The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-01-06 00:00:00

THE DROWNED TRAIN.

The Architect says :
A disaster such as occurred at the Tay Bridge on
Sunday night is happily without precedent in this
country. No iron bridge of any importance was
known to succumb to a strain, and amidst all the
variety of railway accidents which happen every year,
not one can be ascribed to weak girders. It is not at
present possible to discover the cause by which 13
enormous lattice girders, and 13 lattice piers, were
removed from the Tay Bridge on Sunday, leaving a
chasm of about three thousand feet in the middle of
the structure. The designer of the bridge, it is said,
supeoles that some of the carriages were blown off the
and, striking against the lattice girders, des-
troyed them. But if this were correct the girders and
piers would hardly be swept away so completely 11'n,
all that is known to the contrary the central spans
may have been destroyed before the train approached
the bridge, and by the force of the storm alone. The
line WAR single, and consequently the width of the
structure was small when compared with the length,
and the bracing was probably not calculated to with-
stand a violent gale like that which is said to have
been blowing at the time of the accident. It is re-
markable that the Inspector ~of the Board of Trade,
who examined the bridge before it was opened for
traffic expressed a desire to have an opportunity of
observing the effects of a high wind when a train was
passing over the bridge. This indicates a misgiving
for which the disaster of Sunday night shows there
were sufficient grounds. The Tay Bridge WAS a most
ingenious example of the lattice principle, and was
surprisin_gly cheap when compared with the Britannia
and the 'Victoria Bridges, but a different arrangement
of piers and girders would have allowed • wider
margin for contingencies.—lt is strange that no record
is forthcoming of the pressure of the wind at Dundee
on the night of Sunday. We read how pedestrians
found it difficult to p•ei along the streets, while slates
and fragments of mortar were flying around, that
doors were burst open, and boats were driven ashore,
and the roof of a greenhouse was carried off ; but
there appears to have been not one serious casualty on
the land. It is • common delusion to exaggerate the
force of a storm. If tested by a gauge the gale on
Sunday would probably not exceed a pressure of 301 be.
to the square foot. The greatest pressure recorded in
Great Britain was 50Ibs. to the foot. An observer in
Liverpool maintained lately that he knew of pressure
in excess, but his observations were not corroborated.
Every question connected with meteorology is in •
state of uncertainty, but despite the present excite-
ment there is no reason for doubting that the accepted
data as to the velocity and pressure of winds and
storms in England, and which are made use of in
calculations of the strength of roofs, are incorrect.
An attempt was made on Friday morning to renew
the diving operations near the ruins of the Tay Bridge,
but the wind, which had been high all the morning,
Increased in violence, and it was found impossible to
proceed to work. A second effort was contemplated in
the afternoon, but the wind WAS then even stronger
than before, and the steamboat remained in port. The
directors of the North British Railway, anxious to
recover the bodies of the sufferers as early as possible,
have offered a reward of 25 for each that may be
brought in. It is generally believed that most of the
victims have been washed out of the wrecked carriages
and carried away to sea. Nevertheless, thirteen large
whaling boats were to go out to explore the shores
of the Firth of Tay, and they would be assisted by the
crews of 11.3F5. gunboats Firm and Netley, then
anchored off Dundee. The Board of Trade inquiry
opened on Saturday.
Should the girder be found, as was the Dee Bridge
girder, beneath its proper position, the fact will point
to the passage of the train as the efficient cause of the
calamity; svbile, if it be found appreciably up or down
the river, more weight will have to be attributed to
the action of the storm or of the tide. We are taking
fur lg. on sass,l si,,ul4 its en, ai.Pittg uuly lug common common justice to the designers and constructors
of the in idge,—.that the idea of the breaking down of
the girder under the sheer weight of the train, an an
efficient cause, is one that may be at once dismissed
from the mind. The structure is spoken of aii remark.,
able for lightness and airy grace. But we have every
confidence that neither the Scottish engineer nor the
inspecting officer of the Board of Trade would have
allowed themselves to make so close an approach to
the margin of safety, as far as breaking-weight was
concerned. For our own part we are, and always have
been, opposed to anything like fine running in such
a structure AS a railway-bridge. We should even have
admired the elegant structure of the Thames bridge,
by which the traffic of London and Southwark is led
over the Thames at Westminster, far more if it had ,
been more substantial. To our mind the tremor felt
on that bridge, although it may in one way be &boo- 1
lutely unobjectionable from structural reasons, would
have been far better avoided, at the coat of • heavier
and more substantial structure. But this by the WV.
This point will, no doubt, come to be thrashed out in
the inquert, if any bodies are recovered on which the
coroner or the corresponding authority in Scotland can
sit. But we cannot anticipate that any oversight of
this nature will then be found to have aHsen.—
Builder.

The search operations in the Tay were continued on
Saturday and Sunday, but with little more success
than on Friday. No bodies were found, and the only
additional remnant of the submerged train lighted on
was the tail lamp. The Board of Trade inquiry was
opened at Dundee on Saturday, before the Wreck
Commissioner (Jlr. Rothery) and his assessors
Colonel Tolland and Mr. Barlow, C.E. Several of
the railway servante who were on duty in the vicinity
of the bridge when the centre fell were examined, and
their statements to some extent bore out the theory
that the train ran against the girders and hastened the
collapse of the structure. The court stands adjourned.