This is the story of how Britain’s railway disasters, horrific though they may be, change the network for the better through the crucial lessons that are learned.

It starts with fatalities on early mining tramways before the dawn of the steam age and takes the story up to the present day. While many of Britain’s worst tragedies are covered in depth, such as Quintinshill in 1915 and Harrow & Wealdstone in 1952, the book also looks at others that had resounding consequences for safety.

• Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Introduction
• 1830 Liverpool & Manchester: The first widely-publicised tragedy
• 1833 Bagworth: The introduction of the first whistles?
• 1865 Staplehurst: Heroism of Our Mutual Friend
• 1868 Abergele: Inferno of the Irish Mail
• 1874 Thorpe: Why Edward Tyer invented the tablet system
• 1876 Abbots Ripton: Double collision on the East Coast Main Line
• 1879 Tay Bridge: The railway Titanic
• 1887 Hexthorpe: The worst day at the races
• 1889 Armagh: No braking the runaway train
• 1890, 1939, 1978 Norton Fitzwarren: Somerset’s triple accident blackspot
• 1896 Preston: An end to speed
• 1896 Snowdon: Fatality on the first day
• 1906 Salisbury:One fast curve too many
• 1915 Quintinshill: Britain’s worst rail disaster
• 1945 Bourne End: Blinded by the light
• 1947 Goswick: Carnage on the ‘Flying Scotsman’
• 1952 Harrow Wealdstone: Britain’s worst peacetime rail crash
• 1955 Sutton Oldfield: Sharp turn taken at double speed
• 1957 Lewisham: Carnage in the London fog
• 1967 Thirsk: Derailed cement wagon wrecks a prototype
• 1967 Hither Green: Bonfire night horror
• 1975 Moorgate: So why didn’t he stop?
• 1975 Nuneaton: Nightmare after signals missed
• 1988 Clapham Junction: The wrong kind of wire
• 1994 Cowden – So, who was driving?
• 1996 Rickerscote: Questions over wagon maintenance
• 1997 Southall: Britain’s train safety systems condemned
• 1999 Ladbroke Grove: The signal that could not be seen
• 2000 Hatfield: Cracked rail killer
• 2001 Great Heck: Ten people died – and the railway was blameless
• 2002 Potters Bar: They waited nine years for justice
• 2004 Ufton Nervet: They waited 12 years for a bridge
• 2004 Tebay: ‘Greed’ set off a runaway train
• 2007 Grayrigg: Potters Bar crash ‘repeated’ in Cumbria
• images