TODAY marks the centenary of a train crash in Bradford.

According to our archives 'an alarming accident occurred on the Great Northern Railway at Windhill shortly before two o'clock on May 18 1916.

An engine attached to a goods train went out of control on the decline from Idle, crashed into the buffer stop at the station, and through a double boundary wall twelve feet high in which it made a gap between 20ft wide.

For those dealing with the aftermath it must have been a dramatic scene as the engine had fallen on its side completely blocking the road.

The report at that time draws on 'an extraordinary coincidence' that only a few days before in the 'Telegraph' attention was drawn to the 31st anniversary of a similar occurrence at the same place, the exact date being May 12 1885. Some years before that a brake van ran through the buffers at Windhill Station and crashed through the wall.

Thankfully, on both occasions no one was seriously injured but following the Windhill train crash there were initial fears that the fireman may have be underneath the engine.

The locomotive had carried with it into the street the woodwork of the buffer stop which crushed into matchwood underneath the engine and was ignited by cinders from the fire box.

It was understood the accident may have been caused by the skidding of the wheels on the decline due to the greasy state of the rails.

But the driver and fireman gallantly stuck to their posts until the engine got to within 20 yards or so of the buffer stop.

Six people were injured, and a boy narrowly escaped death, when a runaway Bradford train collided with a stationary engine on the Leeds side of Copley Hill cleaning shed on the London and North-Eastern railway near Wortley in September 1926. Three of the injured were from Bradford during the crash which happened at 7.15 in the morning.

Days later a runaway train crashed through the buffers of Bradford Exchange Station taking with it the W H Smith & Son book stall and the stationmaster's office leaving wreckage strewn outside the waiting rooms.

In 1928 a coal train crashed in Cleckheaton - the black and white image shows the aftermath of the crash and the colour photograph shows the scene taken some years later of the bridge straddling Westgate in Cleckheaton.

The photograph of Bradford's Old Exchange Station in Bradford, taken in 1972, is bound to evoke fond memories for passengers setting off from there to various destinations and train enthusiasts alike.