The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-30 00:00:00

FALL OF A RAILWAY BRIDGE AT

SUEFFIELD.

SHEFFIELD, FRIDAY AFTERNOON.
This afternoon, at three o'clock, the Sheffield
branch of the Midland Railway (the Sheffield and Kocher-
ham line), was suddenly blocked up by the fall of a bridge
that spans the line about 500 yards north of the Sheffield
station. It was an iron girder bridge, thrown over the
railway a few years ego, on the formation of a new road,
constructed on the estate of the Duke of Norfolk, and lead-
ing from an extensive plot of ground near the Rotherham
Turnpike-road to a parallel thoroughfare on the opposite
side of the railway, called tho Occupation-road. The fiat
girders of the bridge rested upon luteral buttresses, and
was supported in the centre by bracket& springing from the
tresses immediately beneath the end of the iron beams.
The area of the bridge was about 20 feet by 30 feet, and
the whole structure being of iron, covered by a layer of
earth, its weight would be very considerable for
• bridge having no intervening columns between the extre-
mities. The ashlar stone upon which the brackets have
rested is torn away, from which fact it would seem as if the
failure of the stone had caused the downfall. The moment
that the bridge lost the support of the brackets it would in-
evitably collapse. Nothing had occurred before the acci-
dent to suggest the slightest apprehension, and without a
moment's warning, the erection fell from its place upon the
railway, • mass of Artois several feet high. The traffic was,
of course, suspended, and all the engines, carriages, &c., on
the Sheffield side made prisoners, the trains from Rother-
ham and the main line of the Midland railway being also
brought to a dead lock.
Most remarkable there happened to be no living creature
either upon the bridge or beneath it at the precise time of
the accident. The unmet extent of the disaster, therefore,
is the entire destruction of the bridge and the obstruction
of the line. A gang of workmen were set to work imme-
diately to clear the way, and they are at this moment (4,60
p.m.) busy at their task. In the owns of a few hours
both the up and down lines will be clear. In the mean-
while the passengers have to walk to and fro from the
station, a little beyond the scene of the accident.

MONEY ORDER OFFICES.—The following notice
has been issued by the post office authorities :—A major
money order office will be opened at Erith, in the county of
Kent, on the Ist November. A minor money order office
will be opened at the undermentioned places at the respec-
tive da•es named:—England: Ironyille, Derbyshire, served
from Alfreton, Ist November. Inland: Artie/lase, Down,
Clough, Ufa November; Ballynahinch, DOW/1, Demme,
3rd November; Ballymoe, Galway, Castlerea, let Novem-
ber; Carliegford, Louth, Newry, 2nd November; Cutle-
derg, Tyrone, Strabane, 6th November ; Draperetown,
Derry, Tobermore, 6th November- Dunloe, Donegal,
Donegal, 611 November ; Five Mile Town, Tyrone, Brook-
borough. 3rd November; Florence Court, Fermanagh,
Enniskillen, 2nd November; Tempo, Fermanagh, Ennis-
killen, 3rd November; Tubbercurry, Sligo, Ballymote, lit
November. In consequence of alterations in the circula-
tion of letters, Much Wenlock is new served (as respects
money order advien) from Wellington, Salop; Brynmawr
from Newport, Monmouthshire, instead of from Aberga-
Teeny ; and Aberayron from Lampeter, instead of Abet yst-
with. Postmasters are informed that Crook is served from
Darlington, and not from Durham, and that Andlem is
erroneously stated in the lists of money order offices to be
in Staffordshire, instead of Cheshire. Ihe books of money
order offices must be corrected accordingly.
ROBBERY AT THE LEEDS WELLINGTON RAILWAY
STATtow.—A considerable sum of money has been ab-
stracted from the booking.office of the London and North-
Western Railway Company, at Leeds, and the thief has not
yet been discovered. On Saturday lest Mr. 11111, the booking
clerk, was ill, and not able to attend to his duties, which,
in his absence, were performed by a nephew of his, a youth,
who on that day received for tickets upwards of 57f.- This
sum the young man states ho left locked up in Mr.
private slrswer, before leaving the booking-office at half-
, put 9 o'clock on Saturday night. Ile went to the office
again on Sunday morning, to book passengers for the 5.30
a.m. train, and whilst there he tried to open the drawer into
which he had put the money the night before, when he
found that the key would not move the lock, and it was not
without considerable difficulty that he could get it open at
all, and then he found that the whole of the 671. had been
taken out by some one. The officials of the company have
since been making inquiry into the matter, but, up to this
time, with no satisfactory result.