NARROW ESCAPE OF A TRAIN.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 827, 11 August 1876, Page 3

NARROW ESCAPE OF A TRAIN.

An accident of au altogether exceptional character occurred on 7th June in a railway txmnel on the London and South-Western Railway, and a train passing through the tunnel at the moment had as n<*rxow aud marvellous an escape as it is possible to conceive. As the three o'clock express from Portsmouth to London by the direct Portsmouth route was running through the Cathexine hill tunnel, between Godalming and Guildford, the passengers were alarmed by finding that heavy brake power was being applied to the whole train and by hearing the engine whistle sounding loudly. The train was pulled up quickly, and the passengers, after a short but anxious sus-

pense, discovered that a large portion of the tunnel had suddenly given way at the London end at the moment they were approaching. The train, when brought to a standstill, was within thirty or forty yards of the mouth of the tunnel, and but for the fact that the driver, when in the middle of the tunnel, observed what looked like a great mist sxxddenly obscuring tlxe light, and, suspecting that something was wi*ong, applied the bi*ake and signalled the guards todothesame,theti*ain would in all probability have been buried in the debx*is of something like twenty yards of the txxnnel. The line was promptly blocked in the x*ear, and after a time the train was backed out of the tunnel towards Godalming, and the passengers were transferred, through huge gaps made in tlxe roadside hedges, from tlxe train to various vehicles, by which they wei*e conveyed to Guildford by the high road. The passengers were greatly startled when they realised the narrowness of their escape, for the ruins of the fallen portion of the tun- ! nel covered both. up and downlines, and lay in great masses cf earth and heavy masonry. In explanation of the accident it is said that during the d-iy there had bpen some blasting for chalk in close proximity to the tunnel, and it is conjectured that the shocks loosened the tunnel work to such a degxee that only the vibration of a passenger train was required to bring it down. Gangs of workmen were at once set to wox*k to clear the line.