| Abbots Ripton rail accident | |
|---|---|
 Site of the former Abbots Ripton station, near where the disaster occurred | |
| Details | |
| Date | 21 January 1876 |
| Location | Abbots Ripton |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Line | East Coast Main Line |
| Operator | Great Northern Railway |
| Incident type | Double collision |
| Cause | Wrong-side failure (multiple) |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 3 |
| Deaths | 13 |
| Injured | 59 (53 passengers and 6 crew members) |
The Abbots Ripton rail disaster occurred on 21 January 1876 at Abbots Ripton, then in the county of Huntingdonshire, England, on the Great Northern Railway main line, previously thought to be exemplary for railway safety. In the accident, the Special Scotch Express train from Edinburgh to London was involved in a collision, during a blizzard, with a coal train. An express travelling in the other direction then ran into the wreckage. The initial accident was caused by:
- over-reliance on signals and block working as allowing high-speed running even in adverse conditions
- systematic signal failure in the adverse conditions of that day due to a vulnerability to accumulation of snow and ice
The accident (and the subsequent inquiry into it)[1] led to fundamental changes in British railway signalling practice.
- ^ Tyler, H W. "Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Circumstances Attending the Double Collision on the Great Northern Railway which occurred at Abbotts Ripton on 21 January 1876" (PDF). Railways Archive. HMSO. Retrieved 27 May 2018.