The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-03 00:00:00

ANOTHER FEARFUL RAILWAY
ACCIDENT.

COLLISION ON THE NORTH LONDON LINE.

Last evening a terrible catastrophe occurred on
the Hampstead Junction line, owing to a colli-
sion between an excursion train and a train com-
posed of an engine and tender, 19 ballast trucks,
and a break van. The Hampstead Junction
is a line which has been opened within the
last two years. It joins the North London at Cam-
den-road station, and passes thence through Cam-
den-town and Kentish-town, by Hampstead, and so
on to Kew, where it runs close to the South-Wes-
tern line, over which passengers wishing to proceed
to Richmond are conveyed without a change of car-
riages. The Hampstead Junction line is much
used by persons going from the city to Kew, Rich-
mond, and Twickenham ; and on Sundays and Mon-
days throughout the summer season not only do
the ordinary trains fill well, but there are excur-
sions constantly. Yesterday there were two or
more special trains to Kew ; and it was to one of
these the dreadful accident occurred, the details of
which, as far as they have yet transpired, we now
subjoin. In its course from the Camden-road
station of the North London Railway the Hamp-
stead Junction line is curved in several places, and
passes close to the rear of the houses till it crosses
the Carlton-road, in Kentish-town, It then enters
fields, and for about a quarter of a mile runs at the
back of the houses on the east side of Carlton-road,
and between them and the main road through Ken-
tish-town, which leads to Highgate-rise. A few
hundred yards farther en in the Hampstead direc-
tion is the Kentish-town station, the first on the
line after it leaves Camden-road. The Hampstead
station is about half a mile beyond the Kentish-
town. From Hampstead to the point at which the
line crosses Carlton-road it forms an arc of consi-
derable bend. The collision took place at some
dozen yards nearer to the Kentish-town station
than a bridge over what is at present a path from
Carlton-road to the Kentish-town-road. Down to
this bridge from the town end the rails are laid on
a road supported by brickwork arches, which are
about 35 feet high. From the bridge to the Ken-
tish-town station there is an embankment of about
the same height, and from the Kentish-town
station to Hampstead a deep cutting. The com-
pany is at present erecting an extensive coal depot
adjoining the Kentish-town station, and a train of
trucks is engaged daily in bringing up ballast
from Bushey for making the siding which is
to lead from the main line into the coal
shed. When these trucks deliver their ballast they
proceed up the line to the bridge over the pathway
before referred to. At this point there is the usual
apparatus for shunting them in on the down line,
and they return to the Kentish-town station and so
on to Bushey.

Last evening at about 20 minutes past 7 o'clock
the men in charge of the ballast train had delivered
their loads, and proceeded to the bridge, on which
they were being shunted, when a passenger train
was seen to be coming up at a rapid pace along the
line from which the ballast train was moving slowly.
The driver of the latter had lighted his lamps, and
when he saw the other train approaching he waved
a red light and shouted. The driver pf the former
in his turn blew his whistle, but the precaution was
too late. It was not yet dark. There were many
people in the windows of the houses in Carlton-road
and a great number walking in the fields; and from
several of them shrieks were heard before the trains
_met ; for it was but too evident to any one who saw
their respective positions that in a few seconds after
the red light was waved and the up engine blew a
a succession of awfully shrill screeches a violent
concussion was inevitable. It has been before ob-
served that attached to the engine of the ballast
train were 19 trucks. About half these had crossed
to the down line, and about mid-way it was struck
by the passenger train. The scene, as witnessed
from the fields below, was terrific. Immediately
the engine had struck the trucks, and shivered them
into atoms, it leaped from the rails with a sort of
half-puff, half-bellow, which was heard to a distance
of fully half a mile, and rolled down the embank-
ment on its own side of the line with a hideous dull
sound and one or two frightful screeches. The
carriages which followed ran on a few feet ; but just
at the spring of the arch of the bridge the break
bounded right over, and was followed by four car-
riages, in which were a number of passengers.
The first two carriages jumped clean into the
field, where they lay on their sides, one over
the other. The next came with its end upon
the second of the two carriages which had
broken off from the train in their bound ; and
when the train came to a standstill this third car-
riage remained poised in the position in which it
had fallen upon the others. Its coupling irons not
having broken, it dragged the fourth carriage half
over the side wall of the bridge, in which position it
remained half suspended, but with its hind wheels
stuck in the embankment. The inhabitants of the
neighbourhood instantly ran to the spot. The moans
of the dying, the cries of the wounded, and the
lamentations of those who missed their relatives,
were to be heard on every side. The ends of the
first two carriages had been broken by the fall, and
several of the passengers were at once pulled out.
They were lacerated and bleeding to a frightful
extent. In some instances it was impossible to
recognise a single feature, and the unfortunate vic-
tims were unable to utter a word. There were a
great many young children and babies in the train,
and the screams of several of them were heartrend-
in the extreme. Father ! Mother ! My child !My
God, my infant ! were cries that assailed the ears
from every direction. Many women, on being
released from the carriages, dropped down in an
apparently lifeless swoon. All this time the pas-
sengers who had escaped altogether, or escaped with
slight injuries, were rushing frantically down the
embankment; and terrified women and men were
throwing themselves over the fencing and into the
fields, regardless of what might occur to them so
that they got out of reach of the ill-fated train.
The engine lay on its side, still puffing, and with
steam rushing forth at all points. Near it was
stretched the poor fireman, who had fallen with it.
He seemed much injured, and was carried off to an
hospital. By this time it was getting quite dark,
and necessarily there was the additional element
of confusion added to those others that contributed
to make up a scene such as has been rarely wit-
nessed even after railway collisions. The families
residing in the neighbourhood sent for doctors and
conveyances for the wounded. Many of the latter
were at once carried off to the residences of medi-
cal men, but others requested to be allowed to lie
in the fields, if only a drop of water could be pro-
cured for them. Within about twenty minutes
after the accident a strong body of men from the
Kentish-town and Camden-town police stations ar-
rived, and a number of cabs and waggons were on
the ground ; but at 8 o'clock it was dark and no gas
near. Light was all important, and the remains of
the break which had fallen over were set fire to.
There was no need to chop it up small, for it had
been shivered into a thousand fragments. When
the pieces were in a blaze the spectacle was still
more awful than it had hitherto been. The glare
discovered the wounded men, women, and children
that lay about, surrounded by little groups, who
rendered them such assistance as could be procured
on the instant. There was the engine on its side
Puffing out its hot steam ; carriages were hanging
in a position that made them appear as if they were
just about to fall to the earth; and, most melan-
choly of all, from under the first carriage that had
come over the bridge were visible the head of one
man and the legs and arms of another. The police
and others at once set about attempting to extricate
those who remained inside; but it is almost unne-
cessary to add that only lifeless bodies were taken
out. They had alassady been half an hour in a car-
riage that had fallen some 35 or 40 feet, and over
which My another flat had come down with its full
Weight from the same height. Much anxiety was
expressed about the fate of the driver of the pas-
senger train, of whom up to this there had been
heard nothing. A search was made for him up and
down the embankment, and in a few minutes after
it was commenced a man in ,he employment of the
company stated th at his dead body had been found
near the engine. T 'he stoker was much scalded and
otherwise injured. File engine of the ballast trucks