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The Staplehurst rail crash was a derailment at Staplehurst, Kent on 9 June 1865 at 3:13 pm. The South Eastern Railway Folkestone to London boat train derailed while crossing a viaduct where a length of track had been removed during engineering works, killing ten passengers and injuring forty. In the Board of Trade report it was found that a man had been placed with a red flag away but the regulations required him to be away and the train had insufficient time to stop. Charles Dickens was travelling with Ellen Ternan and her mother on the train; they all survived the derailment. He tended the victims, some of whom died while he was with them. The experience affected Dickens greatly; he lost his voice for two weeks and afterwards was nervous when travelling by train, using alternative means when available. Dickens died five years to the day after the accident; his son said that he had never fully recovered. ==Derailment== On 9 June 1865 the daily boat train to London left Folkestone between 2:36 pm and 2:39 pm, having taken on board passengers from the tidal cross-channel ferry from France. Tender locomotive No. 199 hauled the train, comprising a brake van, a second class carriage, seven first class carriages, two-second class carriages and three brake vans carrying eighty first class and thirty-five-second class passengers. Three of the brake vans contained a guard and these were able to communicate with the driver using a whistle on the engine. Just after the train passed Headcorn railway station at , the driver saw a red flag. He whistled for the brakes and reversed his engine, but the locomotive and brakesmen were unable to stop the train before it derailed at 3:13 pm crossing the Beult viaduct, where a length of track had been removed during engineering works. The high viaduct, with eight openings each wide, crossed over a mostly dry river bed at the time of the accident. The locomotive, tender, van and second class carriage made it across and remained coupled to the first class carriage, the other end of which rested in the dry river bed. The next seven carriages ended up in the muddy river bed and the last second class carriage remained coupled to the trailing vans, the last two of which remained on the eastern bank. There were ten fatalities and forty people injured; seven carriages were destroyed, either in the derailment or when rescuing passengers. The Board of Trade report, published on 21 June 1865, found that for the previous eight to ten weeks a team of eight men and a foreman had been renewing the timbers under the track on viaducts between Headcorn and Staplehurst railway stations. The track would be removed when no train was due; however, on 9 June the foreman had misread his timetable as to the schedule that day of the tidal boat train. Regulations required a man with a red flag to be away, but the labourer was only away, having counted telegraph poles that were unusually close together, and the train had insufficient time to stop. There had also been no notification to the driver about the track repairs in the area. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Staplehurst rail crash」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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