South Croydon Rail Crash
Between Purley and South Croydon
1947 Oct 24th. South Croydon Rail crash. Two Southern Railway electric commuter trains collided in fog and 32 people were killed, including the driver of the second train.
The crash was a rear-end collision caused by a signalman's error. The inexperienced signalman at Purley Oaks forgot about a train from Haywards Heath to London Bridge standing invisible in the fog. The line was protected by the Sykes "Lock and Block" apparatus, which prevented him from allowing another train into the section until the preceding one had left it. He wrongly believed that the elderly apparatus was faulty and used a release key to over-ride it. This allowed a train from Tattenham Corner via Purley to London Bridge into the same section, and they collided near South Croydon Junction. The trains were crowded in the rush hour, carrying 800 and 1,000 people respectively, hence the heavy death toll.
"I was a few months old at the time and my father commuted daily in to London for his work. He was on the second train and was shook up but uninjured from the accident but remained a cautious rail traveller for many years. He would explain to me years later to always try and be seated in the middle carriages with one's back to the direction of travel to stand the best chance in a train accident. Years later, I too commuted on that line, and the trains were always badly over-crowded with people standing in every available space should-to-shoulder for the journey."(AIT)"