Hawes Junction trail disaster

The Hawes Junction rail crash occurred on 24 December 1910, between Hawes Junction and Ais Gill on the Midland Railway's Settle and Carlisle main line in Westmorland (now Cumbria), England. It was caused when a busy signalman (Sutton) forgot about a pair of light engines waiting at his down (northbound) starting signal to return to their shed at Carlisle. They were still waiting there when the signalman set the road for the down Scotch express. When the signal cleared, the light engines set off in front of the express into the same block section. Since the light engines were travelling at low speed from a stand at Hawes Junction, and the following express was travelling at high speed, a collision was inevitable. The express caught the light engines just after Moorcock Tunnel near Ais Gill summit in Mallerstang and was almost wholly derailed.