The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-11 00:00:00

SINGULAR RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

On Saturday afternoon two railway accidents
occurred near Carlisle, on the North-Eastern and the
London and North-Western Railways. There was a
heavy local traffic upon the lines, and when the four
o'clock passenger train on the Newcastle and Carlisle
station of the 'North-Eastern Railway was being
despatched, it was found necessary to attach five addi-
tional third-class carriages. These were placed at
the tail end of the train, behind the guard's van, and
unconnected with the vacuum brake, with which the
remainder of the train was furnished. No additional
brake-van was placed behind them, but an extra
guard was sent, whose special duty it was to look after
this section of the train. All the carriages were wel
filled with passengers.
When the train arrived at Head's Nook Station,
about six miles east of Carlisle, the couplings which
connected these five ayitional carriages with the rest
of the train became unconnected by some means, and
as the train was standing on an incline, the fire
carriages began to run back towards Carlisle, and
were soon travelling at a rate of from 15 to 20 miles
an hour. The men in charge of the remainder of the
train were powerless to arrest the progress of the run-
away carriages; and, as he had no brake power, the
special guard in charge was equally helpless. Appreciat-
ing, however, the danger of coming into collision with
the next train from Carlyle, he ran along the footboards
and mounted what was now the foremost carriage in
the hope of attracting the attention of some points-
man and getting the carriages turned upon the other
line of rails. In this he was eventually successful, as
the signalman at Wetheral, about two miles west of
Head's Nook, observed the state of affairs and turned
the points accordingly. At this stage one of the passen-
gers, Miss Smith, of Hartwhistle, the sister-in-law of
a docter there, threw herself out of the carriage and was
afterwards picked up insensible, but happily eonscious-
ness was subsequently restored and the lady was able
to travel home in the evening, though much cut and
bruised about the face and suffering severely from
shock to the system. The runaway carriages continued
their career, which was occasionally moderated by
some level piece of line, but again accelerated by
another stretch of incline, the speed, according to the
testimony of trustworthy passengers, being generally
that of an ordinary train—that is to say, about 20
miles an hour. Several women would fain have fol-
lowed the example of Miss Smith and jumped out
but they were forcibly restrained by the men travel-
ling in the same carriages.

About a mile from the Citadel Station at Carlisle a
pointsman turned the carriages from the passenger
line into the goods line, and they were finally brought
to a stand by running into a train of about a dozen
empty cattle trucks, which were standing in a dock
siding of the London-road goods station. The cgllision
was of terrific force. The large cattle truck at the
end of the dock was hurled over the dock buffers
and thrown with broken wheels upon the cattle
wharf above. The next truck struck half-way
between the wharf and the dock ; the substantial beams
of which the dock buffers were constructed were torn
asunder and projected about five yards forward.
Several of the other trucks had one end broken in by
the telescoping process which took place, and several
had their buffers broken or twisted. There is no doubt
that the spring buffers of the cattle trucks helped
materially to mitigate the severity of the concussion so
far as the passenger carriages were concerned, and the
passengers escaped with less severe injuries than might
have been expected in the circumstances. About a
dozen, however, reported themselves to the medical
men who were promptly summoned to the scene.
In addition to Miss Smith, already referred to,
there were ten who received surgical assistance. John
Bliss, of Topping Castle, had his arm injured;
Eleanor Bliss, of the same place, was found to be suf-
fering from the shock ; a woman named Ives, from
Gilsland, who about three weeks ago had the mis-
fortune to have some of her ribs broken, complained
of injury in the same region ; Agnes Birkett, tra-
velling to Newcastle, was suffering from shock ;
Mary Ann Armstrong, of Tynedal3 Spelter
Works, had her lip cut; Hannah Bell, of the same
place, Mary Garnett, of Hayton, and Jane Turnbull,
of Brampton, all complained of contusions and were
suffering from shock to the system; Mr. Hyslop, of
Burthohne, near Brampton, was cut upon the head
and hands, and complained that his back was hurt.
Some of these were able to go home in the evening,
but a few others were taken to an hotel in Carlisle,
the whole of the sufferers having received prompt
attention from Dr. Carlyle, Dr. Hair, Dr. Sullivan,
Mr. Hall, and Mr. William Brown.

The other accident happened at Brisco, about four
miles south of Carlisle, on the Lancaster and Carlisle
section of the London and North-Western Railway, tc
the slow passenger train due in Carlisle at 5 o'clock,
20 minutes before the Scotch express. An excited
cow, which is believed to have escaped from
an auction mart in Carlisle, had strayed up the
line. It was pursued part of the way by a man on
an engine, who, however, was unable to turn it off the
railway. On arriving at Brisco the animal ran in
front of the approaching slow passenger train, the
engine of which went over it. The engine, tender,
and front guard's van remained on the metals, as did
also the hind guard's van, at the tail end of the train,
but the eight passenger carriages forming the main
body of the train left the metals, and four of
them were thrown half-way down the railway em-
bankment. Fortunately only two passengers, so far as
has been ascertained, received any serious injuries.
One of these was a young woman travelling home to
Carlisle, whose face was bruised and who was suffering
from nervous shock. She was brought to Carlisle in
the next train and was able to walk into the city,
where she received medical attention from Dr.
Macdougall.