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Probably—but not in 1841, as a later account claimed. A 2026 reassessment finds that the Exeter railway incident most likely happened on 18 October 1848, when magnetic, auroral and sunspot records point to disturbed space weather. The date is a strong reconstruction, not a surviving record that proves exactly when the train was delayed.
Why the 1841 date cannot be right
An anonymous report in Nature on 5 October 1871 said that a magnetic disturbance on 18 October 1841 made it impossible for signalers to tell whether the line at Starcross was clear. According to that account, an Exeter express was held for 16 minutes. The story was brought to wider attention by William B. Cade III in 2013.
The railway chronology rules out the reported date. The line received parliamentary approval in July 1844; the Exeter-to-Teignmouth section, including Starcross, opened on 30 May 1846, and the railway reached Newton Abbot by December. The route described in the 1871 story did not exist in 1841.
Why researchers place the incident on 18 October 1848
The timetable narrows the search
Wild and co-authors used the account’s specific detail—a 10:05 p.m. departure from Exeter—to check local railway timetables. A train departing at that time toward Starcross appears between 11 March 1848 and 26 July 1849. That makes 1848 a plausible period for the event, though the timetable alone does not establish the day.
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Independent records converge on one date
For 18 October 1848, the researchers found several kinds of evidence that fit the account: Greenwich magnetic observations show a disturbance, historical records report auroras over Britain, and Temple Chevallier’s journal entry of 19 October records an unusually large sunspot group. Taken together, these clues support the conclusion that the 1871 article likely printed 1841 where it should have said 1848.
The case is circumstantial rather than directly documented. The researchers could not find the original manuscript or source material behind the 1871 report, so they cannot prove how the date became wrong. They also found no unusual magnetic activity recorded at Greenwich for 18 October 1841 and no English aurora report for that date in the historical catalogue they consulted.
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What the corrected date changes
The Exeter incident remains an early documented example of space weather interfering with technical infrastructure, but it is not the earliest credible report identified by the study. The authors point to W. H. Barlow’s account of 19 March 1847, when telegraph equipment on the Midland Railway near Derby experienced “spontaneous electrical currents” during a brilliant aurora.
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These events occurred as telegraph technology spread during a relatively quiet solar interval, before solar activity rose in cycle 9 from 1847. Telegraph signaling relied on electrical currents, and geomagnetic disturbances could induce currents that interfered with the equipment. That historical mechanism should not be treated as a direct description of modern systems: today’s infrastructure has different vulnerabilities, although space weather remains a concern.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the historical claim was checked
The reassessment illustrates why a later account should not be accepted as self-validating. The researchers compared railway opening dates and timetables with scientific observations and historical records of auroras and sunspots. Each source answered a different question: whether the route existed, when a matching train ran, and whether space-weather activity was recorded on the proposed date.
The study was published in 2026 by James A. Wild and co-authors. The paper’s conclusion is that the Exeter event almost certainly belongs to 1848, while the surviving evidence does not establish the exact transcription history of the 1871 date.
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