List of rail accidents (1920–1929)

This is a list of rail accidents from 1920 to 1929.

1920 March 9 – United Kingdom – A Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway freight train separates at Pendlebury, Lancashire. The rear portion runs away, pushing the banking locomotive downhill where it is derailed by catch points. March 14 – United States – Bellows Falls, Vermont The crew of a southbound freight incorrectly reads the train order, confusing "Bartonsville" for "Bellows Falls". Instead of waiting at Bartonsville, they instead proceed south, and collide with a northbound passenger train at Williams River. At least six people are killed.Gendisasters March – United States – Deerfield, Illinois. A locomotive boiler explodes killing one and injuring three. April 12 – United States – New York City: On the 6th Av. elevated line of the IRT company, one train takes a crossover into a track occupied by another knocking one car down to the street. One person is killed and 12 injured. April 24 - British India - A collision on the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway, east of Delhi, kills at least 150 as the wreckage is set alight by the gas installation aboard and burns fiercely. After the fire, pools of molten silver are found in the vicinity "resulting from the melting of the hoards of rupees many of the Indians carried."Associated Press, "150 Passengers Killed in Big Wreck in India", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Friday 30 April 1920, Volume XLVII, Number 61, page 1. May 3 – France – A special Riviera Express running from Nice on the PLM railway during a partial strike derails at Les Laumes – Alesia station. Two people were killed: the regular driver and an engineering student who was learning the job to substitute for striking drivers. May 17 – British India – A passenger train starting from Bombay (now Mumbai) collides with a freight train, killing 23 and injuring 17, all in third class. May 20 – Spain – A freight train and a passenger train collide at Neon Daroston, killing 40 people. May 25 - United States - La Joya, New Mexico - Santa Fe passenger train No. 808 derails south of Albuquerque, on a track on ground made soft by high water. The fireman and engineer are killed and about 30 passengers injured.Wire service, "2 Killed, 30 Hurt in Santa Fe Wreck", Los Angeles Evening Herald, Los Angeles, California, Wednesday 26 May 1920, Volume XLV, page 1. "All of the cars are reported to be on their sides in the water. A special train with doctors and nurses had been ordered from Seccorro [sic], and the wrecker ordered from Belen, which will also take all available doctors from there. The train left El Paso this morning."Associated Press, "Santa Fe Passenger Train is Wrecked in New Mexico", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 26 May 1920, Volume XLVII, Number 87, page 1. July 16 – Spain – A freight and passenger train collide between Barcelona and Tortosa, killing twenty people. October 7 – British India – During a labour dispute on the Madras Railway, the Madras-Bangalore Mail (which would now be Chennai-Bengaluru) derails due to a sabotaged track, killing 13 people and injuring 15; 60 coolies are arrested. October 8 – Italy – The Italian State Railways express to Milan is stopped by signals on the bridge from Venice to Mestre, but the signals behind are not set. A train from Trieste crashes into the rear killing 25 and injuring 20. October 9 – France – At Houilles in the Paris suburbs, unbraked cars separate from the rear of a freight train, roll downhill and derail, blocking the adjacent track with wreckage which was struck by a suburban train killing 47. October 27 – Romania – At Lufany, an inexperienced railwayman's error cause two passenger trains to collide, killing about 50 and injuring 200 or more. October – Russia – At Pogranichny, the mail train from Vladivostok to Harbin, China wrecks killing about 100. "Terrible Railway Smash in the Far East— 100 Reported Killed", Manchester Guardian, October 25, 1920, p. 6 December 14 – British India – A mail train and goods train collide at Bommidi, killing 30 people and injuring 35.

1921 January 26 – United Kingdom – Abermule train collision: a head-on collision kills 17 people after improper, confused procedures resulted in the tablet from an incoming train being returned to its driver, who did not read it and assumed it was the following tablet that would give him permission to depart. January – Russia – On a mixed train from Novgorod, a consignment of flammable liquid explodes at Luga, killing 68 people. "Benzine Tank Explodes; 68 Persons Are Killed", Oklahoma City (OK) Times, January 18, 1921, p. 2 February 13 – United States – More than 50 people were injured in Brooklyn, New York when two Long Island Rail Road trains collide after one train operator missed a stop signal. February 27 – United States – Porter, Indiana: Over 37 people were killed when the Canadian on the Michigan Central Railroad and the Interstate Express on the New York Central Railroad crash at a cross track. The Michigan Central train, bound for Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City, overshot a block signal and was derailed by a derailed device. The New York Central train crashed into the already wrecked Michigan Central train at . April 1 – United States – In Georgetown, Kentucky an unknown man was killed by a train. In June 2017 the John Doe was identified as Frank Haynes of Bronston, KentuckyDoe Network article June 18 - Netherlands - A passenger train is derailed at Amsterdam Weesperpoort. June 25 – France – On a bridge over the Ancre River at Beaumont-Hamel, on the Chemins de Fer du Nord, a derailment began with the luggage van at the rear of the train and spreads to the rear three passenger cars, which fall down an embankment; 25 people died and 60 were injured. June 25 – British India – Near Amroha on the Delhi-to-Moradabad line of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway, a length of the line is breached by flooding within the space of an hour. The locomotive and two front cars of the next train fall into the water, killing 42 people. July 8 – United Kingdom – A 12-car Great Eastern Railway goods train without continuous brakes is running north on the East London Railway when a coupling breaks. Four goods wagons and the rear brake van separate from the train, and run back southward, downhill. Realizing this, the guard in the brake van applies brakes, but not in time. As the runaway cars approach Wapping station, they cross a track circuit boundary backwards, and the next northbound train receives a false clear signal. This is a New Cross to Shoreditch passenger train of the Metropolitan Railway. The resulting collision kills two railwaymen injures 16 people. July 25 – British India – A mail train from Rangoon (now Yangon) to Mandalay, both now in Myanmar, about into its journey, collides at night with a goods train between Tawwi and Pein Za Loke; 104 people are killed and 48 injured. August 8 – United Kingdom – At Selby railway station, a sidelong collision of two passenger trains caused by driver error; 17 injured. August 27 – Italy – On the Italian State Railways, a train from Ladispoli to Rome collides with a shunting locomotive; 29 are killed and over 100 injured. September 10 – France – On the PLM railway, the section from Bourg-en-Bresse to Lyon had not yet been reopened after one of two tracks was removed to repair World War I damage elsewhere. Consequently a train from Strasbourg to Lyon uses a side track at Les Échets, but runs too fast over the switch and derails killing 38. September 18 – Norway – Nidareid train disaster in Trondheim. Confusion and unfortunate circumstances lead to a head-on collision between two passenger trains killing six. October 5 – France – Two passenger trains collide due to a signalman's error in the Batignolles Tunnel, Paris; at least 28 people were killed in the ensuing fire. November 19 – British India – 64 Mappila prisoners die of asphyxiation while being transported on a prison car with its ventilation blocked by paint, December 5 – United States – Bryn Athyn Train Wreck in Woodmont, Pennsylvania: Two local passenger trains on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway collide and catch fire, killing 27 people after signals were ignored.

1922 March 23 – United States – Azusa, California: A passenger train derails after hitting one of the city's steamrollers. The engineer and fireman are killed while the steamroller driver jumps to save his own life. May 1 – United States – Alton, Illinois, a Chicago and Alton Railroad passenger train strikes a fire engine on its way to a fire, at a grade crossing at 9th and Piasa Streets. The driver and officer on the fire engine seat are injured while two other firefighters jump off. The fire engine, only a year old, was squeezed between the moving passenger train and a parked coal car, and was beyond repair. The broken pieces of the fire engine had to be hauled away in a truck, and a new fire engine had to be purchased to replace it.Alton Evening Telegraph, May 1, 1922. June 27 – Germany – Berlin: Following a huge demonstration in the Lustgarten against the assassins of Walther Rathenau, the suburban trains are so overwhelmed with passengers that some people ride outside on the running boards, and dozens of them on one train are struck when a door on another train swings open between stations. Casualties were reported as 29 killed and 60 injured and 15 killed and over 100 injured. July 2 – United States – 1922 Winslow Junction train derailment: On the Philadelphia and Reading Railway's Atlantic City Railroad, at shortly before 11:30pm, Train 33 with Philadelphia and Reading Railway Engine No. 349 speeds through an open switch at approximately and derails, killing seven and injuring 89. July 11 – Spain – Paredes de Nava: A head-on collision between the Asturias Mail and an express from Galicia kills 32, including both engine crews, and seriously injures 19. July 31 – United States – Laurel, Maryland: Two freight trains collide; one engineer slightly injured.Washington Star August 1, 1922. Accessed June 24, 2019 August 1 – France – Miélan: Two trains carrying pilgrims from Moulins to Lourdes collide when the first one stalls climbing a hill and then runs backwards, apparently due to a brake system failure. Forty people are killed. August 5 – United States – Missouri Pacific Railroad train 32, a local passenger train northbound from Hoxie, Arkansas, to St. Louis, was told at Riverside to proceed to Wickes, Missouri and take the siding while northbound express train 4 (from Texas to St. Louis) and southbound express 1 (the Sunshine Special from St. Louis to Texas) go past. Halfway there, it stopped for water at Sulphur Springs, Missouri. Train 4, while in motion, received an order to stop at Cliff Cave (after Wickes) to let southbound train 1 past. While reading the order, the engineer missed seeing the block signal at Sulphur Springs and crashed into train 32 killing 34 and injuring about 170 injured, mostly in the local, in the worst rail accident ever in Missouri. August 21 – United Kingdom – A South Eastern and Chatham Railway passenger train leaves , Kent against signals and collides with another train killing three. September 22 – United States – The southbound Shore Line Limited, having departed twenty minutes late from Montalvo, California, crashed into a northbound local train; the engineer of the Limited and fireman of the local were killed in the collision with the rest of the crew and passengers sustaining minor injuries.