Railway accidents in New South Wales

The railways of New South Wales, Australia have had many incidents and accidents since their formation in 1831. (There are close to 1,000 names associated with rail-related deaths in NSW on the walls of the Australian Railway Monument in Werris Creek. Those killed were all employees of various NSW railways. The details below include deaths of employees and the general public).

This locomotive, built in 1855 by Robert Stephenson with three others for the first real railway line in New South Wales, was involved in two fatal accidents. The first occurred as a derailment on 10 July 1858. The locomotive was pulling two open third-class carriages, a first- and a second-class carriage between Sydney and Parramatta. Near Homebush, the two third-class compartments left the rails and toppled down an embankment. There were thirty people in the two carriages, of whom two were killed, one a solicitor, the other a market gardener. In the ensuing investigation, reported in The Sydney Morning Herald, it was suggested that the problem was caused by damage to the hollow-cast rails which were not able to withstand the weight of the locomotive. Rail workers, some of whom witnessed the derailment, claimed that the problem was caused, at least in part, by the practice of loose-coupling the lightweight third-class carriages in the same way as heavy goods trucks. The matter also drew to the attention of the managers the fact that the price of first class travel, at four shillings, was so exorbitant that even the wealthiest citizens of Sydney chose to travel in the open carriages.

On 6 January 1868 a man was killed when Locomotive No. 1 collided with a passenger train at Newtown Station. The locomotive was severely damaged and retired. It is now on display at the Powerhouse Museum. Newtown Station was at that time located west of the present station, its platform eventually forming part of the foundation of Crago's Flour Mill.

On the night of 30 January 1878 head-on collision between two goods trains. The drivers and firemen of both trains, together with a guard riding in the cab of the up train, were killed. The primitive system of working the trains was found to be responsible.

On 25 January 1885 the Melbourne-Sydney Express passenger train derailed near Bethungra, killing seven and injuring over 20. The cause was a washaway of a culvert over Salt Clay Creek during a period of heavy rainfall.

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