For more than 150 years, a reported 16-minute train delay in Exeter, England, was cited as a possible early example of a solar storm disrupting human technology.
asserted
storm → report → technology
But a railway timetable revealed a problem with the story: the railway line in question did not exist in 1841.
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line → reveal → 1841
According to a report published by ScienceDaily on October 21, 2026, researchers have now traced the incident to October 18, 1848, using historical railway records, newspaper accounts and measurements of Earth’s magnetic field.
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researchers → accord → field
The findings were published in the journal Space Weather.
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findings → publish → journal
The train delay that could not have happened in 1841
The mystery originated in an account published anonymously in the scientific journal Nature on October 5, 1871.
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mystery → happen → October
It described a “very intense magnetic disturbance” on October 18, 1841, which allegedly interfered with railway telegraph equipment in Exeter, a city in southwest England.
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which → describe → England
According to the account, the disturbance prevented railway staff from establishing whether the track ahead, near the village of Starcross, was clear.
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track → accord → Starcross
As a result, the scheduled 10.05 pm express train from Exeter towards Newton Abbot was held up for 16 minutes.
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train → hold → minutes
The report also described how the railway superintendent initially suspected that someone was tampering with the instruments because they would not function properly.
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they → describe → instruments
The incident later attracted scientific interest because it appeared to document solar activity interfering with electrical infrastructure decades before modern power grids and satellite networks existed.
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grids → attract → infrastructure
However, the timeline did not withstand closer scrutiny.
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timeline → withstand → scrutiny
Researchers found that the railway section connecting Exeter with Starcross opened only on May 30, 1846, almost five years after the supposed incident.
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section → find → incident
The line reached Newton Abbot later that year.
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line → reach → Abbot
The discrepancy prompted scientists to investigate whether the original report contained an incorrect date.
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report → prompt → date
The British Geological Survey (BGS), which participated in the international research effort, said the team compared railway timetables, historical newspapers, solar observations, aurora reports and digitised geomagnetic records.
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team → participate → timetables
Why researchers believe the incident happened in 1848
The evidence pointed to October 18, 1848, rather than October 18, 1841.
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evidence → believe → October
Researchers examining historical railway timetables found that a 10.05 pm departure from Exeter towards Starcross was scheduled during a period spanning March 1848 to July 1849.
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departure → examine → July
That made October 1848 a plausible date for the reported delay.
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October → make → delay
More importantly, historical magnetic measurements showed strong geomagnetic activity on October 18, 1848.
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measurements → show → October
Records preserved in the Greenwich Observatory archive documented significant changes in Earth’s magnetic field around the time of the alleged incident.
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Records → preserve → incident
Reports of sunspots and auroras observed across Britain and Europe offered additional evidence of heightened solar activity.
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Reports → observe → activity
The researchers concluded that the combination of railway records and magnetic observations strongly supported the revised date.
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combination → conclude → date
The original account, published three decades after the event, appears to have contained a typographical error.
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account → publish → error
The study, titled 'Did Space Weather Delay the 10:05 p.m. Train Departure From Exeter on 18 October 1841?', was led by James A. Wild of Lancaster University.
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Weather → title → University
Its international team included researchers from the British Geological Survey, RMIT University, Natural Resources Canada, Baylor University and RAL Space in the UK.
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team → include → UK
The researchers could not recover the original source material behind the 1871 account, so the precise circumstances cannot be established with absolute certainty.
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circumstances → recover → certainty
Their conclusion is that the train delay most likely occurred in 1848, not that every detail of the original story has been independently confirmed.
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detail → occur → story
What is a solar storm, and how can it affect a railway?
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it → affect → railway
Space weather refers to changes in the environment around Earth caused by solar activity.
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weather → refer → activity
The Sun can produce eruptions that send charged particles and magnetic fields into space.
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that → produce → space
When these disturbances interact with Earth’s magnetic environment, they can trigger geomagnetic storms.
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they → interact → storms
Such storms can generate unwanted electrical currents in long conductors, including wires used by telegraph networks.
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storms → generate → networks
In the 1840s, railways were beginning to rely on electric telegraphs to communicate between signal stations and establish whether sections of track were occupied or clear.
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sections → begin → track
These systems helped railway workers coordinate train movements across distances.
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workers → help → distances
If magnetic disturbances interfered with the telegraph equipment, staff could struggle to establish the status
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staff → interfere → status
The Aporia
