The fatal rail crash that occurred at Grantham on 19th
September 1906 must count as the “Mary Celeste” of British rail accidents by
virtue of the fact that the cause seems to be inexplicable. What happened is
clear enough, but why it did is another matter altogether.
The train that was involved in the crash left London King’s
Cross at 8.45pm bound for Edinburgh with scheduled stops that included
Peterborough and Grantham. It was a passenger service with sleeping cars, and
it was also a mail train. The stop at Peterborough was to change engines and
that at Grantham was to pick up mails that would be sorted on board for
delivery the next day.
The crew that took on the train at Peterborough comprised
Driver Fleetwood and Fireman Talbot. Driver Fleetwood, who had 18 years’
experience, was based at Doncaster and knew the route thoroughly. Colleagues
who saw them at Peterborough later testified that both men were in good health
and spirits and had certainly not been drinking.
At Grantham the signals were set appropriately for the train
to stop, and the points north of the station were set for a goods train to
cross the main line to proceed towards Leicester on the Nottingham line.
Everything was just as it should be.
Three Post Office employees were waiting on the platform to
load the mail bags on to the train that was due at 11.00pm. They were
accompanied by the night station inspector. One of the postmen spotted the
lights of the approaching train and alerted his colleagues to get ready.
However, the train in question was clearly going too fast to stop and at first
the postmen assumed that they had been mistaken and that this was a different
train that was running through. However, they then saw that their mail van was
on the train that was rushing past them.
The men on the platform looked on helplessly as the train
disappeared and then seemed to explode in a fireball as it left the rails. They
all ran up the line to see what they could do to help.
The train had been switched off the main line by the points
that had been set for the Leicester goods train, but it was going too fast to
stay upright on the following curve. The locomotive ended up slewed across the
track with the front three vehicles piled against it. Six carriages and the
tender fell down an embankment and only the last three carriages were left
upright on the rails. Fire broke out in the crashed carriages on the track and
also in those that were now at the foot of the embankment. As well as the
driver and fireman, six passengers and a postal sorter were killed.
Why might it have happened?
All sorts of theories were advanced as to why Driver Fleetwood
had not stopped his train at Grantham, but none of them seemed to fit the
facts. One such fact was the evidence of the signalman at the Grantham South
box who had noticed the driver and fireman standing on either side of the cab
looking forward at the line ahead. This did not accord with theories of
drunkenness, a fight on the footplate or a sudden illness.
Could Driver Fleetwood simply have forgotten that he had to
stop, or had he mistaken where he was on the route? This also seems incredible,
given that both men knew the road inside out, and they had also worked exactly
the same routine the previous night.
As mentioned above, this looks like a mystery that will
never be solved.
© John Welford
The probable cause was failure to test the brakes following the change of locomotive at Peterborough. On departure from Peterborough, there would normally be no occasion to apply the brakes until the Grantham stop. The fireman was a Doncaster premium apprentice and may have connected the vacuum brake pipe to the tender of the locomotive incorrectly, and the engine driver in a hurry to start his train, accepted the fireman's say so that he had connected the brake pipe. This was the view of the union and many railwaymen at Peterborough at the time. See the Railway Magazine article about the Grantham crash published, I think, in 2006, to commemorate the centenary of the disaster.
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