The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-29 00:00:00

:officies

THE ABBOT'S RIPTON ACCIDENT.

A mast serious accident occurred on Friday even-
big, at the Abbot's Ripton station of the Great
Northern Railway, about six miles north of Hunting-
.
don, during a heavy snowstorm, which appears te have
obscured all signals and rendered travelling a matter
of the greatest risk and difficulty.
A loaded up coal train arrived at the Abbot's Ripton
. station about a quarter to seven o'clock, consisting of
'the average number of 30 tracks. It was here signalled
to cross into a siding to allow the up express leaving
Edinburgh at 10-30-a.m. -and due at King's cross
it '8 30 p.m.; to Pisa— li'lfe—greater-portioir-Of the
. trucks had passed into the siding, when .the
Scotch express came up at full speed and struck
thee-coal -- train- aboat—three— or four truces in
rear of the coal train engine. The effect was most
destructive, Theeepgine of the Scotch exprs was
thrown over On to its side and doniV ie
etely disabled, and •
several of the carriages composing the tram were
. entitled : togethei • and broken up. ' .Almost before the
rear guards pf bpth; trains. could collect theeeelves
and take any precaution to avoid further accidezit, and
,whilatet heee efeeleithe.,eetained -.Lktv:r self-peeseeslon
;4 soaterribleett ceiele New atteeeptieg to rescue
the sufferers, imprisoned in the eeenel•e, elle express
train from Lpecipet toeV4ertsrpngle. %eta use- at full
speed and dashed into the mass Of shateffeel carriages
and napritiqed timligtee net, palyenfipereone who Were
still imprisoned in the ruins, 'but also of others who
were endeavouring to, fend assistance. —The folldwing
particulars of • the driadfil ,aecident are taken from
fdonday's Times : - t- - . ( 77.41
. .. . .. . , , •}1.5. :1 )
"The weather in the northern districts between
•1 York and the Home Counties was exceedingly
bdiereerees and stormy during the early part of Rridwb
••end tpyeeids evening snow fell in large fiakeseetee the
district of country between Peterboronkb and Hatfield.
The' now Was peculiarly dense, and is said to have
seriouily
,Obscured the look-out of the guards, several
Of whiemeraVe since ldeclaied they never before wit-
nessed a storm of equal severity. There was, however,
nothing in the weather calculated to interfere with the
traffic, whichproceeded asusual. Atafewminutes before
six o'clock an up coal train, consisting of 33 waggons,
drawn by a powerful six-wheel coupled engine, 'eft the
New England coal siding, north of the Peterborough
station, for Huntingdon, en route for London. It was
known that the up Scotch express, due at King's-
cross at 810p.m.' would, in the ordinary courde of its
running, leave Peterborough at 6 28p.m. ; but as the
Great Northern Railway is worked throughout on the
absolute block system, and as it was known there were
several sidings between Peterborough and Huntingdon
Into which the coal train might be shunted to allow
the Scotch express to pass, no anxiety was felt on this
account. Bray, the driver of the coal train states
that he relied entirely upon the block signalmen to
shunt his train if needful at whatever point of the
railway they thought fit. It was 6 5 p.m. as the
coal train passed the Crescent signals, just outside
Peterborough station. The storm was then at its
height, and Hunt, the guard of the train, declares'
' that he observed the signals at the block stations
• theye passed with considerable difficulty, and only.
'by continually wiping the snow off the win-
dows of his-- brake-van. They had run about
111 miles; and had reached the summit of a rather
. high gradient on this part of the railway, known as
I the Abbot's Ripton block signal station, when Bray
I found the signals against his train, and on running a
I few yards over the points he was desired by Johnson,
I the pointsman, to shunt in order to allow the Scotch
' express to pass. There was no hurry or excitement
apparent in Johnson's manner at this time, and Bray,
having his train well together and his engine in good.
order had no difficulty in stunting back into the siding.
Already 27 of his trucks had passed off the main line
and his train was still in motion, when the roar of that
up Scotch express was heard, approsaing with too/
dangerous rapidity. 'While three or four of the coal,
trucks still remained upon the main up line, the engine':
of the Scotch train struck into their midst, ancle,
glancing off from the obstruction, actually bounded over-
the down line of rails, and fell on to its broadside..
upon the slightly rising embankment which marks
this point of the railway. The Scotch engine dragged ,
with it a six-wheeled tender, the guard's brake van, .
and several of the leading carriages belonging to the..
North-Eastern Railway Company. The tender fell
over on to its broadside across the down line of rails,
and, forming a block, the carringes following were
thrown over and upon each otherand much broken up,
the passengers suffering severely. Abbot's Ripton is
a deerlate spot, the only cottages in the neighbourhood
being occupied by platelayers employed in the district.
Hunt, guard of the coal train, was the first to bestir
himself after the accident. He went immediately to the
signal-box and asked Johnson whether he had blocked
the up and down lines' to prevent other trains running
into the wreck. He found Johnson, whose signal,
box is scarcely half a-dozen paces from the spot where
the collision occurred, in a state of great nervous ex-
citement. But the reply Hunt received from Johnson
was that he had blocked the line, and that he was at
that moment telegraphing to Huntingdon for assist-
ance. Hunt, not quite satisfied with Johnson's man- _.4.
nen himself took a quantity of fog signals from his-4
box and ordered a foreman platelayer who arrived at
this moment to run up the line in the direction of el
Huntingdon, and fix them upon the down line of rails. et
This was done at a distaece of about 800 yards from a
Abbot's Ripton and just within the southern distance e
signal. A similar precaution to block the up line ofyi
rails was also taken by Hunt. -el*
"It happened that Lord Colville, Deputy-Chairman -
of the Great Northern Railway, with Mr. Robert
Tennant, M.P. for Leeds, one of his colleagues, had
gone to Doncaster on Friday to meet Mr. Bentley,
Mayor of that town, and a deputation from its Cor-
poration, to discuss the question of a level crossing
which the company desire to lay down in connexion
with tee racecourse. Mr. Oakley, general manager of
the railway, Mr. Johnson, engineer-in-chief, and other
- Officers of the company, were present at the meeting.
' After the business of the day was over, Lord Colville
determined to return to London by the Scotch express
leaving Peterborough at 618 p.m. In the train was
'eunt Schouvaloff, Russian Ambassador at the Court
St. James's. The express left Peterborough at
34 p.m., or 16 minutes late. All went well
•ith it until .it reached the Abbot's Ripton block
.al station, when the collision happened as above ,
described, Lord Colville happily sustained no injury, • -
and was among 'the earliest to engage himself in en-1
deavouring to relieve the sufferings of his less fortunate' .
fellow travellers. ' He -aeon discovered the state Of ''
matters, and, finding that the coal engine and its tender
stood fair on the up metals, the collision having only:'
started thetender drag-hook, he ordered Bray to, run
on to Huntingdon, six miles south, and obtain all
aid that station could supply. Bray left Abbot'e en
Ripton at 651 p.m., before it had been possible to
extricate any of the passengers seriously hurt. He tooki it
'with him upon his exrgine Mr. Usher, a relief clerk in. 4
the locomotive department of the great Nottheirißail-e.:a
Way, his guard, Hunt, and two or three others. His trtilfd A
hed cot proceeded mere than 800 yards, and was, hi ei
fact,: just appreachieg the . distance signal south ofir
Abbot's Ripton, , when the Leeds express—leaving, j
! Ring's-cross at 5 t,:na.; and consisting of a powerful
'• etigine and twelve carriages—was discerned dashing
onwards through the blinding storm. 'twee the work
of a moment for Bray to sound his whistle rapidly
iLthree times in token of danger ahead, Hunt mean-
'
while waving his red lamp over the side of the engine;
a fact which has been corroborated by Robinson, rear
guard of the Leede express, who admits that he saw a
red light waved violently to and fro over the side of
the coal train as it met his train.
. :" Lord Colville remained at Abbot's Ripton, and
under his guidance, Aided by Mr e Entwistle an in. 1
sflecter of treffin Am, etre , London and North-Western 47
Itailwey, v,rho;wars'-a4 passenger, in the up express elicits
..lrindly,voliinteeredtis services as a practical man, every ri
effort was continued to release those who were suffering ,
from an 'enforced captivity in some of the carriages,
• and to relieve the pain of the wounded in others.
;It was a moment, of terrible ,anxiety for all. The
-, shouts of those passengers who, though not seriously
'hurt, were anxious -to be released from the par-
tially broken carriages, .the cries of those who were E
wounded, and the lurid glare in which the engine and >wk
tender were enveloped, arising from the escape of the
furnece'fire, and the . coesequent ignition ,of all that,e
was combustible in ii6-It6inity, 'pr,Odiiced ,a scene of
,
painful intereet which nOtie who ivititessed it are ever"
likely to forget.' Cattleye the driver' of the Seotch"
express; who had'eseeped `With a 'criished hand and the"
:loes.of hie middle finger, notwithstanding this mutihn.'l I!
tin, was found exerting himself to extinguish the firedil
arising from the furnace of his prostrate engine as if".
,he bad suffered no injury. • •
L 1 rlt must •be remembered that what has 'been re-' '
lated above was the work of only a very few minutee:',. "
Miost"of the passengers in the express who were 'ablti ,
to escape had alighted, and were engaged in endeavent-
ing to help those who were among the broken carriages,
which at title time completely blocked beth the up and
down lines. Probably none were aware of the d.,uger...
by which all were at this moment surrounded. Indeed, '
before any time for reflection had been allowed, the
Leeds express, either unwarned by signal or unob-
servant of them if exhibited, ran apparently at full' %
speed, into the wreck. The effect cithis second collision'eer
was celapaitous. The engine of the Leeds express,- litee )1 r
rally cut its way through the tender of the Scotch train,- eT
lying across the down metals, and, glancing off to theft- gi
raugentlywayr:irificangl,
over on embankment
its broadside,ntonthedownasstihdee
soefottchhalsaike., •
' engine had previously • done, dragging after it the -I
tender, and setting free the guards brake and leading' eat
&melee% • WiAch, from the tremendous impetus 'the l ein
speed at whlch they were travelling had given- theuril sod
mounted on to the wreck of the , fractured csariaeee of 't
the Scotch express and by their superincumbent weie,htt Ilt
utterly crushed and destroyed those beneath. • liettelestt
it is supposed, occurred the great sacrifice of life amorig ‘ t
the paseengers of the Scotch express.. No deaths,. as l
,far as, has been at present ascertained, • have: occurred: - •I-
tamoug the travellers in the Leeds express. Mr. Chris- '-..1.
tessen, Superintendent of the North-Easteen Railwaye-elq
waft a, passenger in the down train, and having-'I.
suffered nothing beyond a severe •shock, he presently...4bn
occupied-, himseif ..in .an .endeavour to be useful,- in ~Itelit
which able work he speedily found himself associeted I '4
with Mr. Thomas Harrison, lately President of thel efle
• Society of Civil ,Engineers, from -whom: he teal nt tlfat el,
Mr. Cleghorn, one of his own directors, who had been'
travelling with -Mr. Harrison in the Scotch exptess,• *.i.
had sustained a compound fracture of his left arm., e .`;•
After satisfying himself that Mr. Cleghorn was in
sefety, Mr. Chnstessen joined Lord Coleille nett, Mr. a
Harrison; 'and with his lordship /end the UV,' labourers
wile had by this time aseembled. hem the adjoining
cottages, endeavoured to render ell .the aid. :in then r
poseer to the Manyevhbateeded helix-- ''• ' = " ' '' ' ' ' ,4, f
"lOn thearrival of the coat Ulan 'engine at'iluetlnifs7, et
r den, Uri Wood, the etlatlot( 'Asia; Wasi ififortned by Mie, -.4.4
Usher of what had happened at Ab'bot's 'Mitten. , Arr.' ~
Wood at .once summoned all the- medical practitioner''
resilent in Htuitihgdon, and, without waiting to make,
up El special, 'train, sent tiaoth on to the scene of the'
accident by the Manchester geode train, it that mqm,ent
standingiwith isteani uh'oirithei• dlivii -rnetalge in' the.' '
station. At the same time he caused to bedespatched by
road to Abbot's Ripton such omnibuses and carriages as
couldbehaatilygottogether. HenexttelegraphedtoMr.
Forbes, the secretary of the Great Northern Railway
Company, and to Mr. Cockehott, its superintendent, at
King's-cross, informing them of what had occurred. A
message was also despatched to Mr. Oakley, the
general manager, who had gone on from Doncaster to

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