The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-06 00:00:00

REVIEW OF THE CAUSES OF THE ACCIDENTS.

Hence it appears that almost all these accidents arose
from a combination of several of the causes above enume-
rated. In only 5 of the 76 cases of accidents to trains
which have been mentioned above, did purely accidental
circumstances alone cause the accidents ; and in only
eleven other cases were purely accidental circumstances
combined with other causes to create the accidents.

In only 28 cases was the direct negligence of inferior
servants a contributing cause of the accidents; but iu
some of these cases the negligence can be traced either to
the men having been overworked, or to defects in the state
of discipline.
The other causes which contributed to the accidents
were ...Rhin the control of the managers of the lines, and
appear to have been as follows :-
I.—Cases Ref9rable to undue Economy.

Under this head the insufficient supply of seam for secur-

ing safety, such asinsufficientengine power, breaks, signals
timepieces, &c., and the absence of a communication be
tween the guards and engine-drivers, and would appear to
have contributed to cause the accidents iu thirty-eight in-
stances; and the neglected condition or the defective con-
struction of the rolling stock and the road appear to have
contributed to cause the accidents in forty-three instances.
2.—Cases referable to an Inefficient System and a Defec-

tive State of Discipline.
The unpunctuallity of traiusappears to have contributed
to cause accidents in fourteen instances.
Insufficient or inadequately enforced regulations con-
tributed in forty-two instances to cause the accidents.
And a defective system for securing proper intervals be-
tween trains would appear from these reports to have con-
tributed to cause accidents in fifteen instances.
It is desirable to point out the principal causes of acci-
dents under these two heads.

(1.) Cases referable to undue Economy.—Under this
head may be classed a reductiOn of the number of servants
below what was required for the efficient working of the
line, the postponement of the requisite repairs, alterations
or additions to works, &c., and the overworking of the
carrying stock.
When the servants have been reduced in number below
what the efficient working of the line has required, the re-
maining servants have been overworked. This practice
involves considerable danger, because the safe working of a
railway depends upon the servants being always on the alert.
The signalmen and pointsmen must always be on the look-
out for trains, and attend carefully to their signals and
points ; whilst the guards, engine-drivers, and firemen
should, whilst on the road, have their attention continually
directed to the safety of the train ; and it is utterly impos-
sible for men, however strong they may be, to keep a
proper look-out if their energies are paralysed by fatigue.
Yet, amongst the accidents which occurred last year, it
will be found that in one case men who came on duty at
six a.m., were sent out with a train after having worked
to between ten and eleven p.m. ; and, in another, men
who were sent out with a train in the middle of one day
were continually on duty till the eyening of the next day.
The reduction in the number of servants has also con-
tributed to accidents, by causing engine-drivers and fire-
men, unacquainted with the road, to be sent with trains.
To this cause was partly attributable a collision which
occurred at tha Eaxton junction on the North Union
Railway.

Several of the accidents occurred from the permanent
way on some lines having been allowed to become very
much deteriorated. But the accidents which occurred
directly from this cause were not the whole amount of in-
jury which resulted to the companies and the public from
this deteriorated condition of road. For a bad road re-
acts upon the carrying stock ; and it is probable that many
cases of broken tyres axles, which were considered as
purely accidental, were due to the blows to which the
wheels had been subjected in passing over bad joints.
In other cases the accidents were attributable to the in-
sufficiency of the siding accommodation, the inadequacy of
the signals at newly constructed sidings, and to the ser-
vants of the company not having been supplied with a
means of measuring time. As regards this latter point, it
is to be observed that on lines of railway of large traffic
where the trains are worked to carefully regulated time-
and punctuality must be to a great extent
t: t
dependenttime-
tables, safety ,
u
upon a correct knowledge of time being possessed
at
the company's servants.
In all
accidents
to which unpunctuality has been a
other times by
contributing cause, this unpunctuality can be traced to
undue economy. In some cases the supply of engines has
been limited, and the trains have been worked upon a
system which entailed that the unpunctuality of a train in
one direction affected that of the corresponding train in the
opposite direction.
In other cases heavy trains have been forwarded with an
insufficient supply of guards and of breaks, &c.
It has been the practice on some lines to effect a saving
in the working expenses, by contracting with engine-
drivers for working the trains, and in others by giving to
engine-drivers a direct premium for reducing the consump-
tion of coke below an average amount. These practices,
unleseguarded by very carefully framed provisions, contain
important elements of danger.
(2.) Cases referable to an Inefficient System and De-
fective Discipline.—On some lines of railway in an efficient
state of repair, accidents have occurred which were due
either to the defective system under which the lines were
worked, or to the rules not having been strictly enforced.
In some of the cases of accidents, it would appear that
the regulations have been such that the inferior servants
of the company have great difficulty in complying with
them, under even the ordinary exigencies of the traffic ;
and other accidents have arisen from a violation of rules,
which would appear to have been permitted on previous
occasions without rebuke froai the superior officers.

In many .cases tho rules have been inoperative from the
responsibility of carry them into effect not being clearly
fixed. upon particular individuals.

In other CaBOS it will be foutut that accidents have oc-
curred owing to the system of issuing regulations having
been loose and negligent.

Of the accidents -which have been classed as due to the
management of railways, a very large proportion have
occurred to trains following each other upon the same line
of rails.

If the trains had been always punctual, and if no train
had been allowed to start without the driver having been
furnished with carefully-framed time-tables, to be rigidly
adhered to, these accidents would probably not have oc-
curred. Under such circumstances the use of signals
would be of less importance, and they would occupy
the position of being auxiliaries to safety ; but the re-
ports on accidents will show that on some railways
mineral trains, and even occasional goods trains, have
b )en allowed to run without the engine-driver having bean
f t-niehed with any instructions as to the time at which
h I was to pass or stop at the several stations, and on other
r i.ilways where carefully framed time-tables have been
p tblished regu!strly for the mineral and other trains,
these time tables have been allowed to be practically
disregarded. In many cases the punctuality of trains has
been much interfered with by the nnpunctuality of other
trains in commotion with them, and trains timed to follow,
or to be passed at stations by, other trains, have been fre-
quently detained by the unpunctuality of those latter trains.
This latter cause of unpunctnality has arisen on lines where
the traffic is conveyed in trains at different rates of Epeed,
but its effects might in some cases have been remedied to a
considerable extent, had a very much more extended use
been made of the electric telegraph in conducting and or-
ganising the traffic. It will be found, therefore, that in
the ordinary condition of railways at the present time,
punctuality is not sufficiently attended to, and that in
order to secure a sufficient interval between trains, lines
are practically worked to a very great extent by signals.
Several of the cases of accidents will show that to insure
the due exhibition of signals, it is the custom to organise as
many checks as possible upon the progress of trains ; and
for this purpose a system is in use on many lines of railway
by which guards of trains as well as station masters keep
a record of the time at which every train passes every sta-
tion. This record also shows whether the time of running
a train has been properly apportioned over the different
parts of the lirr.'.
It will, however, be found that in nearly one-half of the
cases of collisions between trains following each otheron the
same line of rails, the lines do not appear to have been
worked under a proper system for insuring a sufficient in-
terval between trains ; and an examination of the cases of
this class of accidents will show that the method which has
been adopted on almost all lines of exhibiting at stations a
signal for a specified time after the passage of a train has
been in some cases insufficient for the purposes of safety.
This subject is a most important ono as regards the traffic
upon lines of railway where the trains are numerous, and
travel at different rates of speed.
On some lines of railway immunity from this class of ac-
cident has been secured by the use of the electric telegraph.
According to this system, the line is divided into portions,
the length being determined according to the amount of
traffic and the frequency of trains; a signalman is placed
at the extremity of each portion, with a simple description
of telegraphic instrument, and no train is allowed to enter
any of these portions until the preceding train has passed
off that portion. A special telegraphic wire must be ap-
pointed to this service.* This system is in use on almost
all railways for working the traffic through tunnels.
Accidents from collision between trains following each
other on the same lino of rails have been attended in some
cases with very serious results, in consequence of the com-
panies not having enforced the plan of placing a break van
in the rear of the train. This was particularly exemplified
in the accident at Straftan, on the Great Southern and
Western Railway, in Ireland.
The accidents on single lines appear to have been nume-
rous during the past year, and to have been due to insuffi-
cient regulations. A single line to be worked safely requires
to beNi' worked esduo,
a unders tobe
verysipneeenimalpraetgitbilleatwwintsh running a large, and those regu-
lations
number of trains. Of the systems in ise for working single
lines, those which would appear to be best adapted for ensur-
ing absolute safety from collisions ere that either one engine
-should draw every train moving on the single line, or por-
tionor that cue particular man should ac-
eempoafnay singleever liney eng
ine or train moving over it.
Several single lines of railway have been worked by the
electric telegraph. but the safety of this syi•tem depends on
the responsibility as to the starting of trains being very
clearly defined; and one of the causes of the accident which
occurred on the Buckinghamshire Railway at Oxford was
the w
,a, 0 nicernside
rat i
0 n oftheresponsibilityof
several acci louts will show
i
that many have arisen from the want of individual respon-
i sibility, In many cases the responsibility has not been
1 clearly- defined in the rules; and in other cases it has not
boot practically enforced ; and hence, in ninny accidents.
evidently due to positive errors, the blame cannot be fixed
I upon individuals.
in the case of two acsi
. ,. dents which occurred) last
year,
attended with fatal resales, the coroners' juries returned
ver'it's , . v of manslaughter against the superior officers of
the companies ' - but in neither of the cases wore these ver-
dit,,3 sr:stained in the courts of law.

I have the honour to be, my lords, your lordships' most
obedient servant,

DOUGLAS GALTON, Capt. Royal Engineers.
The Lords of thi Committee of
Privy Council for Trite.

* This method of working has been adopted on the South
Eastern Railway under the direction of Captain Bartow, the
superintendent of the line.

GREAT NUGGET VEIN COMPANY.—At a meeting of
the Great Nugget Vein Company, held at Sydney oa
the ldth of January, the report stated that the erection
of the heavy machinery for the working of their pro-
perty by the Colonial Gold Company had just been com-
pleted, and that in a few weeks the whole wonid be in
operation, when the question would be decided, not
only " whether the claims of the company are worthy
of their repute, but whether the country offers induce-
ment to enter upon extensive gold mining operations:
or a field for the desultory labours of individuals only. '
The Government had conceded a lease of the property
for 21 years, and the results of twelve months experi-
ments on various portions of the ground were as fol-
lows i—namely, from 1,184 tons of alluvial soil 686
ounces of gold, and from 86 ton= of crushed quartz 92
ounces. The company being relieved by their agree-
ment with the Colonial Gold Company from the ex-
pense of working the mines, their capital was lying
idle, and it was proposed to invest it in advances on
railway stock, guaranteed by the local Government, or
to the extent of 50 per cent. on the shares of the com-
pany, either in the colony or in England, redeemable on
three months' notice if required for ruining purposes at
a future period. The balance remaining was 119,8171.,
and out of this, in consideration of " the profit upon
the sale of shares in England," a dividend was declared
of 5 per cent.
SHIPMENTS OF SPECIE.—The shipments of specie by
the peninsular and Oriental steamer Colombo amount
to 134,7141., of which 35,800/, is gold for Alexandria,
Ceylon, Singapore, and Hongkong, and 98,4001. silver
for Bombay, Calcutta,
and Shanghai. Singapore, Hongkong, Canton,