Details of the Railway Fatal Accident

LocationArlesey Siding Station, Bedfordshire, England
DateSaturday, 23rd December 1876
Railway CompanyGreat Northern Railway
No. of fatalities4
Cause of AccidentDerailment and collision
DescriptionA collision between a fast running express and a derailed freight train: the express was unable to stop due to lack of continuous brakes. Coroner crticised lack of continuous brake and short block sections in relation to speed.

Sources/Further Reading

  • Backtrack magazine, Vol 7, September/October 1993
  • https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2514465
  • https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/
  • London Illustrated News, 6th January 1877

List of Fatalities

3 of the 4 fatalities have been identifed so far. They are listed in the table below together with brief notes on any other information that has been found. If there are more than 25 records, they will have been split into separate pages - please use the navigation below to move to other pages.

The last column shows the General Register Office (England and Wales), Statutory Register (Scotland), General Register Northern Ireland or Civil Registration for Ireland reference where this has been identified (this reference can be used to order a copy of the official death certificate).

SurnameFirst NameAgeOccupationResidenceNotesGRO/SR/GRONI/GROIE Ref.
BURBIDGE Stanley Robert 33 , Travelling with his wife to spend Christmas with relatives in Nottingham. Died of his injuries on the 18th Jan 1877. His wife died 33 years later never having recovered from the crash. 1877/Mar Biggleswade 3b 224
n/k Railway Locomotive Fireman (of the express train) ,
PEPPER Thomas 49 Railway Locomotive Driver (of the express train) , Married, no children. Owner of a number of properties Based Doncaster WRY 1876/Dec Biggleswade 3b 222