RAILWAY SMASH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22353, 26 February 1936, Page 16

RAILWAY SMASH

SIX MEN KILLED [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Jan. 25 «• Six platelayers were killed and six injured when two light engines coupled « together ran into the back of a ballast train four miles north of Grant- " ham on a recent morning. - Five of the men were killed instantly, and one died later from injuries. The men were travelling in the ballast train, ; and were bound for Barn by, near Newark, for relaying operations on the main line. As the train was slowing down to pick up more men at Bardston. a messenger from a signal box told the driver to accelerate, as two light engines. were immediately behind. '■> Almost instantly the engines crashed into the train. The rear brake van, in which were a number of platelayers, was telescoped, as were four or live of the waggons. The van was wrecked and the occupants were flung on to the line • and the railway banks. * A witness of the subsequent events said: " Dawn was only just breaking, and the rescue party had to work by electric torches and oil lamps." One of the Grantham ambulance men stated that the workmen on the train who were not injured acted with the utmost bravery, and went at once to tho assist- . anoe of their injured friends. _" They helped the doctors to get the . killed and injured out of the wreckage," . he added, "and but for their efforts might have lost theix: lives*"