Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

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Rlangham
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Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by Rlangham »

Stumbled across this on eBay, can't find any reference to a disaster/accident/roof collapse at Hull that matches this, can anyone shed light on it?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hull-Paragon- ... SwFNZW0x7G

No connection with the seller at all
Author of 'The North Eastern Railway in the First World War' - now available in paperback!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/North-Eastern-R ... 781554552/

Happy to help with anything relating to the railways in the First World War, just ask
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52D
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Re: Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by 52D »

There was a crash between two D20s head on is this the incident.
Hi interested in the area served by 52D. also researching colliery wagonways from same area.
Mickey

Re: Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by Mickey »

52D wrote:There was a crash between two D20s head on is this the incident.
I believe your referring to an accident that happened in February 1927 52D.

In fact February 1927 was a 'bad month' at Hull Paragon station because a total of three serious railway accidents happened during that month alone including the 'head on' accident that you referred to 52D involving the two D20 locos which was attributed to a signalman's error.

In fact the television did a re-enactment of this accident at Hull Paragon many years ago back in the early 1970s I recall (shown on BBC 2 I believe?) using the old Fenchurch Street s/box in London on the old LT&S line to Tilbury & Southend because the then old Fenchurch Street box still had a working 'miniture lever frame' that still operated the stations colour light signals & motor operated points that was similar to the miniture lever frame that was in Park Street s/box on the approach to Hull Paragon station that worked the then pneumatic semaphore signals & points in that area in 1927.


Mickey
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tomburnham
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Re: Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by tomburnham »

Rob,

The date on the postcard appears to be Jan 7 1905 and not 1908 and this gives a significant clue as to what may have been depicted. Between 1902 and 1905 Hull Paragon station was reconstructed and enlarged to the designs of William Bell and by December 1904 the new extension to the north of the old station came into use. This allowed the demolition of the G.T. Andrews, York and North Midland, trainshed roof to commence and the photograph appears to show an unintended partial collapse of the old roof during demolition. This would hardly merit the disaster description, as that part of the station was out of use at the time, even if there had been some loss of life from within the workforce. Despite this apparent setback demolition and reconstruction proceeded rapidly and the completed station was inspected by the Board of Trade in June 1905.

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Re: Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by kudu »

Mickey wrote:
52D wrote:There was a crash between two D20s head on is this the incident.
I believe your referring to an accident that happened in February 1927 52D.

In fact February 1927 was a 'bad month' at Hull Paragon station because a total of three serious railway accidents happened during that month alone including the 'head on' accident that you referred to 52D involving the two D20 locos which was attributed to a signalman's error.

In fact the television did a re-enactment of this accident at Hull Paragon many years ago back in the early 1970s I recall (shown on BBC 2 I believe?) using the old Fenchurch Street s/box in London on the old LT&S line to Tilbury & Southend because the then old Fenchurch Street box still had a working 'miniture lever frame' that still operated the stations colour light signals & motor operated points that was similar to the miniture lever frame that was in Park Street s/box on the approach to Hull Paragon station that worked the then pneumatic semaphore signals & points in that area in 1927.
Mickey
I don't know whether you know the details of the Paragon head-on crash, but you should find them interesting with your signalling expertise. As I understand it from Rolt's account, two signalmen made errors, and it was the split-second timing of these events that resulted in tragedy. One man pulled the adjacent lever by mistake while the other prematurely returned a signal to danger. The points could only move because the mechanical interlocking gave a split-second "window" where it failed to prevent the conflicting movement. You could say this was an extremely unlucky accident, but maybe with so many actions every day in busy boxes like these it was bound to occur somewhere one day where this technology was used. I also find it remarkable that a low-speed collision could have such devastating results.

Kudu
Mickey

Re: Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by Mickey »

Hiya Kudu, yes I have read about the Hull Paragon accident in February 1927 a few times down the years although not possibly in the last 15 years and yes it was something like a MILLION to ONE chance that for a split second the 'interlocking was free' for the signalman to accidently pull the the wrong miniture lever which resulted in a train being routed into the path of another train, actually quite an interesting accident.

Like I posted before BBC television done a re-enactment of this accident back in the very early 1970s using the old Fenchurch Street box which still had a miniture lever frame in use at that time.

Mickey
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Re: Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by Ecclesweb »

Hi
Around the three quarter mark, in this video, is to be found a reference the this accident. It is described as happening, at Hull Paragon Street Station, on St. Valantine's Day, February 14th, 1927.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s9Ey5VLJr4
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Re: Hull 'Old Paragon Station Disaster', January 1908?

Post by 52D »

Ecclesweb wrote:Hi
Around the three quarter mark, in this video, is to be found a reference the this accident. It is described as happening, at Hull Paragon Street Station, on St. Valantine's Day, February 14th, 1927.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s9Ey5VLJr4
From 38 to 40 mins is where you need to look.
Hi interested in the area served by 52D. also researching colliery wagonways from same area.
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