The Day Fog Caused Three Trains to Collide (Harrow & Wealdstone, 1952)

At nineteen minutes past eight on a Wednesday morning in October 1952, an overnight express from Perth struck the rear of a standing commuter train at Harrow and Wealdstone station at fifty miles an hour. Within seconds, a second express travelling in the opposite direction struck the wreckage, bringing the station footbridge down onto the carriages below. One hundred and twelve people did not return home that day. Three hundred and forty more were injured. It was the worst peacetime railway disaster in British history — and the technology to prevent it had been available for nearly half a century. This documentary examines the ordinary commuter world of post-war northwest London, the forty-six-year institutional debate over automatic train safety technology deferred on grounds of cost, and what the formal inquiry ultimately found. The crash forced a reckoning that changed British railways permanently. Stay until the end to understand what every passenger on a British main line today carries with them — without ever having heard of this station. #BritishHistory #Documentary #RailwayHistory #HarrowAndWealdstone #UKHistory