List of rail accidents (1900–1909)

This is a list of rail accidents from 1900 to 1909.

1900 February 16 – United Kingdom – a Cleator and Workington Junction Railway freight train derailed when the formation was washed away by heavy rain.

February 20 – United Kingdom – A Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway freight train overran the buffer stops at station, Dublin (now in the Republic of Ireland) and ran through the end wall of the station. 0-6-0 locomotive Wicklow was suspended over Hatch Street immediately after the collision. April 30 – United States – The Cannonball Express pulled by Illinois Central 382, en route from Memphis, Tennessee to Canton, Mississippi, with John "Casey" Jones as engineer, collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. The engineer of the Cannonball, Casey Jones, was the only fatality. June 16 – United Kingdom – Slough rail accident - Slough. Great Western Railway express train from London Paddington ran into the rear of a local train at Slough station, killing five people and seriously injuring 35.Robertson, Kevin, "Odd Corners of the G.W.R.", The History Press, Stroud, England, 2010, , page 134 June 23 – United States – Camp Creek train wreck – McDonough, Georgia: A Southern Railway train from Macon, Georgia bound for Atlanta ran into a washout over Camp Creek near McDonough and plunged into the swollen creek below before bursting into flames, killing 39 of the 49 aboard. The flagman, J.J. Quinlan, acted heroically, running all the way to town and alerting the telegraph operator to the disaster before procuring a length of rope and saving two female passengers."Whole Car Load Of Travelers Killed." The New York Times 25 June 1900. Print. July 4 – United States – Tacoma streetcar disaster – An overloaded streetcar failed to negotiate a curve and plunged down an embankment near a trestle that spans today's South Tacoma Way in Tacoma, Washington. The disaster resulted in 43 deaths and approximately 65 injuries, many serious. July 24 – United Kingdom – A Midland Railway passenger train derailed at , Lancashire killing one. August 30 – United States – On the Great Northern Railway, 18 loaded freight cars separated off the rear of an eastbound train, ran away backward, and after crashed into a business car at the rear of a westbound passenger train at Nyack, Montana. Three people were killed in the business car and 33, all railway employees, in the next car forward. September 8 - United States - 1900 Galveston Hurricane: A Gulf and Inter State Railroad passenger train was destroyed by a hurricane on a journey from the Bolivar Peninsula to Beaumont, Texas. All 85 people on board were killed. United States – The Lonesome Gap viaduct on the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap, and Louisville Railroad collapsed when a double-headed freight train drove over it, against standing orders that such trains were not to cross the viaduct.

1901 April 12 – United States – A head-end collision of a work train and a through freight train occurred near Pineville, Kentucky killing two. May 26 - United States - “Electric cars racing for a switch while running in opposite directions, at the rate of , cost five lives in the afternoon by a terrific collision, in which over forty prominent people were injured, some fatally and others seriously. The lobby of the local post office filled with dead and wounded, hysterical women and children looking for relatives and friends, surgeons administering temporary relief and ambulances racing through the city, taking the wounded to hospitals, were the early intimation of the accident. The scene of the accident was at a point about out of Greenbush, on the line of the Albany & Hudson railway. The point where the cars met on the single track was at a sharp curve, and so fast were both running and so sudden was the collision that the motormen never had time to put on the brakes before southbound car No. 22 had gone almost clean through the northbound car No. 17, and hung on the edge of a high bluff, with its load of shrieking, maimed humanity. One motorman was pinioned up against the smashed front of the southbound car, with both legs severed, and was killed instantly, while the other one lived but a few minutes.Fully 120 men, women and children formed a struggling, shrieking pyramid framed with blood, detached portions of human bodies and the wreckage of cars. Some of the more slightly injured of the men extricated themselves and began to pull people out of the rear ends of the two cars. Almost every one was taken out in this way, and nearly all were badly injured. With both motormen killed it was hard to get at the real cause of the accident, but it was pretty well determined that it was caused by an attempt of the south bound car to reach a second switch instead of waiting for the north bound car at the first siding.The cars weigh fifteen tons each and are the largest electric cars built, and so frightful was the crash that both cars were torn almost to splinters. Both cars were filled with Sunday pleasure seekers returning from the new recreation grounds that the railway had just opened."from the BROOKLYN EAGLE May 27, 1901.Sixteen months later tragedy struck again, and a young woman and a small boy were killed in a collision at Rossman's Station. Marjorie Hoysradt, 20, and Edward Doyle, 5, were among the "thousands of people" who had taken the railway's cars to enjoy a summer outing at Electric Park. According to The New York Times of August 2, 1902, cars were running at high speed to accommodate the crowds when the accident occurred. June 8 – United States – A double-header freight train collided with a stopped freight train carrying 12 tons of dynamite on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad in Vestal, New York killing five and injuring seven. October 29 – United States – Linwood, North Carolina. The second of two northbound special trains carrying part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show towards Danville collided head-on with a southbound Southern Railway freight train carrying a load of fertilizer. The engineer of the southbound train had been ordered to yield to the northbound traffic, but did not understand that there were two trains, setting up the head-on collision with the second train. The resulting crash severely injured Annie Oakley and killed many famous show animals, domestic and exotic, including fully 110 horses. November 27 – United States – Adrian, Michigan. Two trains of the Wabash Railroad collided east of Seneca, Michigan. The westbound train was carrying Italian immigrants going west from New York. Estimates of casualties ranged from twelve to 23 to 50-80 to 100 dead with at least 50 to 125 injured. The unknown dead were buried in Adrian's Oakwood Cemetery; the gravesite was marked September 25, 2016. December 6 – Germany – Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof. The luxury train Ostend-Vienna-Express, about 90 minutes late, reached the Frankfurt Terminus at about 5 a.m. The air brake failed due to a faulty valve which remained closed.Markus Meinold: Die Lokomotivführer der Preußischen Staatseisenbahn 1880 – 1914. Hövelhof 2008. , p. 129. The locomotive overran the buffer stop, shot across the head of the platform and crashed through the opposite wall behind which the restaurant for 1st- and 2nd-class passengers was situated. There it came to a stop in midst of the tables covered with white table cloths and set for breakfast. The photograph of this scene became a favorite in most publications on the history of the Frankfurt Central Station. Nobody was hurt in the accident. In this early morning hour not many people were around, and the carriages of the Ostend-Vienna-Express had separated from the locomotive and remained on the rails. After a short time they were on their way to Vienna again. Some of the sleeping passengers hadn't even noticed the incident.Markus Meinhold. The Ostend-Vienna-Express carried through-coaches between Ostend and the Orient Express. December 22 – United Kingdom – Liverpool, Dingle railway station. The line of the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) to Dingle railway station was worked by electrically powered trains. Access to this underground station was through a tunnel about long. On December 22, 1901, an engine of a train caught fire and the train stopped about before reaching the station. Soon all the train was on fire as well as the station. Six people died. This was the first major accident caused by an electrically powered train.

1902 January 8 – United States – New York City: A stopped New Haven express train from South Norwalk was rear-ended in the Park Avenue tunnel by a New York Central White Plains local, due to smoke and snow obscuring signals. Seventeen persons were killed and 36 injured, the worst rail accident in New York City history. The accident inspired the State Legislature to pass a law the next year prohibiting steam operation within the tunnels of New York City on the Park Avenue line south of the Harlem River. March 21 – United States – Paterson, New Jersey: A trolley car stalled on an Erie Railroad crossing after its pole lost contact with the overhead wire. As an express train approached, passengers evacuated the car. When the conductor reconnected the power, the trolley lurched backward, striking Mrs. Susan Simonton (wife of the Paterson Fire Captaion) and fatally injuring her 8-year-old son, Dewitt Simonton, who fell on the tracks and was decapitated. The accident occurred in front of bystanders and received national press attention. March 30 – South African Republic – Barberton rail crash – Between Barberton and Kaapmuiden, a passenger train ran away descending a gradient toward a sharp curve and a bridge over a gully where it derailed and one car fell into the gully killing at least 44 passengers. August 2 - United States - Albany Southern Railway - A young woman and a small boy were killed in a collision at Rossman's Station (near Albany, NY). Marjorie Hoysradt, 20, and Edward Doyle, 5, were among the "thousands of people" who had taken the railway's cars to enjoy a summer outing at Electric Park (on Kinderhook Lake in Niverville, NY). According to The New York Times of August 2, 1902, cars were running at high speed to accommodate the crowds when the accident occurred. August 5 - United States - A Norfolk and Western Railway coal train fell though a trestle under repair near Peebles, Ohio. 1 killed and 4 injured.For a contemporary newspaper account see The Indianapolis journal. [volume], August 06, 1902, Image 1 (The newspaper account also claimed 2 tramps were missing). For an expanded account of the accident see "Collapse at Shimer's Run" Ohio Historical Society Magazine "Timeline" January/February 1994. August 16 – Canada – A Canadian Pacific Railway westbound freight train ran into the tail end of a stopped freight train. This incident occurred about east of the station depot at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. The train crew members involved were unhurt but the body of a suspected hobo was found as the wreckage was cleared.Brandon Daily Sun, August 16, 1902, P1 September 1 – United States – A Southern Railway train derailed at Berry, Alabama, killing 21 people. September 11 – British India – A mail train plunged into a river at Mangapatnam due to a bridge washout. At least 100 people were killed. September 27 – France – A signalman's error diverted a Chemins de Fer du Nord express to Cambrai into a siding at Arleux. Most of the train cars derailed; 20 people were killed and 41 injured. December 6 – Canada – Nova Scotia, Six persons were killed in a wreck on the Intercolonial Railway, the Canadian Government railway, at noon near the station at Belmont, from Halifax. An express train for Montreal rolled down an embankment, completely wrecking the locomotive, the postal, express, and baggage cars and several passenger cars.