The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-02 00:00:00

TILE ACCIDENT ON THE Nc)B27-1 ICE IT
RAIL TPA Y.

egs
The inquiry into the fatal accident w
on the North Kent Railway,, bet wean. Strood
Gravesend, on the 20th ult., by which Gs ?.o. Waller,.
hich occurred
the head guard, was killed, was Ten
sunsed at the
Town-hall, Gravesend, yesterday, by
A Ir. E. A.
Hilder, the borough cot-dubs
Captain Henry Whalley Tyler, from the sitailway
Department of the Board of Trade, was the first
witness examined. He said he had inspected the
line on the 24th ult., having joined the coroner at
jury at their request. He considered it a difficult
thing to throw a steady engine off a good road 011:.
a straight line, and that there must be something;
very far wrong in the engine, train, or permanent
way when an accident of this kind occurs. In the;
psebent instasice the engine evidently left, the line
before
t and the cause of the accident,
therefore,
lacyafri ogee,
be:sveen the engine and the road.
The eso symptoms of failure in any
of tsengine
parts
such shoN''7
asa
ld have led to the present
ie ;you
w
accident. The permanssh.ay was in a less satis-
factory down since 1847, S
factory condition. It had:
period of 15 years. The sleeps ,rs were not in a good
condition. The trenails, by _cleans of which the
chairs were attached to them, ,vv.e. re in a yet worse
state, and the joints were loose.
iTt was admitted
by the witnesses at the former exsumination that
the first disturbance in the permanent way
that is to say, the bulges to the left alid right-
arose solely from the failure of the trena f 2,3
whicfs
ought to have secured the chairs to the sleepers.
The foreman platelayer, Roberts, though h as'
serted that the trenails so fractured had been so un,
admitted, nevertheless, that they had given NOY.
It might have been quite true that his auger, as ise
bored them out went into hard wood, because suds'
trenails frequently lay broken in the chairs and
useless for security, while the upper and lower por-
tions were still in a hard condition. If he could
have been certain of the particular chairs,
and their position, he should hay's'
been able
to point out how far each faste,ning had
been secure or defective, and what parts had
given way where the rail was knocked oi't of its
place. As it was, he could only state the
,general
but inevitable conclusion that, as the rail CI id thus
give way under the passage of an engine uuder
ordinary speed, that alone was sufficient proof that
the rail was not securely retained in its place by
the fastening which ought to have held it. lite
might add that this rail did not appear to have beers
subjected to any great violence, or even to have
been bent when thus pushed out of its place. The'
engine either did not appear to have met with great
resistance when it came against this rail, as it did
not merely drop off it when it gave way, but, un-
checked in the oseilletion which it had derived from
the previous slight bulges on the road, it went et
once considerably off th rails to the left, as he ob-
served by the marks still visible on the sleepOrti
and by the absence of broken chairs on tne off sides
of the line. If the rail had been perfectly secured
the engine would have glanced from it and left it
undisturbed. If the trenails on the outside of the
rail had been sound and strong, or if there had been
wrought iron spikes in their places, tbat rail would,
no doubt, not have been thus displaced y even if the
trenails had been less secure inside tll)e rail. 10
examining the line in the neighbourhood osc the scene
of the accident, he found many cases in which the
heads of the trenails were gone altogether out of the
chairs as they stood in the line. Sometimes bot`h
them had disappeared from one chair, and the ho.lo!
were filled with dirt. In some cases the heads el
the trenails remained in the chairs after their frac-
ture, and in others he was able to pull them out with.
his thumb and finger. In short, he found these
fastenings so much deteriorated .as to render an acci-
dent of this description not on.iy within the bounds
of possibility but very likely to occur. The broken
rail, which was found at 50 yards beyond the die'
placed rail, had the appearance of haying been boob
and broken by violent impact on the inside, and it
appearance indicated the track of the engine cross'
ing it, besides showing that it must have been held
in its place far more tightly than the rai/ 50 yards
behind, which was thrown out on its side, After
full full consideration of all the circumstances Of the
case, as far as he bad been able to ascertain 01033'
he attributed the accident to the failure of the woociall
fastenings between the chairs and the sleepers. Tire
use of the wooden trenails had been the sole cause
of the accident on the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway in 1860, and on the South Western and
GlasgowinMay,lB6l. In the former case the engine
of the express train burst the permanent way, anti
the carriages only were thrown off the line. In tiL°
latter case the engine and carriages left the sa
under circumstances very similar to those they wore
then investigating, though with more fatal results.
In answer to questions by the Coroner, Captain
Tyler added that if the weather had been ever so
bad the accident ought never to have hecureed ,
the fastenings were good.
Examined by Mr. Rees, solicitor, who represeSiter
cti
the railway company, Capt. Tyler said that he h
seen so many accidents through wooden trenaii4
that he advocated spikes instead, and had recall-
mended their use to the North Kat Railway Cola'
pany. Their engineer had as great an objection to
them as he had. He was sorry to see that nothing
but wooden trenails had been put down by the en:
gineer of the Loudon, Chatham, and Dover Rail'
way, although the engineer of that line stood very'
high in his profession. So long as trenails rernailledh
sound they held the chairs better than epikes,Whie'
were apt to shift out after being in use several years'
Spikes were still more necessary on curves, whew
he inspected a line made with trenails he always
reported that to the Board of Trade, but on curva
he insisted on spikes.
The Coroner having read over and commented
the evidence,
The jury retired, and, after an absence of an
hour, brought in the following special verdict
" Accidental" death ; and it is the unanimous ()pill'
ion of the jury that the accident is attributable tee
the imperfect state of the permanent way at and
near the spot where it occurred, and the jury re-
commend the immediate attention of the company
to the state of the trenails and sleepers.
Mr. Eborall, the general manager of the railway,
said the recommendation of the jury should have
every attention, and that the company deeply re'
1 nretted the accident.

FOREIGN HAIL PACKET ,LIST.

MAILS DUE.
Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton. ..April 1 '
vi
.drazil and Cape Verde, by
Ara 6-
Ea Ariltiitsrhseipllaecsket. .... April 12.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena—April 44..
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton. April v,
via Marseilles ...Apr'. d'
Falkland Islands tAPT''
Gibraltar, via SouthamptOn .. .
India (Calcutta),' and Ceylon, !via Southampton April 4, i.
,-,,N--* Marseilles April il In.
India (Bombay), via Southampton Apry.
via Marsei*s April *
Lisbon ...... Y..-
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton April April 41-:
via Marseilles -
Newfoundland -: .April '2.
Oporto and Vigo
U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. packet... :April 2,.
by U.S. packet 0.
by Canadian packot.April f‘,.
Bahamas, via New York W.C. of Africa, Madeira
k , and Teneriffe ............ AApprriill to:,
Chili, Peru, 1 AprilA 1.4.
ril 2°'
Mexico
All parts of West Indies, including I •
California, and British Columbia..
--.l—

BIRTHS.
BRENDON.— On the 29th ult., atWoodlands-terrace, Black;
heath, the wife of Major Brendon, Royal Artillery, of
son.
GAISFORD.—On the 28th ult., at Offington, Sussex, til°
Lady Emily Gaisford, of a son. fa
MALCOL3I.—On the 29th ult., at 22, Princes-gate, the
of James Malcolm, Esq., of a son and heir.
OASES.—On the 30th ult., at the East Cavalry Barrackso
Aldershott, the wife of Lieut.-Col. Oakes, 12th Lancer`'
of a daughter,

MARRIAGES.
RICHARDSON—METCALF.—On the 31st ult., at St. Giles';
Church, Camberwell, Henry Ferdinand Richardson,
Sheffield, eldest son of Henry Richardson, West 119,.1`;
ney, to Angusta Maria, only surviving child of the
Benj. Metcalf, of London.
WATSON—ROWLEY.—On the 29th ult., at St, Marles,
South Norwood, the Rev. Thomas Henry-Watson, M.l"
of Mitcham, to Frances Jane, youngest daughter of ThoS.
Rowley, Esq., of South Norwood, Surrey.

:DEATHS.
AsnitunNEn,—On the 30th ult., at Brighton, William r 4

Ashburner, Esq,, aged 71.
BEAIWN.—On the 30th ult., at 9, Stratford-place Cavell'
dish-square, Wm. Frederick Beadon, Esq., Police IVltl'
gistrato, aged 5,1.
BENTLEY.—On the 28th ult., at Pentonville, Mr. Artha
Bentley, of the Stock Exchange, aged 30.
CONSTABLE.—On the 20th ult., at Brandon, Suffolk, Phil..

lips Constable, aged 65.
LATIBERT.—On the 31st ult., , at East Maudit Vicarage,
Northamptonshire, the Rev. Harry Lambert, third sou
of Vice-Admiral Sir George R. Lambert, K.C.8., aged
36.
U: Fay her Majesty's 53d lm! 1'
the 28th ult., at Craig, Ayrshire,Williaut
Morris, Esq., M.D.,

mcut.
SAMS.—On the 30th ult., at 173, Piccadilly, John Sains,
Esq.

=---
LoNnoN : Printed and Published by JOHN CHAPLIN,
of No. 112, strand, Printer, at THE SUN Office, N 0.112,
in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the County of
April 2, 1862.
sifftrzde;oxi_wednesciay,