Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

In 1862, 186,094,671 passengers were carried, of whom 26, or one in every seven millions carried, were killed, and 536, or one in every 333,000 persons carried, were injured from causes beyond their own control; and 9, or one in every twenty millions and a quarter carried, from their own misconduct or want of caution.

In 1863, 211,074,175 passengers were carried, of whom 14, or one for every fifteen millions carried, were killed, and 400, or one for every 550,000 carried, were injured, from causes beyond their own control; and 21, or nearly one for every ten millions carried, from their own misconduct or want of caution.

In 1864, 236,922,065 passengers were carried, of whom 15, or one for every fifteen and three-quarter millions carried, were killed, and 698, or one for every 350,000 carried, were injured from causes beyond their own control; and 21, or one for a little more than every eleven millions carried, from their own misconduct or want of caution.

In 1865, 261,577,415 passengers were carried, of whom 23, or 1 in every eleven and a half millions carried, were killed, and 698, or 1 in every 380,000 carried, were injured from causes beyond their own control; and 13, or 1 in every twenty millions carried, from misconduct, or want of caution.

If the several figures above stated be added together, it will be seen, that whilst 1,094,597,385 passengers were carried on English railways in five years, the number of persons killed from causes beyond their own control, that is, through some accident, neglect, omission, or commission on the part of the railway companies, was 124; and the number injured, in consequence of one of the foregoing reasons, was 3,449. Of these persons, although many were serious sufferers, the great bulk received injuries from the effects of which they were cured in a few weeks,—several in a few days. In the same five years, 97 passengers were killed from misconduct or imprudence.

In addition to the numbers enumerated in the foregoing statement, a great many persons, not passengers, are killed, either by trespassing on the railway, walking on it at forbidden places, or by suicide. In 1865, their numbers were—killed, 76; injured, 351. Many railway servants are killed or injured each year, mainly, we regret to say, through their own imprudence. In 1865, 122 were killed, and 83 injured.

The above catalogue is, undoubtedly, a melancholy one; one that it would, of course, have been all the better if it could have been avoided. But this, we say with deep sorrow and regret, is impossible. In the first place, as long as the working details of railways depend upon human hands and human heads, we shall have accidents. Some of the worst accidents that have taken place on railways have been caused by the sudden failure, not of presence of mind, for there was no circumstance of a peculiar nature to require it, but by an utter failure, a total absence, as it were, of mind, just at the very moment that, by no means a great, but still some, mental exertion or exercise of mind was requisite. Signal-men, perhaps the most careful and cautious persons in railway service—men selected for the position, after much previous drill, in consequence of superior steadiness, sobriety, and good conduct—find, too late, from some cause utterly unexplainable, that the lever of “points,” or of a signal has been turned to the left when it should have been turned to the right, or vice versâ. Fearful accidents occur from the machinery of the engine suddenly giving way, in consequence of which it leaves the rails, and the carriages behind it follow, and pile themselves one above another in a manner that is incredible to those who have not seen them. Other accidents arise from a sudden failure of portions of the permanent way; yet, possibly, the same permanent way has been carefully looked at by completely competent men only half-an-hour previous to the accident; for it may be mentioned, that there is no part of a railway road-bed that is not thoroughly examined every morning. In a line that is well signalled—and it may be taken for fact that there is no railway in the kingdom upon which there are not at present efficient signals—accidents are not the result of delays, although there is a very general belief in the minds of the public that it is otherwise. In two recent instances, accidents of a calamitous nature have been the result of a rail being taken up and not replaced before a train has come upon the spot; this description of accident having been chiefly caused by permanent-way signal-men not going sufficiently far back with the flag danger-signal to enable a train to be brought to a stand-still before arriving at the spot where the line is interrupted, other precautions have been added, which now render an accident from this cause nearly impossible. But many of the fearful collisions, the terrible accounts of which shock the public mind from time to time, are caused by combinations of circumstances and incidents so extraordinary and unusual, that it is hard to conceive, on the doctrine of combinations, how they could occur. They do occur, nevertheless; and all that can be said with respect of them is, that the circumstances of every railway accident are carefully read and studied by every traffic manager, and most station masters, in order that a lesson or a caution may be obtained for future guidance. But these accidents will continue to occur—there are, we fear, no real means yet discovered to prevent them—and all that can be hoped for as regards the future is, that as experience of what are in short almost impossible circumstances is accumulating, we may perhaps arrive at an epoch where no further incidents of this character can be combined together for human destruction on railways.

What has been already said with reference to the earnestness of railway officials to prevent delays, applies with tenfold additional force to their never-ceasing anxiety to avoid accidents. There is no possible precaution that can be taken, which is not taken to endeavour to prevent them. In every way they are disastrous; they not only create intense personal suffering and misery, they are not only a risk to employés, because at any moment, from an act of imprudence or forgetfulness, employés may be the cause of them, and thereby render themselves liable to punishments that extend even to penal servitude; but even after their occurrence they become to them a source of immediate and immense responsibility. The line must at once, quick almost as the flash of lightning, be protected against trains coming in either direction; the killed and wounded must be removed, and those to whom life still belongs must be attended to with the most earnest solicitude; arrangements must be made, and carried into execution without a moment’s delay, so as to render the line fit for traffic again in the shortest period that human hands, aided with hearty good-will, can accomplish; all these duties must, nevertheless, be executed in the midst of scenes of havoc and misery that are enough to unnerve and prostrate most men, with as much coolness and sang froid as if the man’s services at the moment were not more important than attaching an additional carriage to a train, in consequence of an unusual accession of traffic at a station, or the performance of some other such like formal piece of everyday duty.

But beyond all these considerations, there is one that cannot, when referring to the subject of railway accidents, be overlooked, or passed by without comment—their cost. In 1865, no less than £333,533 were paid in compensation by railway companies, in consequence of railway accidents. If to this amount be added £200,000, for destruction of rolling stock and road, the heavy expense involved in their re-establishment or replacement, the enormous law costs to which the companies are subjected in settling claims or in defending actions, mounts up the total amount of actual expenditure, owing to these fearful occurrences, to upwards of half-a-million sterling, or nearly 1¼ per cent. on the total capital expended on railways. To this amount might also be added loss of receipts which always occur to a railway immediately after the occurrence of a serious accident. From the one cause of cost, without seeking to find any other reasons, railway companies have good reasons to dread railway accidents.