RAILWAY COLLISION NEAR MELBOURNE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7376, 20 May 1887, Page 4

RAILWAY COLLISION NEAR MELBOURNE.

TWO PASSENGER TRAINS TELESCOPED. THE following is a fuller description of the railway accident near Melbourne than the one we have published :— On Wednesday, May 11, the evening express from Melbourne to Windsor and the 5.30 ordinary train came into collision near the Windsor station. Five persons \?ere killed, and several others were hurt. The accident aroße from neglect of the regulations in the blocking system. The ordinary train left Melbourne at the usual hour, carrying a large number of passengers, most of whom were dropped at stations between Melbourne and Windsor. The train ib supposed to be protected by the block system, the vital principle of •which iB that a clear section shall intervene between an ordinary traia which has ten minutes' start and the express train. The express runs to Windsor without stoppage; and at the time of the collision the train was very full of passengers. The hosepipe of the Bteam brake on the ordinary train broke when the train was within 200 or 300 yards of the Windßor station, and brought the'traih to a standstill by clenching it down on the •wheels. The guard got down to examine the gear in order to see whether anything could be done to get the train to its destination. The bogged carriages were standing jast round tbe bend of a sharp curve at the bottom of a deep cutting. The driver of the express could not see the ordinary train more .than a train's length ahead owing to the bend which lies just beyond the High-street Bridge, and the express came on in fancied iscuiity and with undiminished speed. The crash was only seen to be inevitable just before it occurred. Some of the passenger escaped by jumping out of tbe stationary train in the nick of time, but others having less warping kept their Beats. The advancing engine cut into the guard's van of the ordinary train, and three of the carnages were smashed to pieces. The driver had enly time to put on the steam brake, which materially checked the speed of the train, before he and the fireman were killed. Three of the passengers in the ordinary train were also killed, aud many others were badly injured. The engine in telescoping with the rear part of the ordinary train was nearly covered with debris. The fore part of the express train and the hinder vehicles of the ordinary were broken into fragments.