The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-10 00:00:00

NEWHAVEN AND GRANTON RAILWAY.
Edinburgh, 30th Nov., 1844.
TO J. 0. MACK, ESQ., ONE OF THE MAGISTRATES OF

THE CITY OF EDINBURGH.

SIR,
TN the conference which we had this morning in the
Council Chambers on the subject of the accident which
happened early yesterday morning, in the guide mine, on
the line of the tunnel of the Edinburgh, Leith, and Gran-
tots Railway, you requested that I should report to you,
in your public capacity, as ene of the magistrates, a general
description of the works with the leading circumstances
connected with the unfortunate accident, which every
one connected with the railway so deeply regrets.
At this conference, I stated to you that the works of
this guide mine had been contracted for about eighteen
months ago; that the object was to facilitate the execu-
tion of the main tunnel, by providing for its perfect ven-
tilation, and to afford a passage for the water which is ge-
nerally found in such situations, and also to afford a ready
means of removing a considerable portion of the materials
of the main tunnel, without being brought up to, or con-
veyed along, the streets of the city ; and by proceeding
with eight or ten different points of the tunnel at one and
the same time, to enable the Railway Company to com-
plete the works in a very much less time, than if the whole
work had been going on at one point only ; as well as to
ascertain the strata through which the main tunnel will
have to be cut.

In entering into the contract, the directors of the com-
pany did not, as is usual on similar occasions, advertise
for tenders, and accept the lowest proposal, without much
regard to the prudence of the contractor. On the con-
trary, they selected (without the most remote competition)
men who had not only completed very extensive railway
works, upon almost every railway which has been executed
in Scotland during the last eight or ten years; but who
had, besides, successfully completed the great tunnel at
Falkirk, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway,—thus
securing as their contractors men who, in point of prac-
tical knowledge of their work, are second to none in
Scotland.

The directors were not lel to adopt this course from
any apprehension that the execution of these works was
attended with any actual risk or difficulty ; but from the
consideration that they would thereby secure the benefit
of the great experience arid practical knowledge of Messrs.
Ross and Mitchell, in carrying the works into execution—
which certainly caned for more caution and prudence than
is usually required in the general run of railway opera-
tions.

In carrying out these works, the contractors sunk
shafts to the level of the drift at five different parts of the
line: in St. Andrew-square, North St. Andrew-street,
the top of Dublin-street, another in Dublin-street, nearly
opposite the entrance to the Broughton Markets, and at
the northern side of the wall which encloses the ground
attached to the Custom-house, in Drummond-place. The
depth of these shafts respectively will be found on refer-
ence to the section of the guide mine, which I submitted
to you, (and which I now send herewith,) which you will
find to vary from ninety feet in St. Andrew-square to
forty-five feet at the north of the Custom-house-gardens-
From the bottom of these shafts the works were carried
on in both directions until they joined each other. The
last barrier but one which divided these different portions
of the drift, which was cut through, was that nearly op-
posite to the end of Drummond-place, and the last was
that near the end of Abercromby-place, where the unfor-
tunate accident, so ranch to be regretted, took place.
In forming a junction between the different divisions of
the drift, the quantity of water was more or less consider-
able; but in the two last divisions, owing to the time
which the water had been allowed to collect and other
circumstances, the accumulation was by far the greatest_
The whole of these barriers were pierced, and the water
drawn off without inconvenience to any one, or danger to
the workmen, and even without the knowledge of the in-
habitants in the neighbourhood.
It is to the two last only that I feel called upon to call
your particular attention. It was hardly to be expected
that in a mine of this size, (six feeet by six feet,) extending
to nearly 100 yards, the different headings vvould. pre-
cisely meet ealh other. The plan adopted at the Drum-
mond-place barrier was to keep a jumper hole always
considerably ahead of the works. When the bore reached
the water which had been collected it flowed off slowly,
and was completely under the control of the workmen-
The water was thus slowly drawn off without injury to
any one. _

The perfect success which had attended the drawing off
of the water in the Dublin-street part of the mine, led the
contractors to adopt the same plan for drawing off the
water from the upper division of the drift: they were the
more inclined to adopt this course from the obdurate na-
ture, if not the similarity, of the material of which these
barriers were composed; by so doing, there was every
reason to anticipate that it would have been attended with
equal success.
The workmen, for eight or ten days preceding that on
which the accident happened, were engaged in removing
this barrier. The men employed were not only well skilled
in mining operations, but the works were frequently vi-
sited and carefully inspected by Mr. Mitchell, one of the
contractor=, whose experience in such matters none can
question : and he was so satisfied of its perfect safety, that
so lately as the 19th current be became responsible to the
directors for its being done without damage.
I never had occasion to inspect personally that part of
the mine where the accident occurred ; but I am assured
that the same caution had been exercised by keeping a
jumper hole always in advance of the workmen, as had
been so successfully adopted in removing the Drummond-
place barrier. The headings of the mine did not precisely
join each other, so that the jumper hole which had been
made may not have been quite in the direction of the up-
per mine. It has, however, been since ascertained that
one of these jumper holes had actually reached within one
inch and a half of the water : had this hole been carried
forward this very short distance, the accident, which we
all so much regret, would not, in all human probability,
have taken place.
The material of which this barrier was composed was
very hard shale or blaea, lying on edge, and interlayered
with strong bands of hard stone. It seems to have been
the displacement of one of these hard bands of stone
which was the more immediate cause of the accident.
Workmen had been engaged in the mine during the
night of Thursday, but it does not appear that there had
been any blasting for twelve or eighteen hours before the
accident occurred. This is perhaps to be re •retted, for,
had the opening been made by a blast of gunpowder, ne
loss of human life could have happened, as, on all such
occasions, the workmen were under instructions to station
themselves in a place of safety in the adjoining shaft be-
fore the explosion took place.
On the harrier being broken, the water immediately
rose to a considerable height in, if it did not flow over,
the shaft at the end of Albany-street ; if it did flow over,
the quantity must have been very inconsiderable, as the
mouth of this shaft is very little below the summit level of
the water in the upper division of the mine. A still greater
quantity flowed from the shaft opposite the Dublin-street
entrance to the Broughton Markets ; but from the relative
levels of the water in the upper division of the mine, and
the top of these shafts, the quantity could not on the whole
be very considerable; and from there being a lateral mine
from the second of these shafts to the common sewer,
the quantity could not, on the whole, be very considera-
ble.

When I examined the works a few hours after the acci-
dent occurred, the shaft at the Custom-house appeared in
a state very much like that which it presents after a con-
siderable fall of rain.

The greater part of the water flowed in the first instance
into that compartment of the mine between Albany-street
and Drummond-place, which the barrier at Drummond-
place prevented flowing off very rapidly, and by the even-
mg of the day on which the accident occurred.:the flow of
water at Cannonmills was little more than the ordinary
flow from the guide mine.

As respects the barrier at Drummond-place, it is now
all but removed. and the mine open from end to end,
and several of the workmen have to-day passed along its
whole length, so that there can never be any further ac-
cumulation of water in it.

It now remains for me to say what effect this sudden
discharge of water has had upon the works. I have much
satisfaction in being able to state, that beyond the re-
opening of the shaft opposite to Broughton-street Mar-
kets, (which had been temporarily closed with beams of
timber, and causewayed over,) 1 have not been able to
discover any injury. I have myself ascertained from
those who have passed through the whole length of the
mine, that no part of the work has received the slightest
injury, and the workmen are now engaged in removing
the Drummond-place barrier, which work I expect will be
completed by Tuesday or Wednesday first.
I now described the situation of the works—the
mode of carrying them into execution—and all the cir-
cumstances connected with this most distressing occur-
rence, in so far as I know, and consider it necessary for
you as acting magistrate of the city to be informed. I
have been induced to go a little more into detail than
might be thought necessary, in consequence of the
false statements and gross misrepresentations which have
appeared in one of the newspapers of this day, respecting
the nature of this accident, the extent of the damage which
has been sustained by it, and the nature and pernicious
effects of the works upon the adjoining properties.
The extensive circulation of such erroneous and exag-
gtrated descriptions is calculated to have a most mis-
chievous tendency on the public mind ; and in order, as
far as possible, to_counteract such injurious effects; I" feel
myself called upon to assure you, that, from an intimate
knowledge of the nature of the strata through which the
drift is carried, the nature and extent of the works which
have, and are, to be performed before the tunnel is com-
pleted, and all the circumstances connected with the un-
dertaking, that the tunnel may be carried into execution,
in all its parts, with perfect safety to the property on the
line of it.

Tunnels much more extensive have been recently exe-
cuted through much less favourable strata, in different
parts of the kingdom, and that, too, actually passing under
buildings of greater extent ; but this tunnel, on the other
hand, passes under no houses or buildings whatever.
I do not, however, expect that this circumstance will
wholly exempt the Board of Directors from many petty
annoyances. But, be that as it may, so far as I have
seen, I am satisfied these gentlemen are, collectively and
individually, most anxious to carry into execution this
abort, but most important, link of the railway communi-
cation betweenthe River Clyde at Glaszow, and the Frith of
Forth at Leith and Granton, with the least possible- an-
noyance to those who reside upon or near to its course, or
are otherwise interested in the works ; and that they will,
by pursuing that decisive line of conduct which has hi-
therto characterised them, surmount every obstacle which
may occur in carrying the works into execution.
In conclusion, permit me to say that I have no doubt
that, when the avowed enemies of the scheme, as well as
its traducers, are dead and forgotten, the tunnel in ques-
tion will remain, another monument of the enterprise of
the nineteenth century.

_
I am, &c.,
THOMAS GRAINGER, Civil Engineer.

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