The Armagh rail disaster happened on 12 June 1889 near Armagh, Ireland when a crowded Sunday school excursion train had to negotiate a steep incline, the steam locomotive was unable to complete the climb and the train stalled. The train crew decided to divide the train and take forward the front portion, leaving the rear portion on the running line. The rear portion had inadequate brake power and ran back down the gradient, colliding with a follo...
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The Armagh rail disaster happened on 12 June 1889 near Armagh, Ireland when a crowded Sunday school excursion train had to negotiate a steep incline, the steam locomotive was unable to complete the climb and the train stalled. The train crew decided to divide the train and take forward the front portion, leaving the rear portion on the running line. The rear portion had inadequate brake power and ran back down the gradient, colliding with a following train. At the time it was the worst rail disaster in Europe, and it remains the fourth worst in the United Kingdom. Seventy-eight people were killed and 260 injured, most of them children.
Armagh Sunday school had organized a day trip to the seaside resort of Warrenpoint, a distance of about 24 miles. A special train was arranged for the journey, carrying almost eight hundred passengers.
The railway route is steeply graded and curved, and the first two and a half miles from Armagh station involved a steep continuous climb, up a gradient...
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