THE TERRIBLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN WALES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 141, 24 October 1868, Page 3

THE TERRIBLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN WALES.

The most extraordinary nnd fiital accident ever known on an English railway occurred on the 20th Aug., on the Chester and Holyhead line, near Llanddulas, about a mile and a-half from Abergele. The Irish limited mail leaving London at 7. 1 5 passed Aldergate station in safety about o.ie o'clock, a gooda train had passed half an hour before. Beyond Llanddulas a portion of the goods train to Holyheid seems to have become detached and ran back down the line, meeting the mail train going at about 40 miles an hour. There is a curve near. The driver of the mail train seeing that a collision was inevitable, jumped off and escaped slightly hurt. The stoker remained. At the back of the goods train was a waggon laden wiih petroleum oil, and when the collision occurred the petroleum exploded. The engine tender and three first-class carriages were smashed up together, and in an instmt the whole was one mass of flames. A "gentleman who travelled by the train gives the following graphic account of the sceue : — Nothing unusual occurred until we reached the turn or sweep upon the road between \bergele and Llanddulas. Opposite to me was sitting a Lon ion gentleman reading a newspaper. I had my watch in my left hand, and " Bradshaw's Guide " in my right, anxious to tim_ exactly the arrival of the train at Llanddulas. .Suddenly, without th> slightest notice, I was hurled from my seat upon my opposite companion. Stunned for a second by the shock, I quickly recovered.

My companion, inquiring whether I waa hurt, aisured me that I had turned a somersault in the carriage. lat once put my head out of the window on the right hand, or locked side, of the carriage. Looking first to the rear of the line, I saw all was clear. Three or four pale and anxious faces appeared at the windows, and hands were nervously busy trying in vain to turn the handles of doors. I crept out of the window, and there I saw a sight which can never be forgotten. The Chester train, consisting of two first-class carriages, a composite carriage, a second-claaa carriage, and a luggagevan, which had been attached in front of our train at Cheater, had run into a goods train with casks and cana of petroleum. I examined the barrels subsequently and found they were strongly made and well hooped. With the violence of the concussion some of the barrels were thrown upon the embankment on the right, others on the rising ground to the left, and others rolled under the carriages, but all exploded, aa it were, together. There was fire everywhere — nothing but fire. The engine, the carriages, and the luggage-van were enveloped in fire— bright dazzling fire. It seemed as if hell had opened, or a volcano had burst out upon the train. Few in the London portion of the train could see beyond the mail-van directly in our front. All beyond, as I say, waa an arch of roaring, panting, hissing fire. On the moment we rushed to the mail-van, and extricated one of the officials, sorely wounded, the other named Woodroffe, was hurt, but bravely ' kept his guard upon the mails. In a few secondi we had all the letters and even the newspapers out, and then it suddenly broke upon us that there were carriages and passengers within that wall of fire, l here were brave men who volunteared to rush through the flames and save life if it could be saved, but the attempt waa hopeleas. Not a cry for help, not a Bound, except the hissing of the fire and the cracking of the woodwork, reached from out of the flaming circle. The air became insufferably hot. We were breathing an atmosphere heated to 150 degrees. We felt our itnpotencey most when we stood for a moment unemployed. Then we thought the fire would reach the London portion of the train. Our flret care waa to lift the ladies from the window, and to place the wounded en the bank. Nexr, our portion of the train was pHahed backwards from the fire, but fragments of the shattered and burning carriages adhered. As the debris was disturbed and moved away, we saw vrh*t the fire had done. Ami.ngat the broken timbers and hot ironwork there lay skeletons— smoking skeletons— all that was left of men and women and children. They moved horribly along with the wreck. The guard — a brave and undaunted man — said to me, " In thia carriage, sir, I put Lord Farnham and a lady with two young girls. I must have heard his last words at Cheater, air, I would recognise him among a thousand." We picked up, near the remains, Lord Farnham's watch ; it had been a presentation from his tenantry. Of the ladies there remained charred, undistinguishable fragments, amongst which were picked up and treasured a scissors, a thimblj, a locket or two, and some half-melted ornaments ; that waa all tuat was left of the noble and the young. The compartment in which Lord Farnham sat had not been torn to pieces likd the reat. But who could describe the appalling scene in the ruina of the other carriages ! I have aerved in the royal navy, and aeen death in many a shape, but never in 80 aw tui and shocking a form aa now. They who saw that scene must see it again in feverish dreams, and the dread remembrance of it can die out only with a life. Immediately on the first shock the Duchess of Abercorn and Lord George Hamilton, with whom. Lord Mayo had a conversation at Chester, were extricated from their carriage. Their suite gathered round them, and bore their loved mistress up the embankment, and then to a farmer's cottage near. I must bear my moat grateful testimony to the feeling shewn t>y the Welsh peasantry, and to their genuine hoapitality. They made us tea, and aome one procured a little brandy. But water, water was the cry of the wounded and ininjured. At last some was drawn from the engine itself, and, foul as it was, a draught was precious. When all the living were extricated, those of the passengers who were unhurt and many of the peasants formed a line down to the sea, about 200 yards, and bucket and cana of sea water were handed from one to the other in quick succession and poured on the smouldering wreck. What remained of the fire was soon extinguished now. The oil had burned itself out rapidly and all that it touched. Then came the sickening, but the necessary work, of gathering the fragments. As well as we could we placed the component parts of each together in coffins procured from Chester. Identification of the bodies is utterly impossible. Among the debris may be found aome treasured articles wbich will tell a wife or child that the husband and father can return no more. The cool courage and confidence exhibited by all the lady passengers in the train was most remarkable. '1 here were no cries, no complaints, no faintings, even on the part of those whom dignity had not taught self-pos-aesaion. They saw the danger, and with firmness prepared to escape from it or to bear it. Their first task on being liberated from the train waa to comfort and help the wounded. It is a curious circumstance, noted at at a time when incidents otherwise trivial are noted, that when the guard's watch was picked up from beneath bim, it was found to have atopped at halfpast 2. The watch must have continued going long after the pulse of the owner had ceased to beat. Immediately on the embarkation of the aurviviving passengers on board the mail steamer, they knelt down on the deck and returned a thankagiving to God who had rescued them from the midst of the Are. One of their number addreaaed to them a few brief but touching words, and for the hour all <anks and creeds joined together in giving gratitude—sincere gratitude, indeed — to the Providence which saved them.