Newspaper and bootlaces used to mend a leaking brakepipe: Related in the Scrap Heap column of the Railway Gazette (TTTTEM). JG has located the clipping:

Jeremiah Jobling has been found at last!
From the 14 November, 1947 issue of the Railway Gazette - I present to you James and the Bootlace

Life imitating art department: (JG points out that this version is Jeremiah Jobling's revenge!)

Fish in water tank: on the Glasgow and South Western Railway:
"A front coupling scoured clean and polished, and an eel in the tender tank were two of 133's specialities. The eel lived happily there a long time, till one day in an absent-minded moment the crew turned steam back into the tank to heat the feed-water and so boiled the eel.
"Fish of various sorts were quite common in tender tanks. Drivers used to say that they ate up vegetable matter and so kept the sieves clean. Willie Craig had a big eel in the tank of 254, a rebuilt Stirling 0-4-2. 'A hungered-looking brute it was,' said Craig, 'a' grown to the heid. It had lugs on it like a horse.'" - from David Smith, Tales of the GSWR p 20 (JG)

Life imitating art department:

We often took on water from the lakes up north [somewhere in Northern Ontario]. We'd throw in a big hose called a syphon. With the steam you could pump water right out of the lake.

We've even found live fish swimming around in the water tank. the hoses had picked them up and put them in the tank!

From: Great Canadian Railway Stories: a compendium of Canadian retired railwaymen's recollections of life on the rails. in Vol 2, an account from Bob Grant - former Steam fitter with the CNR.in the 40's-50's, describing 5700 class of engine with 6'4" driving wheels (JG)

Not impossible for snowed-in engine to be rescued by tractor but real instance unknown. See Book 15, story 4 for the story of a real-life sonwed-in train.

The race between a train and a bus is overtly fictional but read this taken from The Daily Mail Tuesday March 14th 2006, p64 'Answers to Correspondents' section.

The question was, "Has anybody been caught speeding while driving a bus?"
This reply was sent in by a chap called Kenneth Johnson, from Exeter.

"FURTHER to earlier answers, in the mid-forties my mum used to take my sister and myself to Exeter for shopping, fish and chips and a film.
To get home to Crediton we had the choice of bus or train. We nearly always took the bus, which left the bus station just before the train left St David's station.
Shortly after crossing the railway line at Cowley Bridge the road ran more or less parallel to the railway line and the race to be first into Crediton began.
Passengers on the bus shouted at the driver to go faster, complained when people wanted to get off at intermediate stops, and waved furiously at 'rival' passengers on the train as they waved furiously back.
I was six years old, and it was the most exiting experience of my young life. The bus normally won." (SIF- Bulker)

Also see note on Book 11, story 3

Engine sticks turntable: fairly common.
Engine spun by wind on turntable: Hawes Junction, now Garsdale, on the Settle and Carlisle line of the Midland Railway. Incident report dated December 21st 1900, from the Settle Inspector Mr Silcock: "As the Pilot Engine No 1310 was turning on the Turntable this morning the wind being so Strong the engine got beyond Control. The following are the Names of the men who was called out by Signalman Sutton 5.30 am till 6.30 am" (JG from Paul Kampen, Editor, Friends of the Settle and Carlisle Line.) Apparently sandbags were used to stop the turntable spinning. As a result of this incident it was stockaded with a wall of sleepers, as happened to at least one other turntable on the Highland Railway:

Engine number 1466 of the Great Western Railway [an 0-4-2 14xx like Oliver] was once happily waiting on the main line for clearance from the signalman to leave. Unfortunately, the signalman wasn't aware of the engine's presence, and had an express routed on to the same line. When they saw the oncoming express, the fireman jumped clear and the driver tried to move the engine. The express hit 1466, knocking the driver out of the cab and setting the engine in motion. 1466 ran driverless down the main line for seven miles before it was deliberately derailed. The event is dated and located to Newton Abbot, in 1939.* (SIF- Tom Wright), similarities to the Hawes Junction accident of 1910 (RBTL)

JG research unearths another similar story on the old Somerset and Dorset Joint railway at http://www.sdjr.net/sd_accidents.html

Near Radstock, and on to Midford!
This next incident could easily have been written for an old Ealing Comedy Film.
On the 29th of July 1936, an up freight train hauled by a 2-8-0 locomotive, had just passed signals at danger in the vicinity of Writhlington signal box, near Radstock. It came into slight collision with 0-6-0T locomotive No.7620, which was engaged in shunting duties at Braysdown Colliery.
The crew of the 2-8-0 engine had jumped off in anticipation of the collision. The driver of the 0-6-0T, also realizing what was about to happen, started to reverse his train and leaped off, his fireman did the same, leaving the regulator slightly open. The driver then managed to clamber aboard the now almost stationary 2-8-0 and brought it to a halt, The 0-6-0T rolled off towards Bath, minus its crew, propelling a rake of 8 wagons in front of it at ever increasing speed on the undulating gradients. By the time the runaway train reached Midford, some 5 mile away, most of the wagons had been pushed off the track on the sharp curves, causing considerable damage and partially wrecking the signal box and station buildings at Midford. Fortunately the eventual derailment of the last wagon brought the engine to a stand before it could foul the junction at Bath.

Different calorific values of coal: From "Steam" locomotive simulator program by Bryan Attewell.

Abbots Ripton accident, January 21st, 1876 which claimed 14 lives* (RBTL), Incident at Lincoln (TTTTEM)

Detail of the Abbots Ripton accident from Red for Danger by LTC Rolt at http://www.waynekerr.net/abbot0902.htm

It was indeed the case that Bray had been misled and Catley and Falkinder on the Scotsman lured to destruction by false and fatal ‘all clear’ signals. The great Northern signals of this date were of the slotted type in which, when pulled to clear, the arm fell into a slot in the signal post. This had become so clogged with snow, driven by the gale and then frozen solid, that the balance weights would not return the arms to danger, the latter not being balanced themselves. To make matters worse, some of the signal wires were covered with three inches of ice. Joshua Pallinder, a signal fitter, told at the inquiry how he had to hack ice off the Abbots Ripton signals to release the arms from the slotted posts, how he had to tie a 36-lb rail chair to the balance weight of the up distant before it would return. Even when he had freed the arm of the down distant at Wood Walton, it automatically dropped back to ‘all clear’ because of the weight of the frozen snow on the long signal wire.

The Flying Kipper resembled an accident at Torre station in Devon on the 15th of December 1952 (a year after the book was published).

It being a dull and drizzly day on Saturday 26 April 1950, (I) walked down to Torre station intending to catch a train to Exeter, only to discover that there had been an accident there that morning. The locomotive on the 8.55 AM Newton Abbot to Kingswear train, 4-6-0 No 7004 Eastnor Castle had run through adverse signals approaching Torre and collided with the rear of a two-wagon goods train hauled by 0-6-0T No 6998, which was standing on the down line. Fortunatly, the wooden wagon next to the break van took much of the force of the collision and no-one was hurt, although Eastnor Castle suffered a badly bent front end.
(SIF - Bocodiseasel)

From The Trains We Loved by C Hamilton Ellis 1947. Page 15 of chapter 1 Journeys, cited in the Rev Wilbert's text:
"The little boy who was I saw and remembered another railway accident at Salisbury, a very jolly one for the heartless onlooker.
"The principal actors were a porter and an Adams 0-4-2 Jubilee engine. The porter was pushing a trolley, piled high with luggage, over the crossing at the eastern end of the station; the Jubilee was drifting in with the awful stealth of the light engine. Just as he had pushed the trolley so far, the porter saw the Jubilee. He was human. He fled.
"Then the Jubilee took the trolley amidships. With one brief crunch it was gone. A buffer punched sweetly into the great trunk, a tuckbox exploded, a holdall ceased to hold and laid all before us. Neat suits, good jams and choice preserves, dainty millinery and masculine high boots rose in a swarm from that riven hive.
"Into the station careened a vision of the Jubilee Adorned. A big picture hat crowned a lamp-iron; snowy lingerie blossomed in strange places, or danced a delicate rigadoon on a coupling rod.
"There was a final tortured scream of brakes and wreckage in chorus, then all was still. Strong men, brows bent in horror, leaped down into that vale of tears and began to cram soiled and scattered finery back into split portemanteaux and scalped bandboxes. It was a great destruction. Doubtless much more followed, but at that point a Great Western train came clanking in. I had never before seen a locomotive with double frames and with so immense a brass dome, nor yet a train of carriages completely clerestoried. I turned my back on my first railway accident. Forgive me reader, for I was only five!" (JG, who surmises the incident took place in 1914-1915)

<- LSWR "Jubilee" 0-4-2 (Adams)

In the early 1950's cases of hooliganism occurred in the usually respectable area of Petts Wood. The target was the 7.34 pm from Charing Cross, which had stones dropped on to the engine as it passed under a footbridge. By the time the train had made its first stop at Sevenoaks and a complaint made, the culprits had fled the scene long before the police eventually arrived at the footbridge. One evening a stone narrowly missed Driver Bill Snell, but he did not report the matter at Sevenoaks. The following evening, however, he told his fireman to change places with him as they passed Elmstead Woods. Bill piled several shovelsful of slack coal under the door and told the fireman to shut the regulator when he gave the word. As the 7.34 approached the footbridge, the hooligans could be seen, perched ready to bomb the engine. Bill shut off the injector with the needle just above 220, the firehole doors were shut tight and the blower only on a touch; a few yards from the bridge Bill yelled 'now', with the regulator closed suddenly, thick, black smoke rolled out of the chimney and enveloped the boys aloft and with her injector off, steam roared from the engine's safety valves as the engine passed under the bridge. No more incidents occurred for Bill that week as he reckoned that 220lb of steam and lungfuls of smoke with a slight scalding was better than a talk from a policeman any day!* - From Thirty Years at Bricklayers Arms, Chapter 7 by Michael Jackman, 1976 (JG, who relates the incident dates from around 1951 and thus the Rev Wilbert could concievably have heard the tale). Possibly an engine fitted with an ash ejector (RBTL).

A newspaper cutting reported in TTTTEM that a youthful correspondent Richard sent to the Rev W. is reported in that book as follows:

"Engine No 43132 takes the wrong turn at Lynn"

"The 43132, a 90-ton 4MT engine [a 2-6-0 Ivatt LMS "Mogul" from 1947], used for passenger and goods work, should have taken the 12.30 train from South Lynn to Yarmouth on Saturday. Driver B. Fisher and Fireman D. Hudson were operating the turntable and had the engine half-way round the turn when it began to move forward off the turntable and down a 7ft embankment, its nose becoming embedded in a ditch."

Local newspaper search in the British Library (Newspapers) at Colindale in North London yielded this:

There are some inconsistencies between the two accounts - the loco's number (43142), depth of plunge (4-5 ft) and method of rescue (crane), but also some similarities - the 12.39 train from South Lynn to Yarmouth on a Saturday, besides the general freakishness of the event one might feel would not occur twice in the same location readily! Needless to say this was a front page story for the still-published Lynn News, which gives us a firm date for Gordon's plunge of Saturday 9th August, 1952. Rather poor quality photo but unmistakeably Ivatt's mogul!

Life imitating art department: Although it is possible this incident below also contributed to the story - from http://www.cattlecountryrailway.co.uk/

A story from David Curwen, the builder of Robin Hood, 10 1/4" gauge model of an A1/A2 pacific, about the Weymouth miniature railway between 1947 and 1962:

The loco was on the turntable with one of the helpers sitting on the tender whilst it was being turned by its driver. Just as the loco was half way round the helper accidentally nudged the regulator with his knee and at the time the loco was in full forward gear! The engine swiftly moved forward and due to the proximity of the turn table to the Radiploe lake Robin Hood took a nose dive off the wall and straight into the water .After the panic the driver contacted a chum who was an officer in the local RAF base and he sent some of his men along with a mobile crane to rescue the stricken engine out of the lake. After careful examination of the engine for damage which happened to be so minor in fact that the loco was in-service the next day! (JG Research)

Train slipping on leaves: Bincombe Tunnel, cited in the story text, is still used on the line in Dorsetshire between Dorchester and Weymouth, a Channel port. Although the leaf-slip incident cannot be identified, the 1:50 Bincombe Bank is the steepest grade in the Southern region:

From The Furness Railway, by W. McGowan Gordon (1946), page 42:

"On October [actually September] 22nd, 1892, about 8-16 a.m., a remarkable accident occurred on the Furness Railway at Lindal. The 0-6-0 tender engne No. 115 (a 16" "Sharpie") was shunting some iron ore wagons into a siding in the yard when the ground suddenly caved in under the locomotive. The engine crew (Driver Postlethwaite and Fireman Robinson) jumped off the footplate and got away. Slowly but surely the engine sank into the cavity and by 2-15 p.m. she had disappeared from view. Only the tender was saved. The area around Lindal is honeycombed with iron ore workings, and this was evidently responsible for the subsidence. It is estimated the locomotive lies some 200 feet below the ground today. The cavity was filled up in due course and the line became quite safe for traffic. While ths was going on, goods for the area were worked round by Penrith, Keswick and Workington. For passengers, trains were worked to and from each side of the subsidence. A new engine was eventually built to replace 115, whose salvaged tender she received."

In South Africa, a herd of elephants charged and broke a train (RBTL)

These two items obtained from the Railway Gazette in 1952 would seem to match "Cows!" play by play. From the indefatigable researches of Jim Gratton. The top story is from the Nov 28, 1952 issue, and the bottom, from Dec 26, 1952.

Life Imitating Art: A cow and her calf wandered onto the Tallylyn Railway's line in 1955 as recorded on this film (free at 128kbps) from British Pathe, although the disturbance was only slight! The engine is No.4 Edward Thomas (JG) Image © British Pathe 1955.

Circa 1954 - a runaway train in Alton, Illinois was rescued with a lasso. (RBTL)

Jim Gratton has followed located a clipping from the Railway Gazette dated August 1st, 1947

Jim Gratton originally followed up the RBTL reference and got this suprising account:

(JG Query) I'm looking for more information about the capture of a runaway locomotive that took place @ or before 1954, near Alton, Illinois. It was apparently noted in the 'Daily Express' and reprinted in the 'Railway Gazette' in the U.K. @1954.

The apparently driverless locomotive was captured when the pursuing engine caught up on the line aside, whereupon a railwayman stood on the pursuing engine's front plate, and managed to harness a loop of heavy rope around the fleeing engine's front buffers. The rescue engine then gradually applied the brakes until both were stopped.

==========================ooOo=ooo====================

(Bill Dunbar - retired GM&O - ICG train dispatcher)
I do indeed remember that incident and must say the account cited above sounds as if a Hollywood screen writer reworked the details.

The runaway engine was a diesel switcher, one of the GM&O's Alco S2s. Northward freight train No. 28 had passed Godfrey, a junction north of Alton and part of the Alton switching district. I'm not sure at this late date but believe the switcher probably followed 28 up the hill from Wann, a rather commonplace move back then. It was left unattended for a short time within interlocking limits when, shortly before 3 p.m., it began to move and entered the northward main track. This was reported to Jim Simons, the first trick train dispatcher at Bloomington. Second trick dispatcher Elmer "Cooney" Lakin had just arrived to relieve him and Jim was only too happy to vacate the chair.

Elmer gave the telegrapher at Brighton tower a message for No. 28, telling them the runaway was following. When the wild engine passed Brighton it was possible to estimate its speed, which wasn't too terribly fast, and a message was hooped up to 28 at Shipman with the information. 28's engineer regulated his speed to a little less than that of the runaway, which then gradually narrowed the gap. When it came in sight, 28's conductor was able to advise his engineer by radio what was happening and in a short time the switcher tied into 28's caboose. The flagman jumped across and shut the runaway's throttle, 28's engineer stopped his train and the escapade was over.

No damage was done, except that Dispatcher Lakin soon came down with a case of shingles as a result of the stress involved. From that time it was mandatory that diesel engines could not be left idling unattended unless the reverser handle was removed from the control stand.

That was more than 60 years ago so my recollection may not be 100 per cent accurate, but it's a lot more so than that story from England!

(Martin Comment)
It's clear enough and if it was stressful enough to give a man shingles, let alone imagining the flagman climbing over a driverless train to the cab, Mr Dunbar is unlikely to have been mistaken.

One common theme between this tale and W Awdry's yarn is the heroism, quick reaction and level-headedness of the railwaymen to successfully prevent an accident, which was surely a big concern of his. But who knows what else there is in the literature to spice up the melange?

We gratefully thank Bill Dunbar for his memories and Richard Leonard for passing the query along.

Epilogue: Bill's reaction to the discovery of the Railway Gazette article.

Thank you so much for the "runaway" article! I'm delighted to have it, and will share it with other old-timers who remember the incident. It was interesting to see Bob Tipple's name; I hadn't thought of him in years. If I remember correctly, he was an engineer whose train handling improved markedly after we dieselized. Conversely, there were some steam runners who didn't get along well with the new power.

As I believe I explained to you earlier, the account isn't very accurate. The yard engine ran away on the northward main track after freight train 28 has passed. 28 was notified by the dispatcher and using radios on the engine and caboose, regulated speed so the runaway caught up and coupled to the rear of the train. Flagman Bob Brown then crossed to the engine and closed the throttle. I don't remember how the yard engine got back to Alton but probably it was set out at Virden or Auburn and later picked up in tow by the next southward train performing local work.

What else there is in the literature to spice up the melange? This perhaps.

Early 1950s:
One early morning, at Workington MPD, Ivatt 4MT No 43007 was raising steam when the driver put the loco into full forward gear, left momentarrilly to get some more oil and when he came back the mogul was gone. Apparently, the night before when the fire was dropped, the crew had left the regulator slightly open.
Anyway, the engine was now heading to Whithaven without a crew. The Preston Street shunter 'Jinty' No 47601 was sent after the runaway engine. The two drew level near Whitehaven Brantsy and the fireman of the Jinty jumped aboard and took control.

Apparently, it wasn't worthwhile. Three weeks later, the same engine ran through the stores of Workington MPD, then later became derailed in Workington yard and finally, 3 weeks later, she was off the road again at Nuneaton MPD. What became of her after that, I don't know.
(SIF - Chris the Xelent - note: another of those Ivatts (see story 1, book 8), known unaffectionately as "flying pigs". One has survived. )

Backing signals - these were signals which allowed the train to reverse; if a freight train could not make it up a hill, it would be allowed to reverse past regular signals set at "off" and either have another try or call for a banker. On the SD&J they looked like an openwork "bow-tie" while on the GWR they were a regular signal arm with two big holes in it:

So the signal which Percy thinks is a "backing signal" is actually just an ordinary "upper quadrant" signal, (that goes up to show "clear"). One would thus assume a novel development for the NWR, perhaps after the Fat Controller decided that lower quadrant signals were in fact snow-vulnerable. (See note on book 6, story 2)

Racing stunts were popular in the 1930s such as this one in 1931*:

A train was stranded in five feet of water after a tidal wave near Hunstanton, Norfolk, and the crew got the train into Hunstanton by using the floorboards of the guard's van (RBTL).

JG followed this up with a query to the Norfolk Railway Society:

(JG Query) I am looking for information about an anecdote I read about a train being stranded in five feet of water near Hunstanton, Norfolk after a storm surge. The crew managed to relight the boiler fire by using floorboards taken from the guard's van. After a few hours, they were able to get the train back to Hunstanton. This incident would have taken place prior to 1956.

Mike Handscomb, Newsletter and Website Editor, Norfolk Railway Society replied with this information from A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Vol 5 Eastern Counties by D I Gordon (David & Charles 1968).

The Hunstanton line figured prominently in the railway dramas of the 1953 floods. On the evening of 31 January the 7.27 pm from Hunstanton was engulfed before it could reach Heacham; it was struck on the smoke box by a floating bungalow and, the vacuum brake having been damaged and the fire extinguished, stood for six hours while water rose to seat level. Eventually, making temporary repairs to the brakes and using the floor boards from the tender to restart the fire, the driver was able to raise sufficient steam to crawl back to Hunstanton. The line remained blocked between Snettisham and Heacham until 11 February, and between the latter and Hunstanton, where the wreckage of bungalows had been swept on to the line and part of the track washed away, until 23 February.

The Hunstanton story was also in the Railway Gazette of 13 Feb, 1953 (JG)

* Picture below Taken from STEAM WORLD, Issue 231 (SIF - Chistopher, who says, "I knew the Great Westerners were daring, but I didn't think they'd go this far!")

At Burnham-on-Sea, a contractor's locomotive once ran off the end of a jetty* (RBTL)

Alderney Railway (one of the Channel Islands)
In the winter of 1911/1912 a train drawn by a Pecket locomotive “No 2” ran off the end of the Breakwater into the sea. Both driver and fireman survived and the locomotive was eventually salvaged and repaired. All locomotives working on the breakwater then had to carry life belts!
SIF - Stuart7

City of Truro, with distinctive GWR safety valve and top feed (but no dome) is the first real locomotive to visit Sodor.

From RCTS Locomotives of the LNER vol 6A
Real event happened to K3 2-6-0 No. 61809 in 1958.
Locomotive Inspector was onboard the 3-10am York to Woodford Class C Goods.
Usually a York V2, but had a Woodford K3 instead.
When crossing the embankment near Staverton Road, the dome cover came loose and was lifted by the wind, to land at the foot of the embankment!* (SIF - Richard Marsden)

Gresley K3 from 1924. From the 1955 Observer's Book of Trains

... but not so many indulge in malicious gossip: The "galloping sausage" was a nickname for Gresley's "Hush-Hush" No 10000. (SIF - Richard Marsden)

Collision with a signalbox: Happened to a steam railmotor at Ealing Broadway in 1937 (SIF - Tom Wright). Over-enthusiatic banker crushing brake van: yet to be identified.

*This is provided by Stuart7 from the SIF. Looks like the book, doesn't it?! Text from Trains In Trouble Volume 2 by Arthur Trevena.

Engine Rams Signal Box

On 20th July 1959, the driver of Jubilee no. 45730 'Ocean' was backing down from St. Pancras Station to the MPD at Kentish Town when he missed a signal at danger. To protect the mainline, the points had been set into a short dead end spur, resulting in the engine colliding tender-first into the signalbox. Handsignalling was in force into and out of St Pancras for several days until the signalbox could be repaired.

Picture of the "Dock Junction Incident" by PN Townend.

Snowy conditions resulting in severe drifts are common in Scotland. Meanwhile, harrowing accounts of a train snowed in on the Donner Pass in the High Sierras of Nevada, USA is here from Miles Post at http://scax-e-one.livejournal.com/123111.html#cutid1 . Two rescuers died in the attempt to reach the City of San Francisco streamliner which became stuck on January 13, 1952. They were Southern Pacific rotary snowplough driver, Rolland Raymond, buried in an avalanche, and bulldozer driver Jay Gold, who suffered a heart attack from exertion.All 226 passengers and crew were rescued after a 4-day ordeal. (JG)

"Snow - silly soft stuff", said Thomas

From Model Railway News, February 1958 p 31
Originally from "an old sketchbook-notebook" belonging to Dampier Shaw, one time chief draughtsman at the Loughedge works of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, who supplied this picture with the caption:
"Accident near Farnham Junction, April 13th, 1876. Engine mounted itself on Goods Trucks"
Apparently there was an end-on collision between two goods trains. The brake van of the stationary train collapsed. The engine of the colliding train, urged forward by the weight of the train behind her, climbed over the wreckage and came to rest, bolt upright, on top of two coal trucks. The engine was LCDR No 123 Phyllis, a double-framed 0-6-0 Class H goods engine, built by Robert Stephenson and Co in 1862 to a design by W Martley, then locomotive superintendent of the LCDR. Farnham Junction was replaced years later by the present Swanley Junction. (RBTL provided the original lead for JG)

Collision between steamroller and narrow-gauge train: Irish incident related in Narrow Gauge Album by PB Whitehouse, as cited in the text.

JG supplies us with the relevant text and image from that book:

The Muskerry Tram made history in 1927, for on September 6th of that year, the 7.45 a.m passnger train from Donoughmore was proceeding peacefully along the side of the Carrigrohane road on its own right of way, when it either ran or was run into by a steamroller. The driver claimed that he blew his whistle when within forty yards of the steam roller and again when nearer to it, but on the other hand, the roller driver claimed that he signalled to the train to stop. The matter was never satisfactorily explained, but the story that the two were having a race took a long time to live down.

(Jim comment): George's encounter with Sir Handel's train - though in the pic, Sir Handel seems to have fled the scene of the accident. Looks like 'George' came out of this scrape a little worse for wear ;)

Stepney is the second real engine to visit Sodor.

An inspection of the Snowdon Mountain Railway, used no. 5 Moel Siabod and two coaches full of ballast and sand to simulate a loaded train. The automatic brake did indeed activate on the run when the speed exceeded 5mph. (SIF - stuart7)

An accident on the Snowdon Mountain Railway on its opening day on April 6th 1896:

The engine it happened to was no. 1 'Ladas'. 'Enid' pushed the first train to the summit of one coach. 'Ladas' followed with two coaches a few minutes later. All went well on the up trip, but on the way down, subsidence in the trackbed caused by a thaw of frost earlier on caused 'Ladas' to mount the rails. As she did so, her pinion lifted clear of the rack, causing the engine to lose all her brakes. 'Ladas' gathered speed down the hill. Her driver and fireman jumped clear and the two coaches were halted by their automatic brakes, aided by the action of the handbrake, and stayed on the rails.

'Ladas' plummeted about 2000ft, landing in the valley far below, completely wrecked. The guard, as he applied the coaches' handbrake shouted for everyone to remain where they were, but two people jumped from the train, one of them, whose name was Ellis Roberts hitting his head on a rock and dying in hospital. However 'Ladas' damaged a telegraph pole on her fall, disabling all communication between Clogwyn (the last station before the summit) and the summit itself. 'Enid''s driver, having waited three quarters of an hour for a clear signal (which should have been given fifteen after 'Ladas' had left, but which couldn't be given thanks to the accident), started a cautious descent. However, he didn't see the people (due to mist) or hear their shouts to stop.

'Enid' (thankfully going at low speed) hit the two coaches of 'Ladas'' train, and sent them rolling into Clogwyn, where they were derailed in the loop by the signalman. Dr. Roberts of Dinorwic Quarries hospital arrived on the scene, and Ellis Roberts was carried down the mountain on a stretcher. People with lighter injuries went to the hospital. The engine crews and staff walked back down to Llanberis, leaving 'Enid' and the three coaches on the mountain. 'Ladas' was never replaced, nor was her number 1 used for any other engine. Services were suspended for another year till the track was repaired. The railway re-opened on April 16th 1897, and has since operated without major incident. (SIF- stuart7)

Ladas in a situation usable only for a very few spares and scrap, from Volume 1 of Trains in Trouble by Arthur Trevena (SIF - Truro)

The Times related an incident at London Bridge station, when staff, passengers and even a train were driven away by six bees escaping from a damaged hive. (RBTL)

and here is the clipping in question thanks to the indefatigable research of Jim Gratton:

A waybill was deliberately altered by railwaymen so that No 71000 Duke of Gloucester was moved to Dai Woodham's Yard in Barry, from where it was possible to save the locomotive, rather than some other scrapyard where the engine would have immediately been cut up*. (RBTL).
The Great Western Society in Didcot was founded by enthusiasts who rescued 14xx No. 1466 (see Book 5, Story 4) and a GW autocoach.* (SIF - Tom Wright)

Engines have been pushed down turntable wells. (RBTL)

OFF THE ROAD AT BACUP SHED!
A misjudgement had left a locomotive at a dramatic angle after plunging into the turntable pit at Bacup, Lancashire Taken from STEAM WORLD, Issue 229 (SIF- Christopher. He notes the coincidence that the 2-4-2 and 0-6-0 have the same shapes as Oliver and Douglas. Also, the two views are very similar to the book scenes.)

In late 1962, a trolley bus on a lowloader headed for the scrap yard became wedged under a bridge in Lewes, according to the London Evening Standard. (RBTL)

Life imitating art department (JG):

When The Rev Wilbert visited the Ffestiniog in the 1960s, 1864 veteran Palmerston was being used as a stationary boiler (JG):

On 5 September, 1962, the Ffestiniog locomotive Linda, double-heading with Prince, became derailed at Squirrel Crossing:

From Festiniog Railway Locomotives, AB Publishing, 1988. (JG, from a lead by Peter Johnson, Editor of Ffestiniog Railway Magazine. He relates that this picture was originally a colour slide, and more intriguingly, that "allegedly, the participants were sworn to secrecy by Allan Garraway, then GM." He also states that the picture is in fact a "mirror image" of the accident on the MSR )

FR Heritage Group Wiki now has a page with rather good photos of what is now known as "Linda's Leap". Thanks for the link this way!

A human chain to provide water for an engine occurred on the Talyllyn Railway (RBTL)

Two sources may be cited for rescuing a "sleeping locomotive": that mentioned in the foreword, the Estrada de Ferro Madeira-Mamore in Brazil, where the engine concerned, 1878 4-4-0 Coronel Church was found in this condition in 1909 (JG):

and restored to this: (SIF- Ben Pennock - for discovering original link with the EFMM)

The other source was the rescue of the Cadeby Light Railway's Pixie by the Rev Teddy Boston.

In America, a trestle disappeared before the driver's eyes (RBTL)

Life imitating art department (JG)

From The Sun Tues Oct 25, 2005, recorded on a blog. (no link because many other pics on this blog, real as they are, are rather disturbing)

Please mind the gap

A packed train balances precariously over a raging torrent after bridge supports were washed away in a storm.

Had the locomotive traveled just a few feet more, its weight would have pulled ten carriages over the edge to disaster.

The Milan-bound express had been thundering through the darkness at 100mph towards the bridge near Bari, southern Italy.

But luckily the heavy rain had loosened the tracks - causing it to derail and stop just in time.