SHORTLY after midday on January 26, 1921, a rail disaster in Abermule would claim the lives of 17 people. The disaster remains the worst single track accident in British railway history and would hasten the demise of the Cambrian Railway which was absorbed into the Great Western Railway a year later. Among the victims was Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest, a director of the Cambrian Railway, who had boarded the train in Machynlleth that morning though tragically died when two trains met in a head on collision near Abermule. News of the disaster spread around the world and Abermule would become synonymous with the rail disaster which had been caused by human error and breaches of company rules.