The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-27 00:00:00

Railway Accidents.

On Saturday afternoon the fast goods train which
left Exeter at 10 a.m. ran off the line, at 3 p.m., a
little to the east of the Cornwood station. The train
consisted of one engine and about 14 trucks. The
engine is turned upside down, and its frontis towards
Ivybridge, instead of towards Plymouth ; the dome
is crushed in. The driver and stoker were so much
scalded that the former died on Saturday after-
noon, and the latter was not expected to reco-
ver. The two guards escaped uninjured. All but
three or four of the trucks are broken to pieces.
Under ordinary circumstances the fast goods train
is due at Plymouth at 2 o'clock, but it has to shunt
in and out at the various stations, according to the
exigencies of the traffic. The driver, John Rowsell,
attained his 30th year on Saturday ; he is married.
The stoker, Thomas Palmer, recently appointed to
the duty, is a younger man and unmarried. The
line has only a moderate incline at the place where
the accident occurred.

Another serious accident occurred on Saturday
morning near the Exeter Station. About half a
mile from the Queen-street Station at Exeter is a
tunnel about 300 yards in length, known as the
Blackboy tunnel. There are a number of springs
at this spot, which threw great difficulties in the
way of making this tunnel, the work being washed
a way on two or three occasions, but no accident
has since the completion of the line happened there
until Saturday. The storms during the last day or
two, however, have broken the springs, and these,
added to the torrents of rain which have fallen, ap-
pear to have loosened the brickwork, and a portion
of the roof gave way. We learn that the Yeovil
train due at Exeter at 9 20 a.m. had just entered
the tunnel when the engine-driver saw a heap of
brickwork on the line just ahead of him. The steam
had, as is customary, been " shut off" before the
train entered the tunnel ; but as it was running
down the incline the driver, notwithstanding that
the brakes were immediately applied, was unable
to bring his engine to a standstill before he
ran into the mass of earthwork which impeded
the way. The shock threw the engine off the
metals, and the vibration caused another
portion of the tunnel to give way, and the
brickwork fell on the engine and the foremost car-
riages. Happily, no one received any injury beyond
a few contusions sustained by some of the passen-
gers in the confusion which ensued in getting
out of the train. It was in the first " length"
of the tunnel that the accident happened, so that
it was not quite dark ; but the affrighted passen-
gers had some difficulty in getting out of their
perilous position. The brickwork could not have
fallen very long before the train entered, as the
up London train at 7.30 and the Exmouth train
at 8 o'clock passed in safety. The tunnel is now
blocked, other parts of the work having given way,
and the traffic through must be suspended for some
three or four days at least. Relays of omnibuses and
coaches are, however, put on from the junction of
the Exmouth and London lines, beyond the tunnel,
to and from the city, and delay is the only inconve-
nience the public will be put to. The accident will
occasion a heavy outlay on the part of the South-
Western Company. A strong feeling is being ex-
pressed that, seeing the difficulty in the way of
making this tunnel perfectly secure, the company
should make it an open cutting.
A dreadful collision occurred late on Saturday
evening about a quarter of a mile on the Manches-
ter side of the Wigan station of the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway. At half-past 5 a train leaves
Manchester for Bolton and Wigan, when it is
divided, the one portion proceeding to Liverpool,
and the other to Southport. On Saturday night
this train, a long one of some 20 carriages,was rather
late, for, though due at the station at 6.40, it was
nearly 7 o'clock when it approached a bridge over
a street in the borough named Chapel-lane, a point
at which the London and-North-Western and the
Lancashire and Yorkshire lines are so near thatthere
are numerous points for the transfer of trains from
one to the other. Just above this spot there is on
the first-mentioned railway a small siding which
joins the line from Manchester to Wigan, about 20
yards beyond the bridge, and upon this was an empty
goods waggon. According to one story this truck
was, just as the train approached, being moved down
the siding, and according to another it was moving
forward, impelled by the strong breeze which was
blowing at the time; but, whatever the cause, it is
certain that when the passenger train reached the
point where the siding joins the main line the wag-
gon was so near that a collision took place. The
truck itself seems to have been caught by the en-
gine and turned over, and either the shock or a fur-
ther collision with the buffer of the truck threw the
first carriage off the rails, and this, full of passen-
gers, was
.dragged along as far as the bridge, where
it appears to have canted over, broken the coupling
chains at the front, and the engine thus freed ran
down to the station for assistance. Meanwhile the
second carriage, moving at a good speed, was dashed
against the wheels of the overturned carriage in
front, by which the whole of its end was torn away, '
and its course diverted from the main towards the
London and North-Western Railway. After it came
the guard's van, which was pitched about until it
was thrown on its side, and against this came three
or four other carriages, which were thrown off the
line and splintered a little. The passengers for a few
secoads were in great alarm. The compartments of
the first carriage were promptly emptied, and the
occupants were all found alive. The side of carriage
No. 2 had been stove in, and had crushed Mr. Geo.
Wilkinson, builder, Southport. He was found to be
dying, and was removedto a pointsman's cabin close
by, where he immediately expired. He was so ter-
ribly injured, that the medical men, who were
promptly on the spot, and who saw the body, ex-
pressed surprised that he should have lived the few
seconds he did. In the van which came next the
guard had been sadly shaken, but though severely
bruised, his hurts were not serious. Many others
were cut and shaken, but so far as we could learn
all were able to proceed onwards by trains which were
immediately formed at Wigan. For about an hour
the traffic was completely stopped, but the over-
turned carriages having been drawn away, one line
was left clear, and the trains were forwarded, but
when our parcel was despatched but little had been
done to remove the wreck which blocked the other
half of the road. The waggon which caused the ac-
cident was thrown upon one of the London and
and North-Western main lines, which it blocked
for some time. The body of Mr. Wilkinson was re-
moved to the Clarence Hotel to await the inquest.

THE " FATHER OF THE GALLERY" will, like the
" Father of the House," no longer ba seen in his accus-
tomed place when Parliament meets. Mr. Thornton, the
chief of the Times' reporting staff, after forty years of work,
during which he has not been absent one night until this
year, has resigned his post, at an age but a year or two
short of the late Premier's.

DR. HUNTER'S CASE.—It was stated that the
trial of Messrs. Merrick and Jones, for the assault on the
doctor, had been removed to the Central Criminal Court.
Such was correct at the time ; but it has since been deter-
mined to remove it back to the Middlesex Sessions.