1-150-676 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'Muddleby Junction', 1872. A signalman wonders what train should be running on which line, and what order all the trains will come through. This cartoon first of all shows how the administration of the railways was having trouble keeping up with the increasing volume of traffic using the railway infrastructure. Secondly, though, it relates to a major railway incident when the express from London to Scotland ran into another train at Kirtlebridge Station on 2nd October 1872. The station master was subsequently committed for trial for culpable homicide and wilful violation of duty, although he was unanimously declared as a decent, careful and hard-working man. There was much discussion about the negligence of the Railway Companies who had neglected to remedy the deficiencies of the signalling that had caused so many accidents - 53 out of 159 in 1871, and 60 out of 122 in 1870. From Punch, or the London Charivari, October 19, 1872.