The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-03 00:00:00

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT

CHESTER.

CHESTER, MONDAYiiOIININGI--- Since our last report
a strict inquiry has been instituted by Captain Sim-
mons, the Government Inspector-General of Railways,
into the circumstances attending the falling of the
bridge, and the shocking catastrophe that followed. The
gallant officer was as4,ted by Mr. Robert Stephenson,
the engineer of the Chester and and Holyhead Rail-
way, who planned the bridge ; Captain C. W. A.
Moorsom ; Mr. Lee, the resident engineer ; Mr. W. It.
Collett, M.P., the chairman ; Mr. King, the Secretary ;
Mr. Tyrell, the solicitor ; and several of the directors.
The first objects that came under inspection were the
girder that bad given way, and the masonry of the piers
and abutments. The bridge across the river by the
race-course or Roode, its I,,ngth being about three
hundred feet, supported by two stone piers in the centre
of the stream, and nearly thirty feet in height at low
water. The abutments were built upon piles of great
strength, and the piers were formed on hard blue clay, a
coffer-dam having previously been made. The iron
girders that support the permanent way are ninety-
eight feet long, each consisting of three pieces, having
vertical flanges with bolts at the joists, and otherwise
strongly secured. There are many bridges of a similar
description on the Trent Valley, Blackwall, Great
Western, and other railways.
The masonry was minutely examined, and, from the
observations that fell from Captain Simmons, it is in-
ferred that, in his report to the Board of Trade of the
disaster, he will not attribute the accident to its defec-
tive state, or state that the; girder broke down from any
undulatory motion produced by the passing trains.
The girder that gave way, the outsit a one of the down
line, underwent a strict scrutiny. It was in three parts.
The portion that had rested on the Salteney or Welsn
side of the Dee, was torn from the masonry of the
abutment, and was lying partly in the mud and water,
buried by the falling stones and rails, &c., while about
50 feet of the remainder was still hanging from the
masonry of the pier buttress. The fractures w?re in the
sound metal, and exhibited no appearances of having
originated from any flaw or defect in the casting. One
of the fractures, it was considered, caused the bridge to
give way, and the other one was produced by the metal
falling on the ground, or some heavy substance striking
it in its descent. In other respects the girder was quite
sound.

Clayton, the driver of the engine attached to the train,
who had so extraordinary an escape, made the same
statement as he did before the Coroner, and persisted in
his original story, that the speed of the train in passing
over the bridge did not exceed 20 miles an hour.
Mr. Robert Stephenson expressed an opinion, not pub-
licly announced, that the train was travelling faster than
had been stated, and that the tender by some means got
off the rails, and on passing over the bridge struck the
girder a lateral blow and fractured it.
This, we believe, was the general opinion amongst
the many engiheers and scientific gentlemen who were
present.
The Rev. Arthur Rigg, the Principal of Chester
Training College, has given a totally different opinion
as to the cause of the calamity. He says there are
three causes for the accident; Ist, the defect in the ma-
sonry; 23, the peculiar vibration, brought about by ac-
cidental circumstances; the bridge, although not a sus-
pension bridge, was a structure that would vibrate in
three ways—vertically, horizontally, and also with a
slight and almost inappreciable longitudinal motion;
3d. the horizontal vibrations from the centrifugal force
Tp(a'sailslgover.
Major Thom
Congreve Robe, R.A., stationed at
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It is rumoured that Major• Cieneral Wood, C. 8.,
formerly Lieutenant-Colonel of the 85th Light Infantry, or
Major• General Brown, K.H., will succeed the late Lieu-
tenant-General Sir Thomas Pearson, K. C. H., in the colonelcy
of that regiment.—United Service Cwell.