WRECKING A MAIL TRAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7723, 5 June 1903, Page 2

WRECKING A MAIL TRAIN.

OUTRAGE ON AN IRISH RAILWAY. Just before one .o'clock on Saturday morning, April 11, "the 8.20 night mail train from Dublin to Ballina, county Mayo, was wrecked, owing to the malicious act of a person unknown, a short distance from the town of Castlerea. The train left Dublin on Good Friday night, and on arriving at Athlone, about midnight, was dividted, one portion going to Galway, and the otheri proceeding along the Mayo line. Some time after passing Ballymone Station, the Mayo dashed into an obstruction, with the result that one passenger was killed, and seven or eight others were injured, none of them, however, very seriously. The driver applied the brake and shut off steam on meeting the obstruction, but the engine and tender were derailed 1 , and both dashed into the embankment, where they fell on their side. A waggon truck and a third-class carriage also left the ra^ls, and came into collision with a composite first and second-class carriage. \ Both carriages were telescoped. l Of the gentlemen sleeping in the secondclass compartment, one was lying on the seat next the engine, and another on the seat opposite. The buffer of the carriage in front crashed through the end of the compartment, and, passing underneath the seat nearest the engine, struck the opposite seat, and killed Mr Henry Milling, a well-known Dublin, dentist, son of County-Inspector Milling, Royal Irish Constabulary. The passenger on the other seat escaped. The father of i the deceased left Westport in the morning, en route to Belfast, to spend Easier with another son, and the first ; intimation he received of the accident was the sight of the dead' body of his second son carried into the waiting-room at Castlerea. Station. The injured include am artisan named Kearney, whose address was given as^Wigan (Lancashire). His wife also received injuries, ineluding a severe cut on the forehead. Gangs of workmen were immediately despatched by the Midland Great Western Company's officials to the scene of the accident, and the line was open for traffic in the aiternoon. A lorry axle, with wheels attached, had been placed ' across .the line, and this had resulted in the derailment of the train. The presence of the lorry on. the line had every appearance of malice, but no motive has been assigned for the act.