The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-30 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

No fewer than 102 railways have had further time granted
—generally two years—for completing their works.
At a spec's' meeting of the Lancaster and Preston .7un •-
tion, after some discussion, the usual dividend of 15s. 2d.
on the whole shares, 10s. Id. on tne three-quarter shares,
and 4s. on the quarter shares, was declared.
Mr. Meacham, one of the persons injured by the acci-
dent on the Great Western Railway, died on Wednesday,
from erysipelas brought on by exposing himself to cold, at
the Swindon station.

THE GUAGES.—The commissioners appointed to en-
quire into the merits of the guages, have reported that
the mixed guages should have a fair trial under their in-
spection, and that if it answer pretty well in practice,
then that the broad guage should go to Birmingham.
The Edinburgh and Northern Railway is now open
from Ferry-Port-on-Craig to Burntisland, and to Edin-
burgh, making the communication complete between the
Tay and the Forth. On the Perth side also a communi-
cation has been opened between Edinburgh on the one
hand and Perth on the other, as far as Abernety road.
The special meeting of the London, Brighton, and
South Coast shareholders on the steam-boat question,
took place on Friday, but came to no result, the declara-
tion of the votes being adjourned till the next day. The
meeting was very decided in the expression of disapproba-
tion at the proposals of the directors.
The Sussex Express mentions a locomotive of a novel
kind, and one likely to be very useful for occasional pur.
poses. On the Lewis line, a velocipede is propelled by
is propelled by paddles and. worked by the porters of the
establishment. The object of this portable locomotive is
to enable the officers to pass along the rail without the
expense and incumbrance of a steam engine. The speed
attained by this means was from fifteen to twenty miles
an bour.

From official returns it appears, that the amount of
traffic for the last week, on 3,710 miles of railway, was
£192,238, thus accounted for :—£98,175 for the convey-
ance of passengers only, £50,532 for the carriage of goods,
and a remainder of £43,531 for passengers and goods
together, not respectively apportioned ; being an increase
of £24,569 over the corresponding week of last year,
when the mileage was 2,862. The average earnings per
mile last week were £52, whilst in 1847 they wer3 £59.
RAILWAY RESULTS.—There were 32,000,000 passen-
gers on the railways in Great Britain and Ireland in the
six months ending the 31st of December, 1847. The
traffic for the year ending June, 1847, on 3,036 miles of
railway, produced above £5,150,000 from passengers, and
above £3,330,000 from goods, or together £8,500,000
sterling revenue. The passenger traffic was in the follow-
ing proportion :--First class 16, second class 20, third
class 7 ; Parliamentary class 5 ; undefined 14. The rates
of fares average on the Midland lines—first class 3d., se-
cond class 2d., and third class ld. per mile ; on the Great
Western 2d., lid., and ld. per mile ;on the North-
Western 20 , lid., and 9-10.—per mile.—Nash'a Sta-
tistics.

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.—
On Tuesday evening last, a dreadful accident occurred on
this line, by which three persons were killed—two of them
instantaneously. The express down train from Carlisle
for Edinburgh did not reach the latter place until half an
hour beyond the usual time. The train then left Carlisle
at 7 3 p.m., consisting of an engine and two carriages,
and, owing to some circumstance which has not been
clearly ascertained in consequence of the death of all the
men in charge of the train, it ran off the rails when within
a short distance of West Calder and Torphin station, which
is about 15 miles from Edinburgh, and the engine became
embedded in the earth to a very considerable depth.
The engine-driver and the fireman were killed on the
spot, both being at once crushed and scalded. The guard
had one of his legs broken, and was: otherwise so
much injured that he died shortly afterwards. There
were 11 passengers, only two of whom were injured, and
that but slightly. The cause of the engine getting off
the rails can only be imputed to the sheerest accident,
aided probably by the jumping motion to which engines
are subject when running at a very high speed. Another,
account states :—" The engineer was driving at a very
rapid speed, far beyond that allowed by the time table ;
and thus the poor man, in disobeying the printed rules of
the company, which positively forbid making up lost
time, has forfeited his life by his temerity. The driver's
name was Nicholl, that of the guard Taylor, and that of
the stoker M'Lean.