4 ms·

And the Railway Department report into the incident, with obviously many more details : http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_TottenhamFeb1860.pdf http

• dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  TL;DR There was a defect in a tire that when subject to wear failed catastrophically causing the front axle to derail when braking prior to entering the station. The train was braking later than the textbook safe distance and was not configured for ideal braking performance. The derailed axle hit some of the track infrastructure causing the locomotive to jump the tracks and hit the platform while the rest of the trail piled on the back. Just like every other "disaster" it's a bunch of otherwise inconsequential actions, bad luck, an operating procedure that doesn't account for day to day reality and a little bit of corner cutting coming together at the same time.