On This Day in 1915, St Bedes Junction Train Crash
On this day in 1915, one of the tragic railway accidents of the First World War era occurred at St Bedes Junction near Jarrow in northeast England. In the early morning fog of 17 December, a sequence of train movements at the North Eastern Railway’s St Bedes Junction resulted in a devastating triple‑train collision. The crash claimed lives and left scores of passengers and railway staff injured, marking it as a somber moment in British railway history.
The accident began before 07:20 am when a goods train, ascending a gradient towards St Bedes Junction, was being assisted or “banked” from behind by a six‑coupled tank engine. After helping push the goods train up the incline, the banking engine uncoupled and came to a stand on the up main line. In the foggy conditions of the early morning, the signalman at St Bedes signal box did not see the detached banking locomotive standing on the line.
Unaware of the obstruction, the signalman accepted the scheduled 07:05 passenger train running from South Shields towards Newcastle on the up line. At almost the same time, he also accepted the 06:58 empty stock train travelling from Hebburn to South Shields, which was moving at a slower speed of about 10 mph. With both services now authorised to enter the same section of track, the stage was set for disaster.
The passenger train, travelling at approximately 30 mph, struck the rear of the stationary banking engine. The force of that impact telescoped the two leading coaches of the passenger service, crushing them severely. Almost immediately following that collision, the empty stock train ran into the wreckage that lay on the line. In that second collision, the fireman on the empty stock train was killed.
Following the collisions, the gas lighting in the wooden passenger coaches ignited, and a fire consumed much of the wreckage. The conflagration intensified the tragedy, making rescue and recovery even more difficult for those at the scene. In total, 81 people were reported injured in the crash, many with serious burns or injuries sustained in the collisions and subsequent fire.
A Board of Trade inquiry later identified that the principal cause of the accident was the signalman’s failure to notice that the banking engine was standing on the up main line, combined with the driver of the banking engine not having adhered promptly to Rule 55 procedures to inform the signalman of his presence. The continued use of gas‑lit carriages was also criticised for worsening the effects of the fire, and recommendations were made to accelerate the replacement of gas lighting with electric lighting on passenger trains. In total, 19 people lost their lives as a result of the accident.