Penistone Rail Accidents - The Huddersfield Junction Accident, 1889

The Huddersfield Junction Accident, 1889

The next serious accident occurred four years later on 30 March 1889. This was the day of the F.A. Cup Final. Preston North End, then considered the best team in the country, were due to play Wolverhampton Wanderers at Kennington Oval, and the University Boat Race was to take place over the Thames Tideway between Putney and Mortlake in London. The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway ran an excursion with portions from Liverpool, Southport and Wigan to London, Kings Cross. Although it was not intended as a football excursion, many people from Lancashire took advantage of it to watch Preston play. The Southport portion of the train was joined to the main train from Liverpool at Warrington Central and the Wigan portion was picked up at Glazebrook. The completed train made its way over the Cheshire Lines Committee tracks to Godley Junction where a stop was made for Railway Clearing House checks. It departed 55 minutes late. The locomotive was Class 23 No. 188, a six-coupled locomotive, which was usually to be found on goods workings, but was regularly used on excursion traffic.

The train ran down the gradient towards Penistone station when the locomotive, having no leading wheels to guide it, jumped the points where the goods line diverged from the main line on the approach to the Huddersfield Junction signal box. The locomotive crew stood by their posts and applied the brakes. The coaches followed the locomotive into the "six-foot" ripping up some 25 yards of track. The tender capsized and became entangled in signal wires, the locomotive dug into the ballast and the front coach was totally smashed. Coaches two and three toppled onto their sides and the following three which were pulled round in different directions were left standing broadside against the first pair. One person was killed and many injured. Those with minor injuries were treated at Penistone Station, those with more severe injuries were taken to the Wentworth Arms Hotel, opposite the bottom of the station approach road, where the billiard room was turned into an operating theatre.

A further crash was averted by the prompt action of the signalman in Huddersfield Junction box. Having witnessed the crash he sent the message to Barnsley Junction, the next box on the Sheffield side, to "Stop the Mail", but the 10:40 pm King's Cross to Manchester Mail had already passed by. He set all his signals against the train and the driver applied his brakes but it could not stop before hitting the tender of the crashed locomotive. The Mail train's buffers penetrated the plating of the tender and the bogie wheels were thrown off the track, but the engine did not reach the crashed coaches.

The Railway Inspectorate found that the leading axle of the locomotive had fractured and questioned both the use of a "goods locomotive" on passenger work, where they would travel at higher speeds than usual, and the locomotive having no leading bogie wheels.