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No—not in 1841. The Exeter–Starcross railway had not opened yet. An 1871 account says magnetic disturbance delayed an Exeter express, but the most convincing reconstruction places the incident on 18 October 1848. That date fits the railway timetable and records of geomagnetic activity, though the original source behind the anecdote has not been found.
What the 1871 account says happened
An anonymous report published in Nature in 1871 described a 10:05 p.m. Exeter express held for 16 minutes on 18 October 1841. It said magnetic disturbance made it “impossible to ascertain if the line was clear at Starcross.” The account attributes the delay to difficulty confirming track status through telegraph signalling—not to an aurora physically affecting the train.
In the signalling system described by the study, needle telegraph apparatus let signalers at separate locations communicate whether a section of track was clear or occupied. If magnetic disturbance interfered with those signals, staff could not safely confirm that the line was clear.
Why 1841 cannot be right
The Exeter–Starcross section was not open in 1841. Parliament authorized the Exeter–Plymouth railway in 1844, and the Exeter-to-Teignmouth line, including Starcross, opened on 30 May 1846. The railway reached Newton Abbot by December 1846. A train could not have travelled from Exeter to Starcross in October 1841. Wild et al., 2026
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The researchers also found no unusual magnetic activity in the Greenwich yearbook for 18 October 1841 and no English aurora sighting for that date in the catalogue they checked. The 1871 date therefore conflicts both with the railway’s history and with the records they examined.
Why researchers think the date was 18 October 1848
Several independent clues fit 1848. Timetables show a 10:05 p.m. Exeter departure toward Starcross during a period from 11 March 1848 to 26 July 1849. Greenwich magnetic records show substantial disturbance on 18 October 1848, including an estimated change of roughly 310 nanoteslas in the horizontal field over a recorded interval. That measurement comes from Greenwich, not Exeter, but it supports the presence of regional geomagnetic activity. Wild et al., 2026
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Contemporary observations also point to active space weather around the proposed date. Reports described a prominent sunspot group on 19 October, and newspapers recorded aurorae across Britain during the period, including a display described near Leeds on the night likely to have been 18 October. These reports support the proposed date’s space-weather context; they do not independently confirm that the train was delayed.
How certain is the 1848 explanation?
It is a strong reconstruction, not a proven correction. The 1871 account does not cite its underlying source, and the study’s authors say they have not located the original manuscript or directly relevant correspondence. They suggest “1841” may be a typographical error, but the reason for that date remains unknown. Wild et al., 2026
The distinction matters: the evidence supports a likely 1848 telegraph-signalling incident during magnetic disturbance, but it does not establish that an aurora was visible to the passengers or that the train itself was directly affected by one.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Was it the first space-weather impact on railway technology?
No. The study identifies a disturbance to Midland Railway telegraph operations during the aurora of 19 March 1847 as the earliest credible report the authors currently know. The likely Exeter event in 1848 is another early documented example, not the first. It predates the better-known Carrington event of 1859, but the available evidence does not support ranking the two railway incidents by storm intensity. Wild et al., 2026
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