The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-06 00:00:00

ALARMING ACCIDENT ON THE
NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.
Another very. serious accident, resulting in severe in-
jury to several persons and in an immense destruction
of property, took place at an early hour yesterday
morning, near the Leighton Buzzard station on this line
of railway.
The circumstances, as ascertained from careful in-
quiries made -upon the spot, may be briefly described
as follows :—The Leighton station is distant from London
40i miles; within about 500 yards north of the station
the Linslade tunnel, a quarter of a mile in length, is en-
tered, and about 300 yards north of this tunnel is the
Linslade ballast pit, whence a large portion of the
gravel used in keeping up the southern division of the
line is obtained, Shortly after two o'clock yesterday
morning a train of ballast carriages, belonging to Mr.
Madigan, the contractor of the permanent way, left
Wolverton, and proceeded up the line as far as the
Leighton station. Having taken water here, the
driver, Martin Cole, crossed from the up to the
down line, and returned through the tunnel to the
ballast pit, for the purpose of taking iin a load of
gravel for conveyance to Berkhampstead. There are
two sidings running into this pit, and in consequence of
neither one of them being sufficiently long to contain the
whole train, Cole detached some portion of the waggons,
and placed them in the siding, and then returned for the
other portion of the train, left meantime on the main
down line. He had just got back on to the main line,
and was about to couple his engine to the remaining
waggons, when the 12 30 A.M. luggage train, from Cam-
den station, came through the Linsdale tunnel at a great
speed, and the next instant ran into his train of empty
waggons, crushing the break van into a thousand pieces,
and strewing the waggons about the line in every direc-
tion. The engine and tender of the goods train were
thrown off the rails and driven nearly on to the up line,
while several of the goods waggons were entirely de-
stroyed, and their contents strewed about the railway.
At the same moment, scarcely allowing time for those
few persons present to recover themselves from the shock
occasioned by the accident, the York mail came up at its
usual speed, and no signal of the obstruction being dis-
played, the driver, Daniel Ross, ran headlong into the
dibris occasioned by the previous collision. The effect
of this second collision was to throw the engine and
tender of the mail train completely across the down
line, and crush, more or less, several of the
succeeding carriages. The escape of the driver
and stoker was perfectly miraculous. The former was,
however, severely injured, and is now lying at Leighton,
but the stoker appears to have been thrown by the force
of the concussion completely over the ruins of the broken
carriages and waggons—described by an eye--witness to
have been between twenty and thirty feet high—on to
the embankment on the down line, where he alighted
comparatively unhurt. The first carriage behind the
tender in the York train was a Midland Company's
break or parcel van, which consists of a compartment at
either end for the conveyance of luggage, and a small
box in the centre in which the guard sits. This break,
as well as the parcels van succeeding it, was crushed to
pieces, and Tucker, the under guard, remained buried
in the ruins of the former for more than two hours in
spite of every effort made to extricate him. His head
and chest were fortunately at liberty, and therefore,
although suffering great pain, his strength was kept up
by administering stimulants until his extrication was at
length accomplished. The first compartment of the
second class carriage which followed the parcels van was
entirely destroyed. A man and woman, with two
children, who were riding in it, were miraculously pre-
served. The passengers on the train of course all suf-
fered more or less, but no injaries beyond a few slight
cuts and bruises appear to have been sustained by any
of them ; a fact which, when all the circumstances of
the accident are taken into consideration, may fairly be
considered miraculous.
The first, in fact both, collisions took place at about
five minutes past three o'clock, As soon as the fearful
extent of the catastrophe was ascertained, Cole pro-
ceeded with the ballast engine, the only one uninjured,
to Wolverton to procure assistance, and before five
o'clock Mr. M. Connell, the chief of the locomotive de-
partment, Mr. Bedford, the chief of the police of the
Wolverton division, and several other officers of the com-
pany, returned to the spot with engines carriages aed
labourers, to assist in clearing the line. Assistance had
previously arrived from Leighton, and all those persons
most shaken had received the best attention which could
be afforded them et that station. The necessary precau-
tions were taken to stop both the up and down trains, and
the traffic on the line was altogether suspended for
several hours. So complete was the wreck, that the
most active exertions of the multitude of labourers em-
ployed had failed to clear the line when the 6 15 A. et.
train from London arrived at the spot ; and, as the only
means of keeping up the communication the passengers
in that train were conducted over the scene of the acci-
dent to the York mail; those who travelled by the latter
coming on to town by the 6 15 A.M., which returned to
the Euston station.
The following is the statement of Sharon Biggs, the
guard of the ballast train, in reference to the accident.
,lle says—" We left Weedon station, where we had been
to unload some rails, about one A.m., and arrived at
Leighton about forty minutes past two A.M. At this
station we crossed over, in order to load a ttip of bal-
last' for Berkhampstead relaying. On arriving at the
Linslade ballast pit our driver found it necessary to un-
couple his engine and fetch out some waggons which
stood in our road. When we passed the policeman on
duty at the north end of the tunnel I saw him proceed
back with the danger signal with a view of protecting
our train. Not feeling that confidence in another, how•
ever, that I do in myself; and thinking that more time
was being occupied than on other similar occasion, I
went back, and found the policeman with the red signal
on, at a distance of about 300 yards in the rear of our
train. On reaching him he immediately observed that
he heard a goods train approaching in the distance.
He then directed me to go back to within sight of
my own train, and give him the All right' signal
when the line was clear, while he proceeded for-
ward to meet and stop the coming train. I
did so ; but before the line was clear the 12.30 A.m.
down goods train came at great speed through the
tunnel. I immediately saw every prospect of a collision,
and my fears were more than realised, for the engine
ran into our train, smashed the break and one waggon,
threw their own engine off the rails, and obstructed the
up-line; while at the same moment the up York mail
came up, and ran into the goods train with a tremendous
crash. I immediately ran to Leighton, stopped the ap-
proaching coal train, got her waggons shunted, and sent
her back to Tiring, in order to give telegraphic informa-
tion to Wolverton and London."
Martin Cole, it may be stated, is one of the oldest
engine-drivers on the line; indeed, the drivers of ballast
trains are invariably selected for their ability and good
conduct, and in consequence of their responsible duties
they receive an increased rate of wages. All these
drivers are supplied with a printed time bill of the lug-
gage trains, it being most important they should under-
stand the arrivals and departures during the night, when
the ballast work is chiefly carried on. Core, when ques-
tioned yesterday, produced his time-bill, and upon its
face the writer observed the departure of two luggage
trains from the Camden station—one at midnight, and
another at thirty minutes pasttwelve o'clock. The former
had already passed, as seen above, when the ballastwag-
gons were shunted, and the latter was timed to stop at
the Leighton station at 3 A.M. This train, for some
understood cause, did not stop at Leighton, and the
white light having been shown by the policeman on
duty, the driver admits that he passed the station at
full speed, and had entered the tunnel before he ob-
served the danger signal of the second policeman, whose
post of duty is at the northern extremity. He imme-
diately reversed his engine, but the train consisting of
forty loaded waggons, its speed was perceptibly dimi-
nished before he egressed from the tunnel, when he im-
mediately saw the red lamp at the rear of the empty
ballast waggons. At this moment he had great hope, of
being able to avoid the collision, when most unfortu-
nately the engine, already reversed, flew into forward
gear, and carried the train directly into the waggons.
Captain Huish and Captain Buyeres were both on the
spot at an early hour in the morning, and having made a
minute examination into the circumstances of ,the acci-
dent, they returned to town.
Ross, the driver of the York train, was not so well
last evening, and fears are entertained that he has suf-
fered some internal injury. Tucker, the under guard,
who is brother of the guard of the same name who was
injured so seriously a week or two since, is better than
could have been expected, considering the awful position
in which he was so long placed. A valuable pointer
dog, belonging to a gentleman in the train, which was
under Tucker's care in the break, had its hind leg com-
pletely cut off by the collision.
Among the ruins of the luggage there was discovered,
shortly after the accident, a barrel of gunpowder, the
top of the cask having given way and disclosed its dan-
gerous contents. It was described by the direction as
full of butter. The company have a clue to the party
by whom it was sent, and it is to be hoped they will visit
him with the severest penalty the law allows. The bare
contemplation of what might have been the consequences
of this breach of the law is dreadful.

TUE DIORAMA, REGENT'S PARK.—This splendid
troperty was brought to the hammer yesterday, by Mr.
iefehild, at Garraway's Coffee-house. The sale was
pcattended by a large and influential company. The pro-
Dveerrtl Consisted of the buildings of the Diorama (which
the ..stated to have cost upwards of 10,0001.), held for
"`un!eniired term of the lease, for 74 years; the
power ,
by M. pand costly machinery; the two grand pictures
the Interiors'fnr exhibiting with unusual success, viz ,
/Etna; the thirtete Mark's Church, Venice; and Mount
exhibited in form: valuable pictures which have been
the rear of the prera.Years, and the building-ground in
3,5001.; and after :es'The property was :put up at
down at 6,7501. SPirited competition was knocked
As the train from Brus 1 to Ant werp was pro-
ceeding on its way, on Fridse s
, staalldesorning, a child of about
two years and a half old
carriages. suddenly
near the window of one ofing on its mother's knees
sprang forward and fell out tht,
jhe mrails. out after it,
immediately opened the door and The father
The train
whilst the mother uttered piereing-ushrpieet.
was stopped, and after a few minutes the father was
Even
hurt, not comihav ing ng up weven a ith the
s cr o'iatch.
ild in his arms, perketay on-
RACING SWEEPS.—An ingenious method has al-
ready been adopted and
,put into practice by publicans
holding " racing sweeps ' in their houses, for defeating
the intentions of the Law Officers of the Crown to pro-
ceed against such newspapers as inserted advertisements
of their lotteries. They know that without the publicity
which a portion of the press gave, their " sweeps"
would have very few subscribers, and in order to make
their advertisements legal have premed their insertion
in a form something like this :—.-" Mr. , of --
will have a merry meeting on —_," or " Mr.---,
of ---, will ring a merry peal on ---.” The
blanks we have given , of course, being filled up with
names and dates. ,