The Clayton Tunnel rail crash, which took place on Sunday 25 August 1861, five miles from Brighton on the south coast of England, was the worst accident of the British railway system to that time. Two trains collided inside the tunnel, killing 23 and injuring 176 passengers.
The disaster scenario actually involved three successive northbound trains on the same track, which all left Brighton station within a few minutes of one another. The signalman at the south end of the tunnel tried to stop the second train from entering the tunnel before the first one had left it, but wrongly thought his red flag had not been seen, and then misinterpreted a telegraph signal from the north end of the tunnel as referring to the second train instead of the first. Assuming that both trains had cleared the tunnel, he signaled the third one to proceed, but in fact the second train was trying to back out.
Read more about Clayton Tunnel Rail Crash: Circumstances, Causes, Similar Accidents
Famous quotes containing the words clayton, tunnel, rail and/or crash:
“Science is science, but a girl must get her hair done.”
—Robert M. Fresco. Jack Arnold. Stephanie “Steve” Clayton (Mara Corday)
“The only way to find out anything about what kinds of lives people led in any given period is to tunnel into their records and to let them speak for themselves.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“For this is the mark of a wise and upright man, not to rail against the gods in misfortune.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)
“O ship
white-sailed of Crete,
you brought my mistress
from her quiet palace
through breaker and crash of surf
to love-rite of unhappiness!”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)