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The Abermule train crash was
a head-on collision which
occurred on single track at
Abermule, Montgomeryshire,
Wales on January 26 1921,
killing 17 people.
Yet in August 2019, an
operating irregularity on the
Romney, Hythe and
Dymchurch Railway in Kent
resulted in two passenger
trains being on a single track
section of line heading in
opposite directions. The trains
stopped before a collision
occurred. But the Abermule
accident was cited as having
"clear parallels with the events
leading up to the incident at
Romney Sands".
The Abermule crash arose
from a catalogue of
misunderstandings which
effectively over-rode the safe
operation of the Electric Train
Tablet system protecting the
single line. A train departed
carrying the wrong tablet for
the section it was entering and
collided with a train coming
the other way.
The Cambrian Railways,
which traversed Wales from
Whitchurch in Shropshire to
Aberystwyth and Barmouth, via
Dovey Junction, contained a
number of single line sections.
The small station of Abermule
was a crossing station between
two such sections.
To protect the single line
sections, Tyer's Electric Train
Tablet apparatus was used.
Two linked tablet instruments
were used on each section,
one at each end. To allow a
train to proceed into the
section, a call button would be
THE ABERMULE TRAIN
DISASTER ONE
HUNDRED YEARS ON
On the centenary of the fatal Abermule train
disaster lessons are still being learned