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Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at North Elmham - Dereham on 14th December 1882

Document Summary

The report on a rear-end collision, in fog, between a passenger train and a ballast train.

This document was published on 13th January 1883 by Board of Trade.

It was written by Maj. F. A. Marindin.

This item is linked to the Accident at North Elmham - Dereham on 14th December 1882

The original document format was Bound Volume, and comprised 4 pages.

This document was kindly sourced from Google Books and is in our Accident reports collection. It was added to the Archive on 4th December 2023 by Stuart Johnson.

Copyright Information

This document is Crown Copyright, and is subject to the terms governing the reproduction of crown copyright material. Depending on the status and age of the original document, you may need an OPSI click-use license if you wish to reproduce this material, and other restrictions may apply. Please see this explanation for further details.

"The passenger train passed Broom Green Junction after getting a ticket at 12.35, and arrived at North Elmham at 12.40; it stood there for two minutes, and was then started with the permission of the station-master, the driver having been informed upon arrival that the ballast train was five minutes ahead of him, and, according to the station-master, being again warned before he started that the ballast train was then seven minutes ahead of him.

The train therefore left North Elmham full seven minutes after the ballast train, but it overtook it when it had run between 3 3/4 and 4 miles, and, as the driver states, and probably with truth, that, owing to the fog he could not see above 20 yards ahead of him, he had only time to apply his Westinghouse break before he dashed into the ballast train at a speed, probably, of not much under 25 miles an hour, driving the broken break-van forward, and coming to a stand very rapidly.

The engine of the ballast train had just run over two fog-signals placed near the Dereham up distant-signal, and the driver admits that he felt a shock from the collision, and knew it was from a following train, but he thought it was the goods train, and that the shock was so slight that no damage could have been done, and he therefore, rather imprudently, took his train forward into Dereham, where he learnt what had happened."

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