January 3rd of this year recorded another deplorable disaster on the Scottish extension of the Great Northern Railway, the North British Railway, in which the East Coast express, which left King's Cross the previous night, came to grief outside Dunbar station, not far from Edinburgh. The night was foggy, and owing to this and other violent inclemencies of the weather it arrived at the border town of Berwick twenty-five minutes late. At Dunbar station a mineral train was being shunted across the main line into a siding to allow this express to pass by, when one of the waggons became derailed. It was into this that the express dashed, completely knocking the obstacle into a thousand pieces, but the force of the collision caused the first of the two engines to leave the metals and plough through the sleepers and permanent way for about thirty yards, when it fell over on to its side, leaving the tender upright.
THE SCOTCH EXPRESS WHICH DASHED INTO A MINERAL TRAIN.
W. Crooke, Edinburgh, Photo
The second engine, although it did not share the fate of its leader, was greatly damaged. The carriage next to the engine was telescoped by the heavier corridor coaches behind. By the force of the impact many of the waggons fell upon a corridor coach, staving in the side and smashing the framework and glass of the windows to atoms. In this carriage the intercommunicating corridor extended longitudinally down one side of the car, and fortunately it was this side that bore the brunt of the violence of the collision.
Had it been otherwise the death roll would have been increased terribly. As it was, one lady was killed. Curiously enough this unfortunate lady, who was travelling with her sister, had only just changed her seat with the latter. Had she retained her seat her sister, in all probability, would have been killed instead.
A runaway goods-waggon was the cause of another very extraordinary accident on the London and North-Western Railway at Chelford, near Crewe, on Dec. 22nd four years ago, by which the Manchester mail was completely wrecked. A violent gale was raging at the time, and a waggon standing in a siding at Chelford station was blown on to the main line, along which the mail was signalled to pass. The express, dashing along at the rate of a mile a minute, struck the waggon with tremendous force, literally jumping over it and then falling over.
The engine-driver had a most Providential escape, being hurled off his engine over a hedge into a ploughed field, with no more serious injuries than a few bruises. The truck was tossed on one side into the air and struck the pillars of the station, ripping a portion out of the side of a heavy coach during its aerial flight. It then rebounded into a carriage in the centre of the train with direful effect. One coach, as will be seen in the illustration, was utterly smashed, the flooring, wheels, and interior being swept entirely away, while the sides were torn out. All the remaining carriages in its rear were completely wrecked.
THE CHELFORD ACCIDENT, CAUSED BY A SINGLE WAGGON.