Bull bridge accident

As a goods train was passing over the bridge at Bullbridge, the structure failed suddenly, causing the derailment of the majority of the wagons.

Half a mile (800 m) beyond Ambergate station, the driver suddenly noticed that the engine's rear wheels were no longer on the rails.

The next nine wagons behind were piled in a heap about 25 feet (7.6 m) high from the bottom of the road, reaching up to the telegraph wires by the side of the track.

When examined by the driver and fireman, one of the cast-iron girders of the bridge was found to have fractured, unusually, near to one of the abutments rather than at the centre of the beam.

The track was supported by a pair of identical girders with Barlow rails cut to length laid across the inner flange, with asphalted ballast on top, just below the sleepers.

When Captain Henry Whatley Tyler of the Railway Inspectorate examined the fracture surface, he found it rusted over, but the evidence of those who had seen it first showed just what had happened.