1875
WEST CROYDON
14th JULY 1875
INVOLVING DRIVERS JARVIS NAYLOR & JOHN WALLER
DEPOTS UNKNOWN
Extracted and adapted from the report by
C. S. HUTCHINSON, Licit—Col. R.E.
A collision which occurred on the 14th ultimo, at West Croydon station,
on the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway.
In this case as the 6.48 p.m. passenger-train . from the Crystal Palace to West Croydon was entering the
station it came into collision With a shunting engine
drawing a train of empty carriages through a crossover road.
Two passengers complained at the time of having
been shaken.
In the Crystal Palace train the engine hid its, right
step taken off and the front break compartment its
step and door handle carried away.
In the empty train four carriages had their sides,
frames, and steps injured.
The close approach to West Croydon Station from
the direction of London and the Crystal Palace is round
a sharp curve which prevents the drivers of incoming
down trains from seeing the state of the lines in the
station for but a, short distance ahead. There are two
platforms for down trains, one principally used for
main line through trains proceeding to Dorking, &c.,
and the-other ending in buffer stops, used principally
for local trains. The home signals for these platform
lines are placed upon two; high posts situated 140
yards from and upon the up side of the new signal cabin, which again, is about 10 ,yards on the up side
of the old cabin, which was in use when the collision
occurred, The centre of the cross-over-road through
which the train of empty carriages was being drawn
is, about 200 yards from the site of the old signal,-
cabin, and its points were not, at the time of this collision, interlocked with the signals, nor worked
from the cabin, though alterations were then going on
with a view to the concentration and interlocking of all
the points and signals, and these improved arrangements came into use two or three days after the occurrence of the collision. The line is worked upon
the block system, but in consequence of the down
home signals being a considerable distance—viz., about
200 yards—from the cross-over-road in the station,
"line clear" is allowed to be given to St. James's
junction, the next block signal-post towards London,
&c., while this cross-over road is in use. The line in
the station is, I understand, nearly level.
At about 6.54 p.m. on the day in question, the 6.15
p.m. train from Victoria to West Croydon, consisting
of an engine and eight coaches, arrived on the main
platform line. It was ten minutes hoe, having been
five minutes late in starting, and having lost another
five minutes from detention by signals. As soon as it
arrived the signalman permitted a shunting engine to
cross to its rear to put it away into a siding as soon as
it had discharged its passengers, and at about 6.58 or
6.59 this engine began to draw the empty carriages
through the cross-over road, the signalman looking on
from his cabin and signifying his permission by placing a white flag in the window.
The driver of the shunting engine, Jarvis Naylor,
of 18 years' service, says "I had just passed through the down line points of the cross-over road with the empty coaches, when my mate, who was on the right side of the engine said There's the Palace train corning in. I at first thought it was going across as usual into the dock platform line, and accordingly shut off steam, but immediately afterwards seeing it coming along the main line I put on steam again, hoping to he able to draw clear of it, but its engine struck the fifth coach, then the sixth and seventh, and remained fixed in the eighth or last coach. I could have stopped in time had the Palace train crossed, as I first thought it was going
" to do, into the dock line."
The evidence of the guard and of the switchman
holding the points of the cross-over-road confirms that
of the driver.
The down home signals were visible to none of
these men, so that they could not speak as to their
position.
The 6.48 p.m. train from the Crystal Palace to
West Croydon, where it was due at 6.56 p.m., consisted of a tank engine, running coal-box first, and
seven coaches, the first and last having a break compartment, with a guard in the rear one. It started
punctually, but was detained at Norwood junction
three minutes by signals. The driver, John Waller,
of four years' service, who had not previously run with
this train more than four or five times, says that on
approaching West Croydon he found both the distant
and main line home signals off for him; that he did
not think much of the main home-signal and not the
dock-signal being off, but concluded there was some
good reason for it; that he was running in very
steadily, the rails being greasy, with his steam off and
his breaks rubbing, when, on rounding the curve, and
just before reaching the signal-cabin he saw about 150
yards off the engine with the empty carriages in motion
towards him; that he at once used every means in his
power to stop, and had nearly done so, when he struck
the fifth coach from the front of the empty train; that nothing left the rails in his train, and but little
damage was done; that he spoke to the signalman
after the collision, who acknowledged that he had
omitted to restore the signals to danger after the
arrival of the train from Victoria.
The fireman's evidence corroborates that of the
driver.
The guard of the train, who had frequently worked
with it on previous occasions and had always been
in the habit of running into the dock, thought it very
singular to find the main line and not the dock'.
signal lowered for them, and accordingly applied his
break earlier than usual, expecting the driver to
whistle and get it reversed; but finding he went on
he released his break to permit them to run into the
station. - He then seeing a white flag in the signal cabin window next the station knew that something
must be wrong, flew to his break and was is the act
of applying it when the collision occurred.
The signalman, Henry Martin, of 20 years' service,
of which lie had spent 184 years at West Croydon,
came on duty at 6 p.m. lie had 12 levers and three
wheels in his cabin, three block instruments, and one
speaking instrument. He was assisted in his duties
by a telegraph boy. He lowered his signals for the
Victoria train, and cannot account for his not having
restored them to danger on its arrival at 6.54, though
he took the Crystal Palace train "on line" directly
he had given "line clear" for the Victoria train, and
had intended to stop the former at the home signals
and turn into the dock as soon as the latter had
been shunted; he had thought it best to clear the
main line before admitting the Crystal Palace train,
as another main line train to Dorking was due at
7.3. He was watching the empty train shunt and
had no notion the other train was approaching until it
was passing the cabin, when it was too late for him to
move the points and turn it across into the dock.
This collision then was caused by the mistake of an
experienced signalman in not restoring his signals to
danger after the arrival of the Victoria train, and,
with his signals still off, in allowing this train to be
shunted after having taken a following train, that from
the Crystal Palace, "on line." It was also an error
in judgment to have allowed the empty train to cross
before admitting the Crystal Palace train; besides
avoiding delay to this latter train it would also have
been less likely to have caused delay to the following
main line train, as the block section between St.
James's junction and West Croydon would have been
sooner clear. The signalman was under no particular
pressure as regarded his duties at the time, and his
mistake only affords another proof of the great
advantage arising from the proper interlocking of
points and signals.
Had this state of things existed
at the time of this collision it would doubtless have
been prevented, and it is satisfactory to know that the
points and signals are now interlocked, and that a
collision cannot occur again from a similar mistake.
Had the Crystal Palace train been fitted with
continuous breaks in the driver's hands the train
might, notwithstanding the signalman's mistake, have
been stopped in time to have averted the collision.