The Express.
London, England, 1862-12-22 00:00:00

RAILWAY ACCIDENT NEAR MANCHESTER.

_....
MANCHESTER, Dec. 21.
The exprees train from London to Manchester last
ght was nearly annihilated when within about four and a

half miles of its destination. It left the Euston station as
usual at five o'clock p.m., and was due at Manchester at
10.10 p.m. It was nearly twenty minutes behind time on
passing Heaton Norris (Stockport), and had only proceeded
e abort distance beyond that st•tion when the engine and
carriages left the metals. From what canoe the train went
off the rails is not known, bat it went off on the out or
westerly side. His believed that the points were at fault at the
juoction of the line to Guide Bridge. Owing to the line being
ballasted at ail, part with sand, the train warn brought to a
stand without much damage either to the nmages or pas-
genera, and the guard, whose van was next to the engine,
ran towards the rear of the train with his red (danger)
lamp. Almost before he could get therm! however, an
engine came up behind and ran into the train with great
force, almost smashing the entire of it to atoms. The train
consisted of two first-class and a second-class carriage, be-
sides the van, and one of the brit class we broken through
the middle, the wheels were knocked off, and the body
knocked almost into splinters. The saved-clam carriage was
also a complete wreck, the only portion of it left above the
bed of the carriage being one single partition (the central one).
911 the carriages were thrown into or across a deep trench
by the side .1 the line, intended to drain it. The engine
which completed this catastrophe was a pilot engine, follow-
ing the express, and it is said that the driver states that,
seeing the tail light of the express train bad suddenly dis-
appeared in front of him, he concluded that the exposes me
further in advance than be bad supposed, and had gases
round the curve at Levenshulme, a mile ahead. He them '
put on steam, and consequently the collision was the more
severe. It was a dark and stormy night, and it is sup
%tthat when the expressgot off the line, either its
ett were extinguished by the jumping of the train, or
were hidden from the driver of the following en-
gine by the abutments of a bridge. Both en-
gines were damaged, but that of the express
not so badly as the other one. The passengers (of whom
there were fortunately but few) escaped better than might
have been expected. So far as we can learn none were
killed, but several were badly injured. The railway officials
lost no time in obtaining sasistaece for the passengers in-
jured, or in getting conveyances to send them forward. One
of the passengers most injured is said to be a soldier. A
gentleman who escaped with his forehead slightly cot said
he gut out through the roof of the carriage, which had been
ripped off, and through this he also dragged a lady who was
little injured. The whole of the night end the greater part
of to-day have been taken up in repairing the line and re-
moving the ditris of the train.

RAILWAY COLLISION NEAR LIIRD&-011 Friday
afternoon, between four and five o'clock, an aoeident oc-
curred on the North Eastern Railway, between the Bram-
hope tunnel and the Horsforth station, from a ballast train
running tot° the tail end of a goods train which was at that
time standing near to the Moseley siding. The engine of
the ballast train came into collision with the other train
with such velocity that the guard's van and one of the
trucks were smashed, the engine itself being thrown off the
up, and projecting across the down line. The guard of the
goods train, observing his danger, jumped out of the van,
and thus escaped injury, and the driver and fireman of the
ballast train were equally fortunate. The line was com-
pletely blocked up, and a number of men having been ob-
tained,, under the direction of Mr. Donaldson and Mr.
Johnson, the traffic and locomotive superintendents, the
broken fragments of the waggons were cleared as rapidly
as possible, but the line was not in proper working order
until about midnight. The 'MSc during the evening,
between Artbiogton and Honfortb, was worked by pilot
engines, and the passengers each way had to change trains
at the place where the collision occurred.