Wheels to Disaster!

The development of railways in Britain came in the 1830s as a result of the needs of industry and of the public eager for the novelty and cheapness of rail travel. As the authors of Wheels to Disaster! explain, these early railways were beset by accidents caused by collisions and mechanical failure, and the 1870s produced more disasters than any other decade before or since. On Christmas Eve in 1874 the worst accident in the history of the GWR occurred at Shipton-on-Cherwell, several miles from Oxford, when the 10 a.m. from London Paddington to Birkenhead derailed, killing thirty-four passengers. The fracture of a single tyre was enough to cause this catastrophe due to the lack of continuous braking and inadequate communication between the driver and passengers. Using the accounts of eyewitnesses, archive newspaper articles and reports, Wheels to Disaster! tells the story of the worst incident in the history of the GWR.