fascinatinghorror

The Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash

Added 2022-09-20 10:15:01 +0000 UTC

There's a wealth of information available about this historic accident, and so it was inevitable that I couldn't fit everything into the video. Here are a couple of my favourite errata...

What happened to Gilbert Powell?

In the video I mention that 14-year-old Gilbert Powell (very conscientiously) asked for a note to excuse his absence from school before leaving the scene of the accident. What I didn't mention is the fact that, it seems, the note did no good.

In a contemporary interview, Gilbert related that not only did he get put in detention for an unauthorised absence... he also got separately told off by both his mother and his father.

This was, of course, before they were told what Gilbert had done by his Scout Leader. I imagine they rather changed their tune once they realised where he'd been!

The mountain of paperwork

An accident like this almost always generates a huge amount of paperwork. In most cases everything except for the most crucial documents (like the official accident reports) are soon lost to time.

In this case, though, we have an unusually good archive of paperwork connected with the accident, courtesy of Railway Archive. Here's the full list of documents which you can browse through.

My favourite has to be the collection of "various communications" which includes a slew of letters, including a hastily-scribbled, impressively-calm note reading: "Am OK. But cannot be home till later - possibly Sunday or Monday...", and a note requesting reimbursement for a hotel bill.

Letters and notes like these so often get lost, so it's fascinating to see them preserved and archived like this.