November 22, 2012
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Red for Danger
The book I read to research this post was Red For Danger by RLT Rolt which is an excellent book. This book is a history of train accidents in the UK. These kinds of accidents rarely happen and when they do happen even if there is only a small loss of life they're big news. In the 19th century one accident happened on the Chester to Shrewsbury. It happened when a train went over a bridge and one of the girders gave way. The train barely made it to the other side but the fireman who was on the footplate fell to his death. On another occasion there was a flood which derailled a train and the driver got out to go and report it. He survived. Meanwhile a big flood was sweeping his way carrying 2 ton boulders and swept the bridge the train was on away. A lot of people died. On a lot of routes they have double track which at least in theory means trains use each track for different directions. Where there are single tracks obviously there can be problems. One way around this is drivers collecting a token from a signal box to indicate they are the only one on that stretch of line. There can be problems when a driver fails to collect the token and goes through anyway.
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