On This Day in 1866, Welwyn Tunnel Rail Crash

On this day in 1866, a serious railway collision took place inside Welwyn North Tunnel, north of Welwyn station in Hertfordshire, on the Great Northern Railway. The accident happened late on 9 June, at about 11.36pm, after a train of empty coal wagons came to a stand in the tunnel and was then struck from behind by another goods train. Two men died and two were injured in an incident that exposed dangerous weaknesses in the way trains were protected and signalled through tunnel sections.

The first train involved was made up of 38 empty coal wagons hauled by a tender locomotive, and had been signalled away from Welwyn at about 11.20pm. While passing through the tunnel, the engine failed and the train stopped. The guard, Wray, initially suggested allowing the train to roll back towards Welwyn on the falling gradient, but the driver refused because such a move would have been dangerous and against the rules. Once the train was stranded, the rear of it should have been protected by the guard going back with detonators, but that protection was not carried out.

At about 11.36pm, a Midland Railway goods train from London, formed of 26 wagons, reached Welwyn signal box. The Welwyn signalman knew he had not received confirmation that the first train had cleared the tunnel, and he used the telegraph to ask Knebworth whether the section was clear. The problem lay in the signalling communication: the code for “No” and the code for “Out” differed only in the number of beats on the telegraph needle. The Knebworth signalman said he replied “No”, but at Welwyn the message was misread as meaning the train was out of section.

On that mistaken understanding, the Midland goods train was allowed to enter the tunnel. It ran into the rear of the stationary coal empties at an estimated speed of between 20 and 25mph. Wray, the guard of the first train, was killed, while Rawlins, a Metropolitan Railway employee travelling in the guard’s van despite Great Northern Railway rules, was severely injured and died on 12 June. The driver and fireman of the Midland train survived, but had to free themselves from the wreckage before any warning could be sent.

The danger was then made worse by a third train. Before the signal boxes could be informed of the collision, a Great Northern express goods train carrying meat from Scotland for Smithfield Market was also allowed into the tunnel. It struck the wreckage from the earlier crash and caught fire, creating an even more difficult emergency in the confined space of the tunnel. The fire was hard to tackle and was not fully extinguished until 11 June, leaving a scene of severe damage deep inside the railway bore.

Remembered today, 160 years on, the Welwyn Tunnel rail crash remains significant because it showed how vulnerable early railway operation could be when safety depended on individual action and ambiguous communication. The official investigation placed the main blame on the failure of the guard of the first train to protect the rear of his stopped train, while the misread telegraph message also played a critical part in allowing another train into the occupied tunnel. The accident helped underline the need for clearer block signalling procedures and positive confirmation before a train was allowed into a section where another train might still be standing.