Norton Fitzwarren rail crash (1940)
| Date | 4 November 1940 |
|---|---|
| Time | 03:47 |
| Location | Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset |
| Country | England |
| Rail line | Reading to Plymouth Line |
| Operator | Great Western Railway |
| Cause | Signal passed at danger |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Passengers | ~900 |
| Deaths | 27 |
| Injuries | 74 |
| List of UK rail accidents by year | |
The Norton Fitzwarren rail crash occurred on 4 November 1940 between Taunton and Norton Fitzwarren in the English county of Somerset, when the driver of a train misunderstood the signalling and track layout, causing him to drive the train through a set of points and off the rails at approximately 40mph. 27 people were killed. The locomotive involved was GWR King Class King George VI which was subsequently repaired and returned to service. A previous significant accident occurred here on 10 November 1890 and the Taunton train fire of 1978 was also within 2 miles.
The house of the driver, Percy Stacey, had been bombed the previous night. He had gone to work as usual. Further bombing on the night of the accident and other disruptions had made the train an hour late by the time it reached Taunton.
The crash occurred at a point on the railway where four tracks were reduced to two. On the four-track section, the up and down fast lines were in the centre between the up and down slow lines. Instead of the usual practice of locating all signals on the same side of their respective tracks (GWR practice was to commonly put them to the right of the track, the same side their drivers stood on the locomotive), the Relief Line signals were on the left, and the Main Line signals were on the right.
Stacey's train left Taunton station observing the indications of the right-hand signals (all green, indicating "proceed" for the Down Main line), not realizing his train was travelling on the Down Relief (left-hand) track and the signals were showing clear for another train coming from behind on the adjacent track. Wartime blackout conditions at night contributed to this misapprehension. The driver only realised his mistake when the other train overtook him, by which time it was too late to stop before the track ended. As trap points were in place, the train was derailed rather than running onto the fast line and colliding with the other train. The fireman and 26 passengers were killed.
The guard in the end vehicle of the overtaking train was alarmed by strange noises, which later turned out to be ballast thrown up by the derailing train alongside. He applied his own brakes to check what might be the problem, the train was stopped at Victory Siding, the next signalbox to the west, and he discovered the sides of the last vehicles were scored from flying ballast, and there were broken windows. The derailing "King" locomotive had nosed down off the end of the overrun siding and then swung across the main tracks, what must have been feet behind the overtaking train.
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