Penistone Rail Accidents - The Barnsley Junction Accident, 1885

The Barnsley Junction Accident, 1885

The second unfortunate incident took place on the other side of Penistone Station, between Huddersfield Junction and Barnsley Junction, within six months. On 1 January 1885 a special excursion train from stations in the Sheffield area to Liverpool (9 coaches) and Southport (9 coaches) was climbing towards Penistone. At the same time a train of empty coal wagons travelling in the opposite direction to return the wagons to collieries in South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire was descending the gradient and had just passed the Huddersfield Junction signal box when one of the wagons derailed. The driver of the locomotive applied his brakes and this wagon, Shireoaks No. 218, jumped forward and became buffer-locked with the wagon in front, Shireoaks No. 1, which also came off the rails, and struck the locomotive of the excursion. The wagon was brushed aside by the locomotive but rebounded after the first four of the excursion's carriages passed. The fifth, sixth and seventh carriages were wrecked and the following three were brought off the track. One person was killed in the accident and two others died as a result of amputations.

On examination, Shireoaks No. 218 wagon was found to have a fractured axle with two flaws in the metal, a problem again caused by metal fatigue. Unexpected catastrophic failure of axles (and wheels) was a problem on all railway vehicles at the time, owing to the lack of understanding of the causes, especially fatigue crack initiation and growth. Crack initiation was usually caused either by defects or poor design, with stress concentrations raising the local stress to failure. The small crack so created would then grow slowly under repeated loading from usage until the axle could no longer withstand imposed loads. (It was noted that the day of the Barnsley Junction accident was very cold and the ballast under the railway sleepers was frozen, increasing the loads on the wheels and axles.)

Although the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway could not be held directly responsible for this accident, the enquiry recommended more thorough inspection of all rolling stock.