TERRIBLE RAILWAY COLLISION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10725, 23 June 1906, Page 4

TERRIBLE RAILWAY COLLISION.

EDINBURGH, May 3. An alarming and fatal railway accident has occurred on the main line of the Caledonian railway near Dumfriesshire, a small junction in Dumfriesshire, ut seems that a fast goods train from Glasgow was travelling southwards at the rate of about 50 miles an hour, when the axle of one of tho waggons broke, but the train ran on for some distance further, when the couplings of another waggon near tho engine gave way. The driver stopped the train, and came to see what was wrong. Then, remembering that an express from Carlisle was due, he called to his fireman to exhibit a red light as a warning to it. This was just done when tho express dashed up, going 60 miles an hour, and struck the derailed waggon, causing a terrific smash. All this had happened in about two minutes. Tho express engine left the line and ran over an embankment, demolishing the telegraph. Tho two first carriages wero hurled into the air and then to the side of the lino, and a dining car, which came noxt, crashed up' against the tender. Through the breaking of the pipes tho gas in the train caught fire, but the dining car attendant, with great presence of mind, at once extinguished the flames with earth. Many of the passengers wero extricated with great difficulty from the Avreck, and some of them had to climb through a window over a hedge into a field 14ft below. It was found that a boy of 12, who was travelling with his iwiclo to see a_ football match at Glasgow, had been killed, and about 20 persons wore injured. Just a minute or two before the accident the occupants of the -two front carriages had gone to tlie dining car for tea, and in this way, beyond question, their lives wero saved. Among the passengers were two doctors, who were members of the Liverpool Chess Clnb, on their way to play a match in Glasgow, and they rendered valuable aid. 'Jibe wife and daughter of a gamekeeper, whose cottage was close by, were of much service. One of the girls cycled to Ecclefechan, two miles off, to summon further help. The wreckage Avas an extraordinary sight, and all who saw it wero astonished that there was not more damage done to life and limb. A Government inquiry into the occurrence has been opened, but has been adjourned till tlie driver and fireman of the express, who were badly scalded, havo recovered sufficiently to be able to give their evidence.