A train crash 150 years ago is helping to bring the forgotten deaths of rail workers into the spotlight
- Written by Mike Esbester, Principal Lecturer, Subject Area Lead in History, University of Portsmouth
At 9.45pm on September 10 1874, two trains collided head-on at the village of Thorpe St Andrew, two miles east of Norwich. According to a press report of the time, a “ghastly pyramid formed of hissing locomotives, shattered carriages and moaning, in some cases dying, passengers”. Twenty-five people died and 75 were injured.
The disaster...