Robin Longbottom looks at how a crash involving a runaway train led to change on the Worth Valley line

ABRAHAM Welch was 27 years old and working as a guard for the Midland Railway Company on the Worth Valley branch line.

On the morning of Monday, September 27, 1875, he started work at 4.35am and half an hour later was the guard on the Keighley to Kildwick passenger train, which returned to Keighley at 5.30.

At 6am he took up his post on the goods train from Keighley to Oxenhope. It left the station at 6.13 pulled by a tank engine and consisted of six goods waggons, five coal waggons, five passenger carriages, a third-class brake carriage and a goods van. The train arrived at Ingrow seven minutes later, where it left a goods waggon, before departing to Oakworth.

The train arrived at Oakworth at 6.51 and John Wigglesworth, a porter from Keighley who was acting as assistant guard, was in the rear brake van. Welch instructed him to screw on the brake. The engine and the waggon behind it were then uncoupled, as the waggon was to be left in the siding at Oakworth. After uncoupling, Welch walked along the train to the third-class brake carriage and screwed on the brake. The engine then pulled forward into the siding, leaving the train standing below the points.

Having detached the waggon from the engine, Welch noticed that the goods train had begun to slowly roll back down the line towards Keighley. He ran down the yard and picked up a sprag, a brake stick that was inserted through spokes of a wheel to stop its motion, but he was unable push it into the wheel. Meanwhile Wigglesworth had put a sprag into the wheel of one of the carriages, but it broke. He then got into the brake van and attempted to put more pressure on the brake but without success. By this time the train had gained speed, leaving him unable to get off and trapped in the van.

Welch now jumped on the engine and he and the driver, Benjamin Whitfield, set off after the train. They hoped to be able to catch it up and get near enough to link it up to the engine, but they only managed to get within three or four yards. As they approached Ingrow Station, Whitfield blew the whistle several times hoping to warn the station staff. However, on hearing the whistling of the approaching train, Jeremiah Laycock – a porter of only three months – opened the points at the siding, under the impression that it wanted to travel on the main line. It was only when the train passed the points that he realised it was not attached to the engine.

The train, with engine in pursuit, now hurtled towards Keighley Station. At this time the station stood in what is now Sainsbury’s car park and there was still a level crossing on Bradford Road. The gatekeeper had just let the Bradford to Colne train through and hearing the furious whistling from the engine and the train on the branch line he quickly closed the gates to road traffic.

The Colne train had now stopped at the station and Ralph Singleton, the station master, seeing the brake van and waggons hurtling towards them, shouted for the passengers to jump clear. Meanwhile Wigglesworth, who had been looking out from the brake van, had the presence of mind to spread himself out on the floor before the inevitable collision.

The goods train smashed into the rear of the Colne train, reducing the rear passenger carriage – which fortunately was empty – to matchwood. Miraculously no one was killed, and Wigglesworth together with 12 passengers still on the Colne train survived with only minor injuries.

Following a Government inquiry, telegraphic communication was installed along the Worth Valley line.