The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-01-30 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS

On Thursday night the railway station at the village of
Hatfield Peverel, on the Eastern Counties line, about
three miles from Witham, was destroyed by fire.
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAlLWAY.—Traffic for the
week ending the 20th instant :—Coach traffic, £732 lls.
11d. ; parcels, £3l 55.: goods and cattle, £179 19s. ld. ;
steam boats, £lOO 12s. 3d. ; total, £1,044 Bs. 3d.

PARKGATE works on this branch line
from Parkgate to join the Chester and Birkenhead Rail-
way at Spital Station, have commenced. The contracts
have been taken by three spirited parties, who intend to
put on from 300 to 400 men to expedite the construction
of the undertaking.

Sir Charles Fitzroy is well inclined to the furtherance
and developement of railways in Sydney. The line which
has the best repute is that which has its starting point at
the head of Darling Harbour and terminating at Rope's,
being 24 miles, at a total estimated cost of £66,000. The
company's capital is set down at £lOO,OOO.
The amount of traffic for the last week, on 4,404 miles
of railway, was £467.115, thus accounted for :—£69,529
for the conveyance of passengers only, £47,862 for the
carriage of goods, and a remainder of £49,724 for pas-
sengers and goods together, not respectively apportioned ;
being an increase of £20,565 over the corresponding week
of last year, when the mileage was 3,342. The average
earnings per mile were £3B, whilst last year they were
£43.

The receipts of the London and Northwestern Company,
first in magnitude as in management, are £3,559 in excess
of those in the corresponding week of 1848, the Great
Western £1,421. the Eastern Counties £1,027, and the
Lancashire and Yorkshire £1,716 in excess. Each of these
have more miles open than at the same period last year.
and for these due allowance must be made. The increase
in the London and Northwestern is 7 miles, Great Wes-
tern 30. Eastern Counties 291, and Lancashire and
Yorkshire 811 miles, which makes the receipt per mile
rather less in all these except the London and North-
western.

RAILWAY COMPENSATION.—LANCASTER AND CAR-
LISLE RAILWAY.—A trial took place on the 23d instant,
at Carlisle, before a special jury, to assess the value of six
acres of land belonging to the Maryport and Carlisle Rail-
way Company (now in the possession of Mr. Hudson),
but which was required by the Lancaster and Carlisle
Railway Company. Mr. Hudson, on behalf of the Mary-
port Company, first demanded £100,000; he then called
about a dozen witnesses, who valued it at sums varying
from £75,000 to £70,800. The Lancaster and Carlisle
Company had previously offered £7,005 for the land.
The jury, after two days' investigation, gave a verdict for
£7,171.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE SHREWSBURY AND CHES-
TER RAILWAY.—Another fatal accident occurred on this•
line at the commencement of the present week, at the
Rhosyrnedre station, close to Ruabon. A train left Shrews-
bury at a quarter past six o'clock, and on its arrival at the
Rhosymedre station at the appointed time, a man named
Parry crossed the line, ju-t in- front of the advancing
train. The consequences may easily be imagined; before
the train could be stopped the unfortunate man was
knocked down, and frightfully mangled, his death ensuing
in a few hours. It does not appear that the slightest
blame is to be attached to any of the railway officials, the
disaster being purely accidental, and caused solely through
the carelessness of the deceased.
SHOCKING ACCIDENT.—On Thursday, a dreadful
accident occurred at Upholland, on the Liverpool and
Bury Railway, by which one man lost his life on the
spot, and another one sustained such shocking injuries
that his 'recovery is despaired of. It appears that the
workmen of the contractors are employed throughout the
night in making good any defects of the line. One of
the trains of waggons so employed had, it appears, been
put into a siding, and shortly after another train, in
which two men were, was also brought up, and was about
to be pushed in also. From some misplacement of the
rails in the siding, however, the waggons got off the line,
and being pushed by the engine, they rolled upon each
other.- The unfortunate men were dreadfully crushed
between them. One man was killed on the spot, and
the other was dreadfully cut on the lower part of the
body.

SUNDAY TRAVELLING.--At a meeting of the Sabbath
Alliance Association, held in Edinburgh on Monday, Dr.
Candlish said, "The lines running Sabbath trains embra-
ced 280 miles, and the lines having no Sabbath trains
embraced 240 miles, showing a difference of 40 miles,
which, in railway travelling, was not material. The num-
ber of passengers conveyed along the Sabbath-breaking
lines was 1,623,617, and the number conveyed along the
Sabbath-observing lines was 1,572,637, making a diffe-
rence of somewhere about 50,000 passengers out of one-
and-a- half million. They would see, therefore, that the
two classes of lines were pretty equal, both in regard to
the number of miles and the number of passengers. Now,
upon the lines that run Sabbath trains, within the period
mentioned, sixteen accidents had occurred, fourteen pas-
sengers were killed, and fourteen were wounded. On the
lines that observed the sabhath, there had been only two
accidents, and one killed and one wounded.
FALLING OF RAILWAY ARCHES.—On Saturday week,
an accident occurred by the fall of an arch, erected by
the London and North-Western Company at Manchester.
The line of railway known as the South Junction, con-
necting the London and Manchester line with that from
Manchester to Liverpool, is carried on a viaduct across
Oxford-road and Deausgate. chiefly constructed of brick,
and between these two points, near the bottom of
Gloucester-street, the arches had been completed, and on
Saturday the servants of the contractor were striking
away the centres from one of these arches, when, from
some cause, the north side gave way and fell in. There
were ten labourers at work at the time, and one of these
men, named Ralph Beresford, being underneath, was
buried by the falling materials, and killed. Two other
men, named James Oates and Thomas Davis, were on
the top of the arch, and, sinking with it to where two of
the disjointed portions of the arch again came in contact
with each other, were transfixed, and held between them
for some time, and when released were found to be lifeless
and dreadfully crushed. Two other labourers were found
to be badly hurt. On Wednesday and Thursday, two
other arches fell, but fortunately without injuring any,
one. At the inquest, the jury found a verdict of " Ac-
cidentai death," expressing an opinion that the accident
was induced by injury sustained by the brickwork through
the excessive fall of rain upon the arches since they had
been erected.