The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-21 00:00:00

LONDON, IV EDS ESDA Y, DECEMBER 21.

Tux inquest on the killed iu the frightful Black-
heath Tunnel accident has already brought to light
the main causes of the catastrophe. What degree
of criminal responsibility these may lay upon any
individual is a question which cannot be properly
discussed until at least after the verdict shall have
been given. But there is, in the meantime, no
reason that the facts should not be considered, and
that such deductions with reference to railway
management as are not concerned with the guilt
of individuals should be pointed out. The material
facts are, indeed, of moment from day to day to the
buudreda of thousands who every day travel by
railway, for they show a weak point in the system
which till now has been believed to be a thoroughly
effective precaution against accidents by collision.
It has been thought that if the plan is adopted of
never allowing a train to proceed until the next
station has telegraphed that the line is clear, it is
physically impossible there should be collision.
But this arrangement was in force on the North
Kent hue, and, as one of its officials declares, it
" worked beautifully." Nevertheless, the acci-
dent happened simply through the error of •
signalman, who telegraphed that the line was
clear when in fact it was not clear. How this
came to pass a review of the evidence will show.
The tunnel which was the scene of the accident
is nearly a mile in length, lying between the Charl-
ton and Blackheath stations. Nearer its entrance
than Charlton is the junction of the Angerstein-
wharf branch, and at all these points there is a
signal station. toil Friday the Angerstein signal-
man, at 3.39, sent on a train which had come on
the main line from Charlton. At 3.39 he sent on
a coal train which had come from the Angerstein
branch. At 4.1'2 he received a signal from Black-
heath that this train had passed, and he repeated
this signal to Charlton. Here there was a ballast
train waiting. It started immediately, passed the
junction at 4.18, and soon entered the tunueL
But the rails were damp and slippery, there is a
considerable incline, and it came to • standstill
before is reached the Blackheath end. Meantime
the passenger train which should have followed was
kept waiting at Charlton. Getting impatient the
stationmaster there telegraphed to Blackheath,
and immediately received the answer that the line
was clear. The train then started, at 4.32 ; it
overtook the ballast train in the tunnel,
and ran into it. The driver and guard of the
ballast train had meantime been doing what they
could to get out of the way. They had thrown
sand and gravel on the rails to make the wheels
of the engine bite, and the guard had gone back i
to uncouple some of the trucks, in order that the
engine might proceed with the first half, and then
come back fur the rest. While iu this azt he felt
a shock, which led ]tin to reproach the driver for
moving the engine. The driver disclaimed the
charge, and said that he also had felt a jar. When
they reached the Blackheath statiou the signal-
luau was in consternation, for he had believed the
line to be clear; he had telegraphed that it was so,
and had received in answer a message that the
passenger train had started. When they all ran
back to the tunnel they found the wreck, with the
dead and wounded.

The signalman at Blackheath who made this
fatal blunder was not, it seems, the regular officer,
but a porter who occasionally acted as assistant-
signalman. The probability from the circumstances
is that he had mistaken the coal train which came
on the line at Vie Angerstein junction, and safely
passed Blacl.ficath, for the ballast train which he
was told was on its way from Charlton. The signal
for both Iw], .o have been the same—three beats;
and it is far from unnatural that an occasional
signalman bil J 41.1 have made such a mistake, when
the two had only 19 minutes between them, and
no jcissetier train intervened. Very possibly the
error will be fouoil to have been so natural that it
cannot be called criminal. lint the result is to
show that this system of signalling, which has been
represented as so perfect, and almost so self-acting,
demands after all a very close attention and a very
large experience. A momentary haziness of mind
on the linertion whether a train which passed a
ijuarter of an hour ago was the train signalled from
a station or from a junction proves fatal.
A man would ho dismissed his post who
should keep au express waiting till he had satisfied
himself o❑ site:i a point ; but acting instantly he
may make a blunder, and his blunder is irre-
trievable. The attention must sometimes flag
from weariness, or ill health may unconsciously
produce for a moment indistinctness of recollection.
When BiaiN los walked his rope a hundred feet
over head it was often urged that the steadiest
brain may at some instant give way to the dizzi-
ness of intliiiebtioo. But on a railway it is not
one life only that hangs by such a thread. The
like cause acting on signalman, engine-driver,
guard, or pointsman involves the lives and limbs
of scores at once.

We have certainly no wish to exaggerate the
dangers of a mode of travelling which is after all a
necessity, and which contributes so sack to the ewe-
fort and convenience of life ; but the circumstances
of this case are remarkable in that they point out
not only a source of danger but what might also be
converted into an additional source of safety. We
have seen that the guard and engine-driver of the
ballast train, when actually engaged about
it, observed a " shock " or "jar " which
they did not understand. This was the
collision which killed five platelayers who were on
the end truck of their own train. The steam
blowing off from their own engine prevented their
hearing a noise, and the terrific blow was so
deadened by the intervening trucks that it scarcely
excited a remark. The same fact was observed
by those in the passenger train who were furthest
from the engine. This very remarkable circum-
stance offers a suggestion to our railway companies.
It would seem that our safety may be secured with-
out resorting to the expedient of putting a director
to act as buffer, as has been proposed ; the milder
method of putting one or two empty carriages or
trucksat each end of every train would suffice. These,
on being smashed, would break the shock to the pas-
sengers. It is indeed the common experience of all such
cases that a few carriages only are injured, while
little or no harm is done to the rest. Doubtless
something may be constructed still better for the
purpose than empty carriages. Common break-
vans, however, will not do, for they are built of
great strength, expressly to bear a shock, and what
is required is something that will give way under
it. it is very easy to familiarise to our minds the
principle on which this source of safety depends.
A train at thirty miles an hour is moving at the
rate of about forty feet per second, and this is the
rate at which, as mathematicians tell us, we should
strike the ground if we fell from a window about
eighteen feet above it. This is a height quite
enough to kill or break the legs if we alight upon
the pavement, but as our firemen know it is no
very dangerous leap if we are received in something
elastic and yielding. What is wanted, then, is some
arrangement which will allow the loaded carriages
to be brought to a standstill with less than the
violence of a fall on the pavement. Till our rail-
way engineers can devise an arrangement ex
pressly for the purpose we know that a couple of
empty carriages will serve it, and we may fairly ask
that they shall be reserved for this purpose in
every train. No precaution of signalling should be
omitted, but since we have learned that signalling
is not always infallible, we must insist that some-
thing else than human bodies shall be used to
convert a collision into a scarcely perceptible jar.

ebt !tour.

OSBORNE, Dec. 20.

The Queen and Princes' Beatrice walked and
drove in the grounds yesterday afternooos ; and again
this morning her Majesty and the royal family took their
usual exercise.
Prince's Louise also drove out.

Earl De-Ls-Warr, Sir Alexander Bannerman, Mr. C.
Leathern, end Mr. J. V. Drysdale, severally had an inter-
view with the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, at the
Colonial-office, yesterday.