travelling too close together, with signalmen having to appraise the situation too quickly for safety's sake. A simple communication mistake between the two signal boxes caused havoc that Sunday, but the telegraph was also blamed for the tragedy because it did not register without continual pressure on the switch. The signal, too, was also at fault for not returning to "danger" immediately after the train had passed. The accident encouraged the use of the block system (rather than the time interval system) for the remainder of the railway system. One other aspect of this accident was that Signalman Killick was working a continuous 24-hour shift that day, rather than the regulation 18 hours to gain a complete day off duty. In his report on the accident Captain Tyler stated that "it was disgraceful that a man in so responsible a position as Signalman Killick should be compelled to work for twenty-four hours at a stretch in order to earn one day of rest a week." Charles Dickens may have partly based his story "The Signal-Man" on this accident, dramatising the events (especially the bells and the telegraph needle), as well as adding other incidents. His own experience at the Staplehurst rail crash may have inspired him to write this ghost story. Readers of the story in December 1866 would likely have still remembered the Clayton accident. Similar accidents Other accidents in which the signalman forgot, or got confused about, the presence of a train include: Welwyn Tunnel rail crash – 1866 Thirsk rail crash – 1892 Hawes Junction train disaster – signalman forgets about light engines on line – 1910 Quintinshill rail crash – signalman forgets about train on line – 1915 Winwick rail crash – 1934 Welwyn Garden City rail crash (1935) – signalman confuses train numbers 825 and 825A, and clears signals in error – 1935 References External links account of accident report by railway inspectorate Railway accidents and incidents in Sussex Railway accidents in 1861 1861 in England History of Sussex Tunnel disasters 19th century in Sussex Accidents and incidents involving London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Train collisions in England Railway accidents caused by signaller's error August 1861 events 1861 disasters in the United Kingdom