November 1, 1855 – Gasconade Bridge train disaster – With more than 600 passengers aboard the Pacific Railroad excursion train celebrating the railway line's opening, outside St. Louis, Missouri the bridge collapsed and the locomotive plus 12 of the 13 attached cars plunged into the Gasconade River. Over thirty people died and hundreds were seriously injured.
March 12, 1855 – Desjardins Canal Bridge train disaster - Ninety passengers boarded a train from Toronto, Ontario en route to Hamilton, Ontario. As the train approached its final destination, the bridge spanning the Desjardins Canal collapsed as the train derailed. Seventy passengers died from trauma or drowning and exposure after being thrown into Cootes Paradise .
September 101874 – Norwich (Norfolk, United Kingdom) disaster - 25 people were killed when a communication error caused a mail train and an express passenger train to meet in a head-on collision on a single-line section near Norwich, Norfolk. The accident led directly to the introduction of automatic control systems to manage traffic on single-track railways.
22 October, 1895 – derailment at Gare Montparnasse in Paris, express train overran buffer stop and crossed more than 30 metres of concorse before plummetting through a window.
1898 – Tsavo maneaters: about 140 rail workers eaten by lions while building bridge.
December 27, 1942 – Almonte, Ontario, Canada: Thirty-six people are killed and over 200 injured when a passenger train running late was struck from behind by a troop train.
June 4, 1943 – Hyde railway accident , New Zealand: Train derails at speed in a curved cutting, 21 killed, 47 injured.
March 3, 1944 – Balvano, Italy : Over 500 people who stole a ride on a freight train die of carbon monoxide poisoning when the train stalls in a tunnel.
July 6, 1944 – Troop train crash near Jellico, Tennessee. Passenger train derails due to excessive speed on defective track. 35 killed, 99 injured; all soldiers in U.S. Army enroute to deployment.
September 1, 1947 – Dugald, Manitoba , Canada: A Canadian National Railways passenger train failed to take the siding and collided with the No. 4 Transcontinental that was standing on the main line. Thirty-one people were killed.
August 22, 1955 – Spring City Train Disaster . Spring City, Tennessee: School bus disregards crossing signal and is struck by freight train. 11 dead, 39 hurt, all the dead are school children.
1986 – Colwich rail crash: High speed collision when one train fails to stop in time at a red signal, and obstructs a junction. Despite two locomotives being totally destroyed, the only death was one of the drivers.
December 232001 – Charlotte, New York, United States: An incorrect brake application on a CSX local train that had stopped to perform switching at Kodak Park causes the train to run away and derail five miles later, destroying homes and businesses in the area.
January 6, 2005 – Graniteville train disaster, South Carolina, United States: Still under investigation by the NTSB; preliminary findings are that a turnout is left lined for a siding when it should have been lined for the mainline, causing a through freight train to collide with a parked train. [1]
January 122005 – Fort St. John, Manitoba (a suburb of Winnipeg), Canada: Five cars of a CN freight train derail; as one of the cars was carrying propane, the area is evacuated. The tank car remains upright and intact, so local residents are allowed to return fairly quickly.
January 262005 – Glendale train crash, California, United States: In a failed suicide attempt by an automobile driver, a southbound Metrolink double deck commuter passenger train collides with a car parked on a grade crossing and derails; the derailed train strikes the northbound Metrolink train on the other mainline track and a parked Union Pacific Railroad freight train on a siding. 11 passengers are killed, about 100 injured.
