A study in the journal Space Weather concludes that a solar storm delayed the 10:05 p.m. train out of Exeter, England, by 16 minutes on Oct. 18, 1848, not on Oct. 18, 1841, as a widely repeated 1871 account says. The railway line in that account did not exist in 1841.
What the 1871 Account Said
An 1871 Nature article described a “very intense magnetic disturbance” on Oct. 18, 1841, that interfered with railway signaling and delayed the 10:05 p.m. departure from Exeter, according to an RMIT release, one of six institutions behind the study. The anecdote has circulated since as an early example of a solar storm disrupting technology. A 16-minute delay would have pushed the 10:05 p.m. departure to 10:21 p.m., a calculation from the account.
The study’s title poses the question directly: “Did Space Weather Delay the 10:05 p.m. Train Departure From Exeter on 18 October 1841?” The authors are from Lancaster University, RMIT University, the British Geological Survey, Natural Resources Canada, Baylor University and RAL Space, the United Kingdom’s national space laboratory. Space Weather, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, published the paper in 2026.
Why the 1841 Date Could Not be Right
The railway line named in the account had not opened in 1841. The RMIT release says the Exeter-to-Starcross line did not open until 1846, about five years after the date in the account. Eos, the American Geophysical Union’s magazine, reports that the South Devon Railway began passenger service between Exeter and Newton Abbot in 1846.
The two descriptions name different stretches of track, and both place the opening in 1846. Brett Carter, a space weather researcher at RMIT University, said in the release that the team investigated “what had to be a typo in a Nature paper from 1871.” The Eos article described the problem this way: the railway line wasn’t yet running in 1841.
Evidence That Points to 1848
The team checked railway timetables, historical newspapers, solar observations, auroral reports and digitized geomagnetic records. Eos reports that the 10:05 p.m. Exeter train appears in timetables for only a little over a year, starting in 1848. Observers recorded strong sunspot and aurora activity around Oct. 18, 1848, seven years after the date in the Nature article.
The researchers concluded that the 1871 account had the day and month right and the year wrong. The 16-minute delay is the only measurement the account gives, and the timetable evidence fits a train that ran only from 1848 onward. The correction matters because the account is often cited as an early case of space weather affecting infrastructure. The release says the earliest credible report now known is a different event, so the Exeter delay no longer holds that place.
The Earliest Credible Report is from 1847
Eos says geomagnetic disturbances affected the telegraph system of the Midland Railway near Derby, England, on March 19, 1847. The article calls that the earliest credible report on record of a solar storm affecting technology. The release agrees, describing it as telegraph interference on the Midland Railway in March 1847. The two dates are about 19 months apart, a calculation from March 19, 1847, and Oct. 18, 1848. Neither Eos nor the release gives further detail on the Midland event, such as the number of lines affected or how long the interference lasted.
Where the Exeter Delay Fits before the Carrington Event
The release describes the 1859 Carrington Event as a storm that caused aurora as far south as Hawaii and Central America and disrupted telegraph systems worldwide. The corrected date puts the Exeter delay closer to Carrington than the old date did. The 1848 date puts it 11 years before 1859, while the 1841 date would have put it 18 years before. Both numbers are calculations from the dates.
Jim Wild of Lancaster University, the study’s lead author, said in the release that the work shows space weather is a long-standing natural hazard, not a new one. He said the Exeter delay remains one of the first clear examples of solar activity disrupting critical infrastructure.
What Space Weather Can Do Now
Modern systems are more exposed than the telegraph. Mike Hapgood, a visiting scientist at RAL Space, said the work felt like a detective story. He said in the release that today’s technologies are more vulnerable to solar storms than those of the 1800s, and that the study shows why older records are worth preserving. He pointed to a new solar cycle expected in the 2030s.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center describes a geomagnetic storm as a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere that follows an efficient transfer of energy from the solar wind. The largest storms come from coronal mass ejections carrying about a billion tons of plasma. They usually take several days to reach Earth, and the most intense have arrived in as little as 18 hours. The center says storms can drive electric currents through power grids and pipelines, increase satellite drag and cause errors in GPS positioning.
When the Findings were Released
RMIT University’s release lifted its embargo Sept. 16, and Eos published its summary Sept. 21. The Nature article that carried the wrong year appeared in 1871, so the date went uncorrected in print for about 155 years, a calculation from 1871 and 2026. The release says the team relied on records that were written at the time, which are the timetables, newspapers and aurora reports, rather than on later retellings of the story.
