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Manchester NY and the recent Spanish train wreck: Similarities

Hidden Rail Failures, a Century Apart: What a 1911 New York Wreck Reveals About Spain’s Latest Disaster

By Martin Ademovic | Special to the Record

A century separates the Manchester, New York train wreck of 1911 and Spain’s recent high-speed derailment near Adamuz, but investigators are circling a familiar suspect: the rail itself failed before the train did.

In Manchester, on August 25, 1911, a Lehigh Valley Railroad passenger train plunged from a bridge after a steel rail shattered beneath it. Twenty-nine people were killed. The rail looked sound from the outside, but inside it carried a fatal weakness—an internal defect born during steelmaking, known then as “piping,” that later grew into what engineers would call a transverse fissure. With no technology to see inside steel, inspectors had no warning.

Fast-forward to January 2026. Spanish investigators examining the Adamuz crash say evidence suggests a pre-existing rail fracture triggered the derailment. Modern forensics point to wheel “nick” patterns—repeated, uniform marks consistent with wheels striking damaged rail before the train left the tracks. The conclusion is unsettling: even in an age of ultrasonic testing and predictive maintenance, a broken rail may have escaped detection.

Same sequence, different era

The parallels are striking. In both cases, the failure sequence appears to begin with the track, not the crew:

• Manchester, 1911: Steelmaking shrinkage created an internal void—often compared to a hole down the center of a loaf of bread. Rolling hid it. Years of wheel loads activated it. The rail snapped without warning.
• Adamuz, 2026: Investigators suspect a localized track defect—possibly at a joint, weld, or section of rail—fractured first. Passing wheels left a repeatable damage signature before the derailment.

The difference lies in context, not mechanics. Manchester belonged to an era when internal defects were undetectable by design. Adamuz belongs to an era when they are supposed to be detectable, shifting scrutiny from metallurgy alone to inspection coverage, maintenance intervals, and how fast defects can grow between checks.

Why it matters now

The 1911 wreck became a turning point that eventually pushed the rail industry toward non-destructive testing. Today’s Spain investigation raises a harder question: what happens when modern systems miss a fast-forming failure? If a rail can fracture between inspections—or if warning signs are too subtle or brief—then the safety margin narrows, especially at high speed.

A century ago, courts and regulators accepted that some defects were invisible. In 2026, invisibility is no longer an excuse—but it may still be a reality.

As investigators continue to analyze broken steel in Spain, the lesson from Manchester endures: when rails fail first, trains follow—and history repeats itself unless detection keeps pace with materials and speed.