Rare find at Auction

Bridgwater: 5 September 2006 Lot 84.
"A real photographic card of South Dorset Joint Railway steam loco no. 52 involved in a crash with the back of a train at Highbridge, Somerset, a crowd looking on c. 1921"

"South Dorset" ? - huh !

But Highbridge? If so, where exactly? Track layout with FPL and rodding does not equate with station/works area, only likely location is west of main road at junction with Wharf. But what about the buildings behind on the left?

Andy Viles said:

I've seen the photograph 30 plus years ago in a magazine,(not a railway one) I think the
caption with it said something like derailment at Burnham bank holiday, another photo in the same article was of a signal post being raised at Highbridge.I think the article was a general one about the S&D not about the photos.

Andy Watson followed up:

When I looked at the picture it certainly looked more like a derailment than a crash as there appears to be no damage to the coaches which a crash would surely entail. In addition to this the loco seems a long way off the rails for a crash which has barely derailed the coaches!

As for the South Dorset Joint Railway - something out of fiction methinks.

Russ Garner, the SDRT's expert on pre-1930 stock, reveals the truth:

The picture was new to me and now the fourth known [to me] of the derailment at Burnham in 1914. Two such photographs appear on pages 154 & 155 of "Life on the Somerset & Dorset Railway" by Alan Hammond. Another [scanned] photograph exists and it appears that the PBV next to the engine is either No. 6 or 8.

A short article from The Burnham Gazette for Saturday 18 April 1914, covers the derailment of 0-4-4T No.52 on the approach to Burnham station on Easter Monday [13 April] 1914. The article is reproduced here:

TRAIN DERAILED NEAR STATION Much excitement was caused in the town on Easter Monday morning when it became known that a train had become derailed near the Somerset and Dorset Railway Station. It appears that the Bath excursion due to arrive at 10.50 a.m. left the rails at the points opposite Lancaster Cottages. The train consisted of five coaches, and the engine when it left the line, took two coaches with it. Happily neither of them were overturned, and no personal injuries whatever were received by the passengers. By 12.15 a breakdown gang were on the spot, and after some six hours work removed the carriages and by 6 p.m. got the engine on the line again. The permanent way was found to be very considerably damaged, and had to be immediately attended to by the workmen. A curtailed system of traffic was kept up following the accident by running trains backwards. Passengers from Highbridge were compelled to alight and walk from the points to the Burnham platform, and those who wished to leave Burnham by train had similarly to walk from the platform to the place where the train could arrive. However, the 7.15 train from Burnham was able to leave the platform in the ordinary way, and the later evening traffic was advertised. Hundreds of people visited the place of the accident during the day. Photographic postcards of the mishap may be obtained from Patey & Co., Victoria Street.

Richard Barton reminded us that there is also a similar photo but a different group of people on page 106 in the revised Somerset and Dorset Railway by Robin Atthill.

Chris Osment continued:
When I first saw this picture I did think about the Burnham incident, but as I didn't have another pic of that to hand and the caption mentioned Highbridge, then I ignored the idea. OK then, Burnham would answer my previous query about the house roofs in the left background. The line in the foreground would be the excursion platform loop, whilst the rear end of the loco would be on the main platform line. The point in the foreground clearly is reversed, so the train must have been expected to arrive in the excursion platform line. The passengers in the foreground presumably are stood at the trackside beyond the Highbridge end of the excursion platform. 2nd from right is a bearded gentlemen and above his head in the back ground is the end of at least one coach which seems to me quite clearly to be on a separate line to the right of the main (derailed) train (rather than just a separated part of the main train on the same line). If the train was approaching Burnham on the single-line, then the other coach(es) on the right must be - where? They can only be on the 'trap road' at the end of the excursion platform line. I don't have my plans to hand at the moment, but I did not think that trap road was very long. In any case, why would the coach(es) be there anyway and they must have been there /before/ the accident blocked the access.

And Russ Garner added:
The 1914 Working Time Book (July ufn) shows the 10.45am arrival (8B SP) as an excursion service. The Highbridge-Burnham shuttle service having arrived at 10.35am; scheduled to depart at 11.25am.
Looking at the 1903 plans in Mac Hawkins "Then & Now" (1986 edtion) and those in Judge & Potts for 1921 it will be noticed that "Lancaster Cottages" are recent additions to the growing population of Burnham. The plans also show that there are no real changes to the approach to Burnham station, although the catch point / 'trap road' is not discernable in the 1903 plan.
Looking at a larger uncropped view as seen on the bottom of page 154 in "Life on the S&D" I noticed that the wheels of the second carriage (5-compt Third) had in fact remained on the rails, whilst the luggage Composite behind had jumped the rails at its rear toward the cottages, hence the appearance that the two trailing carriages (5-compt Third and 2-compt Brake Third) are on another road. Projecting an alignment from the trailing carriages it confirms that the second carriage is still on the rails. A closer look at the roof arc of the fourth carriage shows that the is some distance between itself and the Composite, around 15ft or so, hinting that the couplings broke/detached thereby activating the vacuum brake on the two trailing carriages. or that they had already been detached in readiness for their removal back toward Highbridge for inspection.

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