Sir Fredrick Bramwell once calculated that if a man made up his mind to be killed in a railway accident, he would have to travel night and day in express trains for 900 years in order to fulfil his purpose. But such a happy state of affairs did not always exist.
In 1859, when there were only some 10,000 miles of railway in the United Kingdom, and the number of persons carried was about 175,000,000, it was calculated that one out of every 8,708,411 passengers was killed from causes beyond his own control; while in 1897, when over 21,000 miles of railway were in operation, and considerably over 1,000,000,000 passengers were carried, the average was one in about every 26,500,000.
Indeed, in the sixties railway disasters were of such frequent occurrence that, on December 27th, 1867, Her Majesty wrote to the directors of the various railway companies in London requesting them "to be as careful of other passengers as of herself." Now, owing to the stringent regulations of the Board of Trade, the infallible block system, and interlocking of signals and points, it is impossible for a signalman to err without the grossest culpable negligence. The railway companies, too, have considerably improved their permanent ways, constructed heavier rolling stock, while the contrivances for controlling and maintaining the trains in check are of the most perfect description.
But there is an old adage that "accidents will happen in the best regulated families." The railway is no exception to the rule, and, notwithstanding multitudinous and careful precautions, and the extreme vigilance displayed by officials, the community is startled now and again by the news of some dreadful catastrophe that has overwhelmed the iron steed. Fortunately, accidents are few and far between, while the number of passengers killed is infinitesimal—the total last year was only thirty-four.
It is a fortunate circumstance that in these days of lightning travelling a train very seldom comes to grief through travelling too rapidly. Yet such a disaster occurred between Heathfield and Mayfield on the Eastbourne section of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway last year. For the length of about twenty miles this railway is a single line, and meanders along through the valleys among the hills, so as to avoid tunnelling, in the most zigzag manner. Between Heathfield and Mayfield, a distance of about four miles, there are a series of steep rising and falling gradients, many of one in fifty, and sharp S curves.
It was while travelling round one of these curves of nearly a third of a mile radius at a speed of from twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, that a train was derailed and the greater portion of it precipitated down an embankment sixty feet high. The engine fortunately fell over and remained by the side of the permanent way. Our tail-piece conveys a very good idea of the sharp curve, and also of the gradient. Although many of the carriages were smashed, only the driver was killed, and possibly, had he stuck to his engine, his life might have been spared.
Some of the passengers, as is generally the case in railway disasters, had marvellous escapes. One gentleman, who was sitting reading, suddenly felt the carriage give a lurch and then roll over and over down the embankment, while he was tossed violently about, till it crashed into another, when the superstructure was torn from its foundations. Considering the gravity of the accident it was a wonder that there was not a heavier death roll. As it was, it cost the company £13,000 for compensation to the injured.
The most shocking disaster that has ever happened upon any railway in the United Kingdom, excelling even the famous Tay Bridge disaster, when 74 passengers were killed by the bridge having collapsed, occurred on the North of Ireland Railway on June 12th, 1889, at Killooney. It is known as the Armagh accident.
A SMASH WHICH COST £13,000 FOR COMPENSATION.