Going Off the Rails

A fascinating guide to early train disasters, illustrated through contemporary postcards and explained expertly by John Hannavy.

The track record of Britain’s railways in the early 20th century was not a good one – in 1909, a report titled ‘General Report to the Board of Trade upon the Accidents that have occurred on the Railway of the United Kingdom during the year 1908’, was published, concluding that over 1,000 people had died on the railways during the year, and nearly 8,000 others had been injured. With the Edwardian era marking the heyday of the photographic postcard, many of the accidents which occurred were photographed in often-graphic detail and, in the days before photographs in newspapers became commonplace, postcards disseminated those news pictures rapidly across the world.

John Hannavy is a writer, photographer and historian, with a lifelong fascination for both postcards and railway history.