DOUBLE COLLISION ON THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.

Evening Post, Volume XIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1876, Page 4 (Supplement)

DOUBLE COLLISION ON THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.

THIRTEEN PERSONS KILLED. From the Correspondent of the Daily News. By tho^s.s. Durham, which arrived in Hobson's Bay on the 17th March, English papers to 25th January were received by the • Melbourne Argus. We make the following extracts :—: — Huntingdon, 22nd Jan. The sun was shining brightly when I reached the scene of yesterday's accident early this morning. On Friday evening a train of thirty-three coal trucks left Peterborough at six for London, land 6n reaching, AbbotsEipton was ordered by Johnson, the pointsman there, to shunt into the siding and make way for the Scotch express, leaving York at a quarter to three that afternoon, and timed to reach "Peterborough at 6.287 It most even then, .have been . actually due, I but the signals were against it, no danger was feared, ' and Bray, the , driver of the coal train, had shunted twenty-seven of his waggons wh^n. the. dull roar of an approaching train was beard. A moment after the Scotch express, which from Peterborough runs through to London, travelling at full speed, dashed into the coal train, struck obliquely against the fourth waggon, and, snapping its couplings, hurled it into the air and threw it with its load topsy-turvy on -the bank to the left. The engine cannoned off to the right, and leaping the down line, fell on the sloping embankment. Its tender, dragged after, lay broadside across the down line, at least three or four carriages laying behind it. So thick was the storm that Cattley, the driver of the express, never saw the coaj train, and not till his engine drove into it 'was he aware of its presence in front. From Peterborough to Abbots-Bip-ton there is a steep upward gradient, the line from that point descending' with an equal fall to Huntingdon. Up this the express travelled at fastincreasing speed; the distance-light at the signal station seemed to the driver to be white, or "all right," although there can now be little doubt that the snow, driven by the fierce windy either entirely shut out s from him the red, warning of danger, or, lodging round the light, obscured its rays. This may very possibly have caused the accident, for later in the evening "a lamp used by one of the surgeons to look for the wounded was constantly darkened by the snow

lodging round and over the glass, and so fast did the large flakes fall that it was only by constantly clearing them from the eyes that the searchers could see. Into the midst of such a storm, unequalled in the memory of all the resident medical men, and into a darkness so intense that it was only possible to see a few feet a head, the frightened passengers jumped as they recovered from the sudden shock. The glare from the furnace fire of the overturned engine, and the lesser light from the other in front, dimly indicated the position of the overturned carriages, and by the light of lamps from the signal-box, and elsewhere the uninjured began at once to work in releasing their less fortunate 'fellowpassengers. Three gentlemen who were together in the front compartment of the carriage near the engine, but separated from it by a brake-van, were entirely uninjured, the driver had his hand crushed, and the fireman received a s'everet blow in the back, but the guard escaped scatheless. Mr. Cleghorn, a director of the North-E astern Railway, as was stated in the Daily News of Saturday, had his left arm broken; but Count Schouvaloff, the Russian Ambassador, Lord Colville, a director of tfie Great Northern, and Mr. Thomas Harrison, the eminent engineer, who were travelling in different parts of the train, escaped. Phillip Lelich, a confidential servant in the employ of the ambassador, was not so fortunate. He was in a first-lass compartment with Mr. Oldham, brother of Mr.. Oldham, surgeon, Huntingdon^ and another gentleman. The last tamed two were riding with their legs on the opposite seats when the collision occurred. They were simply dropped on the floor, as though the seats had given way under them, while Lelich, less fortunate, had both his legs crushed against the opposite seat, and one of them broken. " " While the~ passengers named and others who were unhurt were doing their utmost to relieve the injured, Hunt, the guard of the- coal train, with a self-possession which does him credit, took instant measures to prevent further disaster. An express had left London at half-past five, timed to stop for the first time at Peterborough, some fourteen miles i further on, at seven minutes past seven: The first collision occurred, according to* the officials, at sixteen minutes to seven, and the coal engine had not proceeded more than a few yards on its way when it met the Leeds express, as it is called, dashing up the steep gradient at full speed. Bray sounded ' his whistle sharply, and Hunt waved his red lamp. Robinson, the rear-guard, saw this lamp, and almost immediately afterwards Wila<p,Jkhe driver, was warned by a^og signal.' Steam was instantly shut off, and brakes put on, the warning came too late, and the engine rushed into the mass of ruin which lay across its path. Those at work on the broken carriages had no hint of^this new danger. The darkness and. the storm hid from them its'approach, while the cries" of "the injured and the shouts of those working to aid them drowned the roar of its coming. Already a few of the injured had been found. Cattley and some other men were at work endeavouring to release two young ladies from a first-class compartment. One of them was^opparentlyrunhurtj while thfr other was unable tb~ stand?- ?The door was locked, and Cattley was wrenching at it with a lever, when a lady, sitting- on the bank above him, suddenly screamed loudly. ,He ran back,,; and the next instant? thel express engine crushed into the already broken carriage, and both girls were killed.