Hidden Horsham - Train Crash at Horsham Station

Horsham Railway Station

In the early 1970s a significant train crash took place at Horsham Station. It was caused by an engineering train running into the back of a passenger train that was about to leave for Bognor Regis, luckily no-one was badly hurt

At this time British Railways still operated the network. The local area, including the tracks, signalling and station, was run by Southern Region.

It was the early afternoon on the 8^th of January, 1972 that the collision occurred. The 12.24 engineering material train that was running from Three Bridges to Chichester was approaching Horsham Station, heading south. The 12.02 Victoria to Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis train, also southbound, was preparing to leave platform. The guard had been given clearance to depart and was on board the train about to ring the starting bell when the engineers train hit

Accident report cover

The speed of impact was put at 20mph which perhaps explains why there were not any serious injuries; 14 passengers and the guard were taken to Crawley Hospital and only one was detained overnight. The engineering train had a driver and secondman who had time to prepare for the collision by retreating further back the train and bracing themselves. Neither was injured by the impact although both were treated later for shock; any injuries to the guard are unrecorded

However, there was significant damage and disruption caused to the rail and road network for a short time. The 8 coach passenger train was pushed some 200 feet (71m) down the platform. The last carriage was forced up into the footbridge as the front of the engineers train went under it. The footbridge was reported as having some 'superficial damage' to it

The engineers train suffered considerably more. It had been comprised of 17 units with a combined weight of 993 tons; it was carrying track and timbers for the railway. The four units in the centre were derailed. The eighth wagon derailed and almost completely demolished one of the two piers supporting the road bridge then ended up on its side. The bridge remained intact but was not opened for traffic until 2.30pm on Tuesday, 11^th January, by which time it had been shored up by a steel trestle. Evidence of the damage to the road bridge is still visible today and can be seen in the photograph below. The southern pier consists of eight pillars; the furthest six are clearly of a different construction to the other two.

The rail network was restored in a shorter time. By 5.00pm Sunday the 9^th all of the carriages were back on the tracks. By 6.15am on Monday the lines were open again, albeit with a speed restriction of 5 mph through the repaired section. Bus services had operated from Crawley, Dorking, and Billinghurst until then

An enquiry into the accident was commissioned by the Department of the Environment on Monday the 10^th of January 1972. The report was published on the 27^th of December in the following year; the author was Major P M Olver who has been involved in a number of rail accident enquiries

Olver established that the accident occurred because the air brakes on the engineers train had not been connected correctly. When the wagons and locomotives were put together at Three Bridges there were problems with controlling the second engine from the cab of the first engine. During the fault finding process the isolating cocks between the two locomotives had been shut and no-one had re-opened them. As a result of this the train only had braking on the leading locomotive and the guard's van; this was insufficient to stop the train as it approached Horsham

Major Olver's full report on the incident can be viewed on the Railway Archive in the external links below

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