. 1881

3. 1882

4. 1883

5. 1884

6. 1885

7. 1886

8. 1887

9. 1888

10. 1889

11. See also

12. References

13. Sources

14. External links

This is a list of rail accidents from 1880 to 1889.

1880

• January 8, 1880 – United Kingdom – A collision near Southport killed ten people.^[1]
• January 15, 1880 – United Kingdom – Six people were killed when the 5:30 express from Liverpool collided with a passenger train between Ormskirk and Burscough Junction. Both trains were on the same line and a signalman was arrested.^[2]
• February, 1880 – United Kingdom – Thirty passengers had minor injuries following a collision between a Welsh coal-train and an express from Chester, near the Birkenhead Tunnel.^[3]
• February 10, 1880 – France – A train from St Lazaire station ran into the Paris to Argenteuil train near Clichy station. Seven passengers were killed and at least fifty badly injured.^[4]
• February 13, 1880 – United Kingdom – Two wagons and the guard's van were thrown off the viaduct over the River Almond, Scotland killing two guards and a telegraph boy.^[5]
• March 13, 1880 – Germany – Two passenger trains collided at Halle railway station; killing seven and injuring many.^[6]
• March 13, 1880 – United Kingdom – Two killed after an accident on the Great Northern Line, near Wakefield, Yorkshire.^[7]
• June 17, 1880 – United Kingdom – A bridge on the Hay and Brecon Railway collapsed and a luggage train crashed into the river, killing the driver and severely injuring the stoker.^[8]
• June 24, 1880 – United Kingdom – A child riding on the engine of a mineral train died when the mineral train left the rails of a branch line, near Skinningrove Mine, Cleveland.^[9]
• August 10, 1880 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train derailed north of Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland due to faulty track. Three people were killed.{{sfn|Hoole|1983|p=31}}
• August 11, 1880 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train derailed at {{rws|Wennington}}, Lancashire. Eight people are killed and 23 are injured.{{sfn|Hall|1990|p=51}}
• August 19, 1880 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train stopped inside Blea Moor Tunnel, Yorkshire due to a faulty brake pipe. An express passenger train overran signals collided with it at low speed.{{sfn|Hall|1990|pp=51–52}}
• September 2, 1880 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train left the rails on a sharp curve at the Manchester Central Station at 10:00 am. Several passengers and crew were injured.^[10]
• September 11, 1880 – New Zealand – The Rimutaka Incline railway accident on the Rimutaka Incline, New Zealand. A small train left Greytown at 8.30am bound for Wellington via the Rimutaka Incline. At Cross Creek at the foot of the incline, the train was rearranged with two passenger cars and the luggage carriage in front of the Fell Engine. Behind it were two wagons of timber, and the Fell brake van last. A strong northwest wind was blowing and, at a place called Siberia, a terrific gust blew the three leading carriages off the line. The couplings held and the weight of the engine plus the grip of the drivers on the centre-rail stopped them from falling to the valley below, but the body of the first carriage was torn off its chassis. The passengers were thrown out, three children were killed instantly, another died later, and some had horrific injuries. The inquest found the deaths accidental and no blame was attached to anyone. Wind shelters were later built on dangerous parts of the incline.^[11]
• September 11, 1880 – United Kingdom – A London and South Western Railway passenger train collided with a light engine at Nine Elms Locomotive Junction, London due to errors by signalmen and the fireman of the light engine. Seven people were killed.{{sfn|Hall|1990|pp=49–50}}
• October 7, 1880 – United Kingdom – One of the carriages of an excursion train for Leamington overturned when leaving Kenilworth.^[12]
• October 27, 1880 – United Kingdom – A passenger train ran into a goods train near Mosesgate on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Several passengers were injured and about a dozen carriages and a number of wagons were damaged.^[13]
• October 28 – Belgium – A goods train ran down an incline, near Herstal and hit a passenger train, killing seven people with several injured.^[14]
• December 21, 1880 – United Kingdom – The Bristol, Derby and Sheffield express hit at Sheffield express at Holbeck Junction, near Leeds killing one and injuring forty.^[15][16]

1881

• January 5, 1881 – Canada – A Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway freight train derailed on temporary track laid across the frozen Saint Lawrence River between Longueuil and Hochelaga. Locomotive No.31 plunged through the ice. The locomotive was salvaged five days later.^[17]
• April – United States – A train left the track and crashed through the side of a bridge at Albany, Illinois, drowning eight passengers.^[18]
• May 21, 1881 – United Kingdom – A London, Chatham and Dover Railway passenger train derailed at Crystal Palace, London killing one.{{sfn|Kidner|1977|p=90}}
• June 23, 1881 – Mexico – In the Morelos railway accident near Cuautla, Morelos, a train fell into a river, killing over 200 people.
• July 6, 1881 – United States – Boone, Iowa: Honey Creek Bridge rail disaster: A Chicago and North Western Railway locomotive ran tender-first, westbound over the line out of Boone to check the tracks during a heavy summer rainstorm in the Des Moines River Valley and plungee into Honey Creek as the weakened bridge collapsee.
• August 14(?), 1881 – Canada – During the night Grand Trunk Railway train 4, an express from Montreal to Toronto, struck one of several cows on the track about {{convert|1.5|mi|km|sigfig=1}} west of Prescott. The fireman jumped clear but the engineer was killed as the locomotive and several cars derailed. Several others were injured, one of them was not expected to survive.^[19]

1882

• January 13, 1882 – United States – Spuyten Duyvil, New York: Hudson River Railroad's Tarrytown Special collided with rear of the halted Atlantic Express near Spuyten Duyvil at night, telescoping the last two coaches which also caught fire. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper published a full front-page engraving on January 21, 1882 showing trainmen, passengers, and local farmers rolling giant snowballs in an attempt to extinguish the blaze. State Senator and sleeping car magnate Webster Wagner was among the dead. This occurred in the same general location as another deadly train derailment on December 1, 2013 ^[20]
• June 30, 1882 – United States – Little Silver, New Jersey: Five of the seven cars of the Long Branch Railroad's Lightning Express, plunged off a trestle bridge near Little Silver, killing one man outright, with two men dying of their injuries later. Ulysses S. Grant was amongst the passengers of the train that day.^[21][22]
• July 13, 1882 – Russia – In the Tcherny railway accident a train derailed and more than 150 people were killed.

• September 3, 1882 – Germany – Hugstetten: Hugstetten rail disaster - After heavy weather a washaway occurred and the train most probably was running too fast. 64 people were killed and 225 injured.

1883

• January 1, 1883 – United Kingdom – A Cambrian Railways passenger train was struck by a landslide at Vriog, Merionethshire. The locomotive was pushed into the sea, but the carriages remained on the track. Both crew were killed.{{sfn|Hoole|1983|p=24}}
• January 20, 1883 – United States – Tehachapi, California: 1883 Tehachapi train wreck - Brakes holding passenger cars on a Central Pacific train failed during a locomotive switch at Tehachapi Summit. As the runaway cars headed down the mountain, stoves tipped over and ignited the cars before derailment. A total of 21 people were killed in the disaster, many of whom were burned beyond recognition.^[23]
• March 8, 1883 – United Kingdom – Wotton, Brill Tramway: A ladies' maid was run over and killed by a locomotive as she stood in the trackway watching it approach. This was the only fatality in the line's 64-year history.^[24]

1884

• June 7, 1884 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern Railway freight train ran into the rear of another at {{rws|Sevenoaks}}, Kent due to a signalman's error. Two people were killed.{{sfn|Hoole|1982|p=7}}
• July 16, 1884 – United Kingdom – Bullhouse Bridge rail accident: A locomotive axle failure caused the derailment of a passenger train at Penistone. Twenty-four passengers were killed.

1885

• January 1, 1885 – United Kingdom – Penistone rail crash, Penistone: An axle failure derailed an empty wagon into the path of a passenger train. One passenger was killed immediately and two died later.
• January 1885 – United Kingdom – A London and North Western Railway express passenger train overran signals and collided with a North Staffordshire Railway freight train near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. One person was killed.{{sfn|Hall|1990|p=52}}
• September 15, 1885 – Canada – St Thomas, Ontario: An express goods train hauled by a Grand Trunk Railway locomotive hit a dwarf Asian elephant on an embankment. The elephant was thrown down the embankment by the collision; the train's engineer put the locomotive into reverse, but was unable to prevent a rear-end collision with an African elephant (the famous Jumbo), killing it and derailing the locomotive and tender.^[25]

1886

• September 14, 1886 – United States – A head-on collision in Silver Creek between a freight train and a passenger train killed twenty passengers when the smoking car telescoped.^[26]

1887

• January 4, 1887 – United States – Republic, Ohio: A head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight caused a fire killing thirteen passengers.^[27]
• February 5, 1887 – United States – Hartford, Vermont: While approaching the 650-foot bridge over the White River, a rail broke under the northbound Vermont Central Railroad Montreal Express train after the engine passed over it, causing the last passenger car to derail. This sleeper car was dragged sideways for about {{convert|200|ft}}, and plunged more than {{convert|50|ft}} down a steep embankment to the frozen river below. Three additional passenger cars were pulled down the precipice by this car, with the engine, tender, and two other cars able to make it safely over the bridge before it collapsed. At least 40 people were killed in total. The temperature was well below zero, and survivors of the wreck were stranded half-clothed and injured on the frozen river. When help eventually arrived, a fire ignited which burned alive any survivors that were still trapped in the wreckage. Rescuers had to seek shelter due to the intensity of the flames. Jewelry and other belongings were used to identify victims, as most bodies and flesh were burned beyond recognition.^[28]
• March 14, 1887 – United States – West Roxbury, Massachusetts: "The Forest Hills Disaster"; also, "The Forest Ridge Disaster" – The "Bussey Bridge", a Howe truss bridge at South Street in the Roslindale section of West Roxbury collapsed as a morning Boston & Providence Railroad train, inbound to Boston, passed killing twenty-four commuters and school children and injuring several hundred. Bridge design was found to be faulty.
• March 25, 1877 – United Kingdom – An express passenger train derailed at Morpeth, Northumberland due to defective track killing five people and injuring seventeen.
• April 26, 1887 – United Kingdom – a bomb planted by the Fenians in a first-class compartment exploded on the Metropolitan Railway near Aldersgate St. station, London, killing two people and injuring eight others. The first fatal terrorist attack against what is now the London Underground, it is one of a series of bombings of the Underground and other London landmarks.^[29]
• August 10–11, 1887 – United States – Chatsworth, Illinois: The Great Chatsworth Train Wreck – A fifteen car train of fully occupied Pullman sleepers and coaches on the Toledo, Peoria and Western bound for Niagara Falls, approached a wooden trestle over a shallow "run" just before midnight that was on fire. The engineer did not have sufficient time to stop the double-headed train with over 600 onboard from crossing the weakened structure which collapsed under the lead engine. The cars in the front half telescoped into one another and some 84 are killed with injuries estimated at 279. This accident inspired the morbid ballad "The Chatsworth Wreck" that includes the verse, "the dead and dying mingled with the broken beams and bars; an awful human carnage, a dreadful wreck of cars."
• August 22, 1887 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway freight train becomes divided at Wath-upon-Dearne, Yorkshire. Due to a signalman's error, an express passenger train ran into the rear of it. Seventeen people were injured.{{sfn|Earnshaw|1990|p=4}}
• September 16, 1887 – United Kingdom – Hexthorpe rail accident, near Doncaster: The locomotive crew misread signals and crashed into rear of special train for racegoers killing twenty-five. The simple vacuum brakes were deemed inadequate by subsequent enquiry.
• October 11, 1887 – United States - A freight train crashed into a passenger train at a train intersection in Kouts, Indiana killing twenty and injuring nearly seventy.^[30]
• October 25, 1887 – United Kingdom – A freight train overran signals at {{rws|Amble}}, Northumberland and collided with a locomotive. The locomotive was pushed back into a waiting passenger train, which itself was pushed back into a freight train.{{sfn|Hoole|1983|p=15}}

1888

• January 6, 1888 - Canada - Two freight trains of the Canadian Pacific Railway collided in the middle of a trestle near Mink, Ontario about 135 miles east of Port Arthur, Ontario. Crew members of both trains were either killed or injured.^[31]
• March 16, 1888 – United States – North of Coleman's Station, Dutchess County, New York, : A New York Central snow-clearance train consisting of the plow "Old Eli" and five locomotives reached a rock cut clogged with snow, moving about 40 mph. The entire train derailed killing five crewmen.^[32][33]

• March 17, 1888 – United States – Blackshear, Georgia: Most of the West India Fast Mail Train from New York City to Jacksonville, Florida was wrecked when two-thirds of a {{convert|300|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}}, {{convert|25|ft|m|adj=mid|-high}} trestle collapsed. A broken rail under the lead baggage car caused it to come off the tracks. The train safely crossed the bridge over the Hurricane River, but at about 9:30 a.m. the baggage car suddenly whirled over and struck the subsequent trestle, causing its collapse. All but the detached engine tumbled below — a combination car, three baggage cars, a smoking car, a coach, two Pullman sleepers, and the private car of the Lehigh Valley Railroad killing twenty and injuring 35. Among the latter is Elisha P. Wilbur, president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, who together with members of his family and friends was traveling in the private car. George Gould and his wife escaped serious injury. The engine continued into town to get help.
• July 12, 1888 – United States – Wreck at the Fat Nancy, Virginia: Nine are killed and twenty-six are injured when a train trestle collapsed. One of the victims was a civil engineer who had designed a replacement for the trestle, since it was known to be unsafe. One of the passengers in the train was Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet.
• August 6, 1888 – United Kingdom – A London and South Western Railway locomotive collided head-on with a passenger train at {{rws|Hampton Wick}}, Middlesex due to a signalman's error. Four people were killed and fourteen seriously injured.{{sfn|Earnshaw|1990|p=6}}
• October 10, 1888 – United States – Mud Run Disaster, Pennsylvania: Following a mass meeting held by the Total Abstinence Union in the Pennsylvania mountains at Hazleton, the 5000 conventioneers were returning from Wilkes-Barre in eight special temperance trains operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The trains were directed to keep a ten-minute interval between them. At about 8 p.m., the sixth train with 500 onboard stopped near Mud Run along the banks of the Lehigh River and shortly thereafter the following train plowed into it, telescoping the last car of the stopped train halfway through the coach ahead, killing 66 of the 200 in these two wooden cars outright. More than 50 were injured. Newspaper accounts suggested that temperance pledges were forgotten by some of the victims after they returned to the train.

• {{OldStyleDate|October 29|1888|October 17}} – Russia – Borki train disaster. The imperial train, carrying Alexander III of Russia and his family, derailed near Borki in Kharkov Governorate. Twenty-one died on site, two in local hospitals. The popular story says that tsar held up the mangled roof of the carriage, so that his family could escape from the wreckage. Alexander sustained a massive impact trauma to his back but was apparently not affected in any other way. Commissioner disagreed on the direct cause of the crash, citing speeding, substandard track and mismanagement by private railroad owners.

1889

• March 30, 1889 – United Kingdom – A Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway passenger train derailed at {{rws|Penistone}}, Yorkshire due to a broken axle on a locomotive. A mail train ran into the wreckage killing one and injuring 61.{{sfn|Earnshaw|1990|p=7}}
• May 12, 1889 – United States – Seattle, Washington, a street car descending Denny Hill suffered a cable malfunction and crashed after hitting a sharp curve. The crash killed one passenger and injured another. The crash marked the first street car fatality in the history of Seattle.^[34]
• May 23, 1889 – United States – The westbound train on the St. Louis and San Francisco road, which left St. Louis was wrecked at about 11:15 pm at a point three miles west of Sullivan MO.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}
• June 12, 1889 – United Kingdom – The Armagh rail disaster near Armagh, Ireland: a train stalled on a gradient and the driver decided to divide it. Left unbraked, the rear portion ran away backwards and collided with a following train, killing 88. Parliament responds by passing the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, mandating fail-safe brakes and improved signal systems.
• August 22, 1889 – United States – An excursion train of dignitaries inspecting the newly completed route of the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap and Louisville Railroad between Knoxville and Middlesboro derailed at Flat Creek in Grainger County, Tennessee, killing five, including a Knoxville city alderman and the chairman of the board of public works, and injuring twenty.^[35]
• December 7, 1889 - United Kingdom - three trains collided near Cheetham Hill junction. A London and North-Western goods train with 27 wagons of coal bound for Oldham was waiting for a Lancashire and Yorkshire passenger train from Bacup to pass before using the junction to bear right onto the Oldham line. At 10:45 pm, a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway passenger train heading from Victoria Station to Bacup set off on schedule and saw no warning light that a train was stopped on the line. It crashed into the back of the coal train, derailing and injuring many passengers as it hit the stationary train at around 14 MPH. The resulting debris blocked the other line and the passenger train coming from Bacup ran into this, also causing a derailment and many injuries to passengers. There was only one death and this was the fireman from the train that set off from Victoria Station, at the coroners inquest it could not be determined whether he had jumped from the train or been violently thrown at impact, he had been trapped under the guard van from the goods train, when rescuers got to him he was past help.{{citation needed|date = March 2018}}

See also

• London Underground accidents

References

Sources

• {{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1245262.stm| title=Europe's history of rail disasters| publisher=BBC | date=October 11, 2006 | accessdate=May 8, 2010}}
• {{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3650835.stm| title=World's worst rail disasters| publisher=BBC | date=December 19, 2007 | accessdate=May 8, 2010}}
• {{cite web| url=http://www3.gendisasters.com| title=GenDisasters Train Wrecks 1869–1943| deadurl=yes| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416161848/http://www3.gendisasters.com/| archivedate=2015-04-16| df=}}
• {{cite web| url=http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041012195445/http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads| dead-url=yes| archive-date=2004-10-12| title=Interstate Commerce Commission Investigations of Railroad Accidents 1911–1993| publisher=U.S. Department of Transportation}}
• {{cite book|author1=Beebe, Lucius |author2=Clegg, Charles |lastauthoramp=yes| title=Hear the train blow; a pictorial epic of America in the railroad age| publisher=Grosset & Dunlap| location=New York| year=1952| id=ASIN B000I83FTC }}
• {{cite book |last=Earnshaw |first=Alan |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 6 |year=1990 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Penryn |isbn=0-906899-37-0 |page= |ref=harv }}
• {{cite book |last=Earnshaw |first=Alan |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 7 |year=1991 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Penryn |isbn=0-906899-50-8 |page= |ref=harv }}
• {{cite book |last=Earnshaw |first=Alan |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 8 |year=1993 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Penryn |isbn=0-906899-52-4 |page= |ref=harv }}
• {{cite book| author=Haine, Edgar A.| title=Railroad Wrecks| publisher=Cornwall Books| location=New York| year=1993| isbn=978-0-8453-4844-4 }}
• {{cite book |last=Hall |first=Stanley |title=The Railway Detectives |year=1990 |publisher=Ian Allan |location=London |isbn=0 7110 1929 0 |ref=harv }}
• {{cite book |last=Hoole |first=Ken |authorlink=Ken Hoole |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 3 |year=1982 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Redruth |isbn=0-906899-05-2 |page= |ref=harv }}
• {{cite book |last=Hoole |first=Ken |authorlink=Ken Hoole |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 4 |year=1983 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Truro |isbn=0-906899-07-9 |page= |ref=harv }}
• {{cite book| title=The Rail Lines of Southern New England – A Handbook of Railroad History| publisher=Branch Line Press| author=Karr, Ronald D.| year=1995| isbn=978-0-942147-02-5 }}
• {{cite book | first = R. W.| last = Kidner| year = 1977 |origyear=1963 | title = The South Eastern and Chatham Railway | publisher = The Oakwood Press| location = Tarrant Hinton | isbn = | ref=harv }}
• {{cite journal| author=Leslie, Frank| title=Illustrated Newspaper| date=1882-01-21| volume=LIII| issue=1,374| location=New York| page=1 }}
• {{cite book| author=Reed, Robert C.| title=Train Wrecks – A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line| publisher=Bonanza Books| location=New York| year=1968| isbn=978-0-517-32897-2 }}
• {{Rolt-Red |year=1982}}
• {{Shaw-RailroadAccidents}}
• {{cite book |last=Trevena |first=Arthur |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 1 |year=1980 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Redruth |isbn=0-906899-01-X |page= |ref=harv }}
• {{cite book |last=Trevena |first=Arthur |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 2 |year=1981 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Redruth |isbn=0-906899-03-6 |page= |ref=harv }}

External links

• {{cite book| title=Our Railways: Their Origin, Development, Incident and Romance, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HkoaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA406 Chapter XL. Railway Disasters, 1840–1870]| publisher=Cassell and Co., Ltd| location=London| author=Pendleton, John| year=1896| isbn=}}

• 1981 Monterrey WCT
• 1981 Moscow Film Festival
• 1981 Moscow International Film Festival
• 1981 Mr. Olympia
• 1981 Ms. Olympia
• 1981 Muñiz Air National Guard Base terrorist attack
• 1981 NAIA World Series
• 1981 NASCAR Cup Series
• 1981 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
• 1981 NASL Championship
• 1981 NASL Final
• 1981 National Board of Review Awards
• 1981 National Camogie League
• 1981 National Challenge Cup
• 1981 National League season
• 1981 National Society of Film Critics Awards
• 1981 Navy Midshipmen football team
• 1981 NBA Draft
• 1981 NBL Finals
• 1981 NCAA Division I baseball rankings
• 1981 NCAA Division I baseball season
• 1981 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament
• 1981 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships
• 1981 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship
• 1981 NCAA Division II Football Championship playoffs