Armagh Railway Station - Rail Disaster

Rail Disaster

The Armagh rail disaster, which killed 80 people and injured 260, occurred on 12 June 1889 on the N&A line near Armagh. An excursion train had to climb a steep gradient, but the locomotive stalled. The crew decided to divide the train but when they did the rear portion had inadequate brake power and ran back down the gradient, colliding with a following train. Most of the eighty people killed were women. It was previously thought that more children were killed, but most children were saved by jumping out of windows.

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