Notes on Railroad Accidents

A former Massachusetts railroad commissioner assembles a meticulous collection of observations drawn from ten years of official investigations into 19th‑century train catastrophes. The notes detail the shocking losses at Revere in 1871 and Wollaston in 1878, along with numerous lesser incidents, all gathered from contemporary newspapers and official reports. By presenting these raw accounts, the author hopes to make a subject that had previously lingered in obscure archives accessible to anyone curious about early rail travel.

Interwoven with the accident narratives are vivid explanations of the era’s breakthrough safety inventions—the Miller platform and buffer, the Westinghouse brake, and the interlocking electric signal system. Each disaster, the book shows, sparked public outcry, legal scrutiny, and rapid technological adoption, gradually turning the railway into one of the safest modes of transport. Readers gain a clear sense of how tragedy, investigation, and engineering combined to shape the railways we know today.