FEARFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1693, 13 December 1861, Page 3

FEARFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

COLLISION ON THE NOKTH LONDON LINE. On the evening of the 2nd a terrible oatastrophe occurred on the Hampstead Junction line, owing to a collision between an excursion train and a train composed of an engine aud tender, 19 ballast trucks, t and a break van. The Hamstead Junction line is much used by persons going from the oity to Kew, Richmond and Twickenham ; aud on Sundays and Mondays throughout the summer season not only do the ordinary trains fill well, but there are excursions constantly. On the 2nd there were two or more special trains to Kew. Tbe Hampstead station is about half-a-mile beyond the Kentish-town. From Hampstead to the point at whioh the line crosses Oarhon-road it forms an arc of considerable bend. The collision took place at some dozen yards nearer to the Kentish-town station than a bridge over what is-at present a path from Carl-ton-road to the Kentish -town road. Down to this bridge from the town end the rails are laid on a road supported by brickwork arches, which are about 35 feet high. From the bridge to the Kentishtown station there is an embankment of about the same height, and from the Kentish-town station to Hampstead a deep cutting. At about 20 minutes past seven o'clock the men in charge of the ballast train had delivered their loads, and proceeded to the bridge, on which they were being shunted, when a passenger train was seen to be coming up at arapid pace along the line from whioh the ballasttrain was moving slowly. The driver of the latter had lighted his lamps, and when he saw the other train approaching he waved a red light and shouted. The ! driver of the former, in his turn, blew his | whistle, but tbe precaution was too late. It was not yet dark. There were mauy ! people in the windows of the houses in Carlton-road and a great number walking in the fields, and from several of of them shrieks were heard before the trains met: for it was but too evident, lo any one who saw their respective positions, that iv a few seconds after the red light was waved, and the up-train'blew a succession of awfully ;shrill soreeohes, a violent concussion was inevitable, ft has been before observed that attached to the engine of the ballast train were nineteen trucks. About half these had crossed the down line, and, about midway, it was struck by the passenger train.

The scene, as witnessed from the fields below, was terrific. Immediately the engine bad struck the trucks, and shivered them into atoms, it leaped from the rails with a sort of half puff, half bellow, which was heard to a distance of fully half a mile, and rolled down the embankment on its own side of the line with a hideous dull sound and one or two frightful screeches. '.The oarriages which followed ran on a few feet, but, just at the spring of the arch on the bridge, the break bounded right over, and was followed by four oarriages, in which were a number of passengers. The first two carriages jumped clean into the field, where they lay on their sides one over the other. 1 The next oame with its end upon the second of the two carriages which had broken off from the train in their bound; and when the train came to a standstill this third carriage remaf.^J poised in the position in which it had fallej^^on the others. Its coupling irb'??!BM'fi(flfcg been broken, it dragged the fourth carriage half over the side wall of the bridge, in which position it remained half suspended, but with its hind wheels stuok in the embankment. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood instantly ran to the ( spot. The moans of, the dying, the cries of the wounded, and the lamentations of those who' missed their relatives were to be heard on every side. The ends of the first two oarriages bad been broken by the fall, and several of the passengers were at once pulled out. They were lacerated and bleeding to a frightful extent. In some instances it was impossible to recognise a single feature, and the unfortunate victims were unable to utter a word. There were a great many young children and babies in the train, and the screams of severat of them were heartrending in the extreme. " Father ! " " Mother ! " "My child ! " "My God, my infant!" were cries that assailed the ears from every direction. Many women, on being released from the carriages, dropped down in an apparently lifeless swoon. All this time the passengers who had escaped altogether, or escaped with slight injuries, were rushing frantically down the embarkment ; and terrified women and men were throwing themselves over the fencing and into the fields, regardless of what might occur to them so that they oould get out of reach of the illfated train. The engine lay on its side, sdll puffing, and with steam rushing forth at all points. Near it was stretched the poor fireman, who had fallen with it. He seemed touch injured, and was carried off to an hospital. By this time it was getting quite dark, and necessarily there was the additional element of confusion added to those others that contributed to make up a scene such as has been rarely wit- . nessed even after railway collisions. The families residing in the neighbourhood sent for doctors and conveyances for the wounded. Many of the latter were at once carried off to the residences of medical men, but others requested to be allowed to He in the fields, if only a drop of water oould be procured for them. Within about twenty minutes after the accident a strong body of men from the Kentishtown and Camden-town police stations arrived, and a number of cabs and waggons were on the ground ; but at eight o'clock it was dark and no gas near. Light was all important, and the remains of the break whioh had fallen over were set fire to. There was no nead to chop it up small j for it had been shivered into a thousand fragments. When the pieces were in a blaze the spectacle was still more awful than it had hitherto been. The glare discovered the wounded men, women, and ohildren that lay about, surrounded by little groups, who rendered them such assistance as could be procured on the instant. There was the engine on its side, puffing out its hot steam ; I oarriages were hanging in a position that made them appear as if they were just about to fall to the earth ; and, most melancholy of all, from under the first carriage that had come over the bridge there were visible the head of one man and the legs and arms of another. The | police aud others at once set about attempting to extricate those who remained inside; but it is almost necessary to add j that only lifeless bodies were takeif out. | They had already beeu half an hour in a \ carriage that bad fallen some 35 or 40 -feet, and over whioh lay another that had ' come down with its full weight from the | same height. Much anxiety was expressed about the fate of the driver of the passenger train, of 'whom up to this there I had been nothing beard. A search was made for him and in a few minutes after it was commenced a man in the employ of the company stated that his dead body had been found near the engine. The . stoker was much scalded and otherwise injured. The engine of the ballast trucks remained on the line uninjured after the collision, and none of the men in oharge of it appear to have been injured. Trains coming up from Kew usually stop at the Kentish- town station, it being the next to Camd en-road, and at the latter passengers have to ohange oarriages for the North London line. In this instance the excursion train did not do so. That the men on the ballast train distinotly state ; and it seems impossible that it oould have stopped there, for, had it done so, the driver must have seen the ballast trucks. Indeed, at the scene of the accident the matter was not disputed ; for, on some one remarking that it was a wonder why the passenger train had not pulled up at Kentish-town, one of the officials remarked, " It was an exoursion and had no right to stop there." In reply to au inquiry as to whether he was right in shunting at that particular moment, one of the men in charge said there was nothing to tell

them that the up-train was coming, and added, " There are no papers for those excursions." Two or three of the smashed carriages formed one monster fire that shot up its flame? to au immense height. The j wounded lay here and there, writhing iv agouy. Men were engaged in dragging corpses from u,nder wheels and axle-trees, and out of carriages that had beeu cfrisbed like paste-board. Gentlemen and ladies carried water-cans, bottles, and other vessels, and were constantly giving those drinks which the mangled so greedily asked for. Many ladies ran about with linen for the doctors to bandage the wounded; and themselves assisted in the kind offices. The policemen with their lanterns kept a path for those who were carrying the injured to the cabs., vans, and carts, whioh were now, drawn up in a line to the by road leading out to Kentish- town ; and from all sides men, womeu, and children were running with lamps and lighted candles to what, without the slightest exaggeration, may be termed a field of slaughter. The driver of the ballast train said that the excursion train appeared to him to have been , coming up at the rate of about 60 miles au hour; but the probability is that he was deceived in this. To those who saw it from the windows of the houses an<? from the field it did not appear to be coming at such speed, though its pace was rapid, It is impossible to state with ceitainty the exact number of persons killed and injured, as many of the sufferers were conveyed home by their friends ; but the , hospital lists gave a total of eleven dead and thirty-three wounded. Another death has ocoured. Mrs. Clara Clements, one of the sufferers who was removed to University College, expired on the 4th, while the lives of two other persons, Charles and Sarah Essex, are despaired of. The inquest was opened on the 4tb, but the proceedings were of a purely preliminary character. The stoker died on the stb. This poor fellow sustaiued frightful injuries. Not only was he dreadfully crushed in the wreck which followed the collision, but his clothes caught fire, and he was seen crawling from under the engine one mass , of flames. This increases the list of deaths to 13. The Coroner's euquiry was resumed on the 6th. Colonel Holland, Government Inspector, was present. Perkins, the driver of the ballast train which was shunting when the accident oooured, deposed that the danger signals were up when he began shunting, but had not observed how they stood at the moment of the collision. i Was never informed of the ruuning of I the excursion train. When he saw the | speed was forty miles an hour, he could not get his train clear. He opened his whistle, and the flagman waved his flag, but not the least notice was taken by the excursion train. The evidenoe of Charles Cox, a signalman on the line, but who was a passenger by the excursion traiu, was taken at the hospital. He deposed that the danger signal at the Kentishtown station was not on. Another signalman was also examined at the Hospital, | who also deposed that the signal at Ken- | tish-town indicated " all right." The enquiry was then adjourned.