The Star FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1898. A RAILWAY SMASH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6137, 25 March 1898, Page 2

The Star FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1898. A RAILWAY SMASH.

TERRIBLE COLLISION IN SCOTLAND. A LEAP FOR LIFE. EXTRAORDINARY SCENE OF WRECKAGE. THE FATALITIES. I From Our Correspondent.,! LONDON, Feb. 12. Minor accidents on the English railway system are by no means few and far between, but happily it is not often one's painful duty to record a collision attended with such fatal results as that which occurred during the early hours of Friday S? a <;. Barassie Junction, near Troon. Ihe colliding trains were the Glasgow and South-western Mail from Kilmarnock, and a fast goods train from Ayr to Glasgow, which met whilst each was going something like forty miles an hour. Ihe terrible impact of trains meeting under such circumstances can only be imagined, and one can only wonder wtTZ Sm l °k b . oard both did ™ fc P^sh- ; There were but twenty-three aboard the to S ei l1 P1 « SS ' a " told * marvellous to lelate, only fi 7e were killed outright or SJ r fT t] fl leefffcCts of injuries one rtmLtl fireiHan ° f the trai^* <M the remaining passengers, five only were The d^^?^i. Mdßh0 * t0 system. ielZ V ! of *¥ Wss escaped death. h?vinr s w Col 2 ,S r ™ s inevitable, and Sbrlkes ° ft . steam .and Jammed down

the catastrophe is attributed to the driver of the goods train, who appears to have disregarded the signals against him in his anxiety to get into the junction before the passenger train. THE SCENE of this terrible accident, Barassie Junction, is where the two trains converge on to the main line. At this spot there is a perfect network of rails and crossings. The branch from Kilmarnock over which the mail train had passed, joins the main line about a mile to the north of Troon, and there is also a \§oy. line to the passenger s^i"3u n%\ 'ft tafturii Uae to the harbour. But the junction is Well protected by the most approved modern system of signals. The passenger trais. Tfhieh leaves marnock every morning at §6V§_l o'dleek, :* generally used by workmen who live .*H Kilmarnock, and work at outside towriS fiila Tillages. On the fatal morning it omtelned. rather below the average number* ed passeng-ers/ and was composed of six carnages and the guard's van. A quarter of an hour after leaving Kilmarnock, Barassie Junction was approached, and the driver slackened speed a little, the more easily to ride over the points.. At this moment, to his horror he saw the goods train coming towards the junction right across his path at a high speed. As the passenger train itself was running nearly forty miles an hour, and the approaching goods train was not more than a couple of hundred yards away when first sighted, it was obviously impossible to avert a collision. The driver could onlyput his brakes down hard, with a hope of lessening THE INEVITABLE CEABH. The two trains met exactly at the junction, and the collision was of terrific force. The engine of the passeuger train struck the goods train locomotive just behind the boiler, and crashed right through the tender and the guard's van, burling both off the rails, and dragging through the breach the six passenger coaches behind, some of which were derailed and smashed intctpieees, the first two telescoping as well. The permanent way was torn up for a considerable distance, and the wreckage was indeed complete. Metal frameworks of goods trucks and carriages stood oat from the confused heap in fantastic shapes. Great pieces of timber and splintered remains of coaches strewed the line, and the passenger locomotive, smashed almost out of recognition as an engine, was reared up on a great heap of wreckage, from beneath which rose agonising cries, showing that several poor people were imprisoned in the ruins of the carriages. THE *_ ERRIFYING SPECTACLE was heightened by the screaming and [ deafening sound of escaping steam from the locomotives, suggesting the additional danger of explosions. As soon as the railway officers at the junction had recovered their nerve, effective service was rendered to the victims of the accident. The carriage most completely wrecked was naturally that immediately adjoining the guard's van at the front of the train. In this carriage three working men were travelling, and everyone of them was killed and shockingly mangled. The wreckage of this carriage was, indeed, simply one mass of smashed woodwork and blood, and torn and battered human bodies. With immense difficulty one poor fellow was got out alive, but. he was almost pulseless from loss of blood and the sli^ck of his terrible inj uries, and he expired within a few minutes. Several passengers having been extricated from the ruins of the passenger train, the efforts of ther rescuers were next directed: to the goods train. John Campbell the driver, and Thomas Eichards, the stoker, had sustained the full force of the tremendous collision, for, . as stated, the passenger train struck the goods engine between the boiler and the tender. Both men were therefore instantly killed. Meanwhile, Thomas Scott, the stoker of the passenger train, had been discovered in a dying condition, his left leg having been torn off at the thigh, and his body otherwise injured. He was conveyed to Kilmarnock Infirmary, where, however, he succumbed to his injuries soon after admission.