Abermule Train Collision - The Accident

The Accident

Shortly before midday on 26 January 1921, a west-bound stopping train from Whitchurch and an east-bound express from Aberystwyth were approaching Abermule from opposite directions, and were due to cross there. The regular Abermule Stationmaster, Parry, was on leave and Relief Stationmaster Lewis, who was deputising for him, had gone for his lunch. The other three station staff at Abermule were Signalman Jones, Porter Rogers, who was seventeen, and a trainee booking clerk named Thompson, who was only fifteen years old.

The staff at Montgomery station requested clearance for the stopping train, and Signalman Jones pressed the release on the tablet machine for the Montgomery-Abermule section, to allow it to proceed. He then checked that the express was running to time, and was informed that it had just passed Moat Lane Junction on the far side of Newtown, as scheduled. Jones then went to open the level crossing gates and clear the signals for the stopping train. Meanwhile, Relief Stationmaster Lewis returned from his lunch. A Permanent way sub-Inspector attracted his attention with an urgent enquiry and without entering the room where the instruments were situated or inquiring as to the position of any trains approaching Abermule, he immediately went with the sub-inspector to the goods yard.

Newtown station then requested permission for the express to proceed. Porter Rogers pressed the release on the tablet machine for the Newtown-Abermule section which allowed it to do so. He then went to the ground frame at the west end of the station to set the points for the express, but found the frame locked against him as Jones had already "set the road", perhaps unusually, for the stopping train on the down road. While Rogers was occupied at the ground frame, Newtown signalled that the express was entering the Newtown-Abermule section, but nobody was present in the Abermule station buildings to note the signal.

Before Rogers could call to Jones to release the ground frame lock, the stopping train arrived. The youth Thompson collected the tablet for the Montgomery-Abermule section from the driver of the stopping train, and was heading back to the station buildings to replace it in the tablet machine when he met Lewis returning from the goods yard. He gave the tablet to Lewis, saying that he had to go and collect the tickets (although only one passenger had alighted from the train). He did not mention that he had yet to exchange the tablet for one for the Newtown-Abermule section (which he could not have done, as the Newtown-Abermule tablet machine was locked) and also mistakenly reported that the express was still "about Moat Lane", presumably from having overheard at least some of Jones's earlier conversation.

Lewis assumed that since the express had apparently not reached Newtown, the two trains would cross at Newtown rather than Abermule, and the tablet he had just been handed was for the Newtown-Abermule section. He crossed back to the down platform and handed the tablet back to the stopping train's fireman, as the driver was oiling around the engine. Lewis gave the signal "Right away" by hand. Jones, who was also on the down platform, assumed that the express had been delayed or held at Newtown for some reason. Rogers, who was still at the ground frame, assumed the same from Lewis's actions and the frame being locked, and lowered the down advance starting signal. Lewis, Jones and Rogers did not realise the truth until the stopping train had already departed.

The crew of the express were travelling at about 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) and about to begin slowing before arriving at Abermule when they saw the stopping train on the same track. Although they immediately braked, they could not stop in time, and the crew of the stopping train did not appear to have seen them, as they continued to put on steam. The crew of the express were just able to jump clear in time, although they were both severely injured. Fifteen passengers, including a director of the railway, Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest, and the driver and fireman of the stopping train were killed in the collision.

After the crash, Driver Pritchard Jones of the express train was desperately concerned that he had made an error, until his fireman, Owen, had retrieved both their own correct tablet for the section and that for the Montgomery-Abermule section from the wreckage. The tablets were handed to the Traffic Controller for the Cambrian railway, who had been travelling on the stopping train, and the Chief Traffic Inspector, who had been a passenger on the express. The Inspector (George) took the Montgomery-Abermule tablet on foot to Abermule station and replaced it in the correct machine in the presence of witnesses, to allow a breakdown train from Oswestry to reach the scene of the crash and assist with freeing the injured.

Both engines involved were 4-4-0 passenger locomotives. They were both reduced to wreckage, and written off. There was severe telescoping of the passenger carriages, especially in the express train, which caused most of the casualties. This was apparently the result of the collision occurring on a slight curve, causing the buffers to be slightly misaligned, and allowing the fourth carriage of the express to override the buffers of the third.