Timeline Date Period

The London and South Western Railway introduces a new Continental service, Southampton-Havre.

The Great Western Railway of England, abolishes second-class rail fares (first- and third-class remain).

The Hawes Junction train disaster in Cumbria, England, occurs when a busy signalman forgets about a pair of bank engines waiting at his starting signal and he then allows two trains into the one block section.

The Pontypridd railway accident in South Wales kills 11 people.

Electric trains begin work between London Victoria station and Crystal Palace.

First Great Western Railway 4300 Class 2-6-0 locomotive is turned out of its Swindon Works, England. The class, designed by George Jackson Churchward, will comprise 342 members and see overseas service during World War I.

First Great Central Railway Class 8K 2-8-0 freight locomotive, No. 966, is turned out of its Gorton locomotive works, England. The class, designed by John G. Robinson, will exceed 650 in total and see overseas service during World War I.

Nigel Gresley (later Sir Nigel) becomes Locomotive Engineer, Great Northern Railway.

The Ditton Junction rail crash near Widnes in England kills 15.

Death of John Saxby, English railway signalling engineer (b. 17 August1821), who invented “interlocking” for points and signals. He became a partner in the company Saxby & Farmer.

Opening of the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railway in Switzerland, including the 14.6 km (9 mi) Lötschberg Tunnel.

Death of Herbert William Garratt, English steam locomotive builder and inventor of the Garratt locomotive type (b. 1864).

George Westinghouse, American inventor; developed the Westinghouse air brake (b. 1846) died.

The Carrbridge rail crash in Scotland kills 5 people.

Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits announces that due to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria this day at Sarajevo, the Orient Express will terminate in Bucharest and not go on to Constantinople.

British Government takes control of railways as a wartime measure.

O. Winston Link, American photographer who documented the end of steam locomotive use on the Norfolk and Western Railway in the 1950s born on tis day.

The Ilford rail crash in England kills 10.

In the Quintinshill rail crash, four trains including a troop train collide, the accident and ensuing fire causing 227 fatalities and injuring 246 people at Quintinshill, Gretna Green, Scotland; the accident is blamed on negligence by the signalmen during a shift change at a busy junction.

A rail crash in Weedon kills 10 people.

The first train operates over the regauged Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway using 1 ft 3 in (381 mm) gauge equipment.

The St Bedes Junction rail crash in England kills 19 people.

Karl Gölsdorf, Austrian steam locomotive designer dies.(b. 1861).

Motor Rail deliver the first of over 900 petrol engined 60 cm narrow gauge railway locomotives for the British War Department Light Railways on the Western Front (World War I); substantially the same design is in production until the 1980s.

Death of Ephraim Shay, self-taught railroad engineer and inventor of the Shay locomotive (b. 17 July 1839).

The Ratho rail crash in Scotland kills 12 people.

The Bere Ferrers rail accident in England kills 10 New Zealand soldiers.

The Little Salkeld rail accident in England kills 7 people.

The Armistice with Germany is signed between 5:12 AM and 5:20 AM in Marshal Foch’s railway carriage, CIWL #2419, in Compiègne Forest bringing an end to World War I.

September 27 until October 6 – Railway workers in the United Kingdom stage a strike, called by the National Union of Railwaymen.

Death of Anatole Mallet, inventor of the Mallet locomotive type (b. 1837).