On This Day in 1944, Ilford Train Crash

Today, 16 January, marks the anniversary of the Ilford rail crash of 1944, a fatal collision that occurred at Ilford station in darkness and dense fog during wartime conditions. At about 19:20, two express passenger trains on the Great Eastern Main Line, both heading towards London Liverpool Street, became involved in a rear-end impact after signals were passed at danger.

The first train was the 14:38 express from Yarmouth, which was stopped at Ilford while en route to London. In poor visibility, its driver failed to see several caution signals and brought the train to a stand 110 yards beyond a signal at danger. The driver then walked to the signal box and, after a short wait, was given “line clear” by the signalman.

As the driver returned to his train, the signalman received a telephone call from a colleague in the adjacent box warning that the following service, the 14:40 express from Norwich Thorpe, had also passed signals at danger. The Ilford station inspector, who had come to the signal box to find out why the Yarmouth train had stopped, was sent to place detonators at the rear of it as a warning.

Before the inspector could do so, the Norwich train ran into the rear of the Yarmouth service at an estimated speed of 20–25 mph. Nine people died as a consequence of the collision, among them three United States Army personnel and Frank Heilgers, the Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds.

A further 38 people were injured. Of those, 28 were taken to hospital, while ten others suffered shock or minor injuries, reflecting the human toll of a crash that unfolded quickly in conditions where drivers and signalmen were working with severely limited visibility.

First aid was available immediately because an American doctor and nurse were travelling on the train, and a member of railway staff had been trained in ambulance work. Ilford civil defence personnel arrived at 19:36, with ambulances and the civil rescue squad following at around 19:50; a nearby U.S. Army depot also sent a medical detachment. The two through lines to and from London were blocked until 14:30 the next day, though the two local lines were not affected and the presence of crossover facilities helped limit the wider disruption to rail traffic.