Litchfield enquirer., 1875-11-11

1I
 shock of the collision: but the last five
 carriages were otxithstanding injured,
 the one at the end being totally demolish- ed. Though unite number of the pas
 sengers were cut and bruised, and several
 were severely hurt. one only, strange to
 say, was killed. This result was very diff
 ferent from that experienced by the Mas
 sachusetts corporation at Revere nearly
 forty years later. and as the circumstances
 were much the same, it is necessary to con-
 clude that luck varied.
 Indeed, the luck-for it was nothing .else-of those earlier times was truly
 amazing. Thus on this same Liverpool <
 Manchester road, as a first-class train on
 the morning of April 17, 1886, was moving
 at speed of some thirty miles an hour,
 an axle broke under the first passenger
 coach, causing the whole train to leave the
 track and throwing it down the embark
 ment, which at that point was twenty feet
 high. The cars were rolled over, and the
 passengers in them tumEled about topsy-
 turyy, nor. as they were securely locked
 in, could they even extricate themselves
 when at last the wreck of the train reach
 ed firm bearings. And yet no one was
 killed. Here the corporation was saved
 by one chance In thousand. and it's al-
 most miraculous good fortune received
 terrible illustration in a disaster which re- gently occurred ou the Great Western Railway under almost precisely similar conditions, that at Shlpton-on-Cberwe on December 24, 1874
 THE SHELTON ON -CHERwELL ACCIDENT.
 It was the day immediately preceding Christmas, and every train which at that holiday season leaves London is densely packed. for all England seems to gather away from it's cities to the country hearths. Accordingly, the ten o'clocK London ex- press on the Great Western Railway, when It left Oxford that morning, was made up of no less than fifteen passenger carriages and baggage vans, drawn by two power ful locomotives and containing nearly three hundred passengers. About seven miles north of Oxford, as the train, nov ing at a speed of some thirty to forty miles an hour, was rounding Q gentle curve Tn the approach to the bridge over the little river Cherwell, the tire of one of the wheels of the passenger coach next behind the locomotive broke, throwing it of the track. For a short distance it was dragged along m it's place; but almost those in charge of the loco- motives noticed that something was wrong, and most naturally, and with the very best of intentions. they instantly did the very worst thing which under the cir eumstances it was Tn their power to do: They applied their brakes and reversed their engines thelr siugle thought was to stop the train. Had locomotives and cars been equipped with the continuous train brakes now SO generally in use in America. this action of the engine drivers would have checked at the same instant the speed of each particular cal, and prob ably any serious catastrophe would have been averted. With the train equipped as 1t was, however, had these men, instead of crow ding on their brakes and reversing h.eir engines, simply shut of their steam, aud by gentle application of the brakes checked the speed gradually, and so as to avoid any strain on the couplings, the snsk snnsk would probably have held together of this, however, the sudden checking of the two ponderous locomotives converted them into an anvil, as it were, upon which the unfortunate leading car, already of the rails, was crushed under the weight and impetus of the succeeding cars. The 'A 0An AAoaoASy AtS -AoSSCU HI CNCAy NAACC- ton under the pressure, the couplings and the cars, after leaving the rails to the right and left running down the embark ment of about thirteen feet in height, came to d stand still at last, several of them in the reverse order from that which they had held while in the train. The tirst carriage was run over and completely destroyed the five rear ones were alone left upon the road-bed, and of these two only were on the rails of the ten which went down the embankment, two were de- In this disaster thirty four passengers lost their lives, and sixty-fve others, besides four employees of the con- pany. were injured.
 These two disasters, divided from each other by the lapse of more than a third of B century, were similar in every respect except loss of life for, while surprising immunity in this respect marked the first, the last ranks among the most fatal rail road catastrophes on record. Yet, upon the other hand, it may we'll be questioned whether the first was not wholly barren of results in so far as any increased safety in travel by rail was concerned for, like other mOrtals. railroad officers are apt after some hair breadth escape to bless their fortunate stars for the present good, rather than to take anxious 1eed for fu- ture dangers. The English, also, are es- pecially prone to conservatism. In this respect there IS, indeed. something almost ludicrously characteristic in the manner with which those interested in the railway of that country strain at their gnats while they swallow their cam- els. They have grappled with the great question of city travel with Q superb f. nancial and engineering audacity which has left all other communities hOpelessly distanced but, while carrying their pas soDgers under and over the ebb and flow of the Thames and among the chimney pots of densest London. to leave them on the very steps of the Royal Exchange, they have never been able to devise any means for putting the travel CT, in case of disaster, in communication with the engineer of his train. It is, in- deed, c fact which would be wholly euri- Ous were it not partly comical, that, after the ingenuity of all England had for a third of century exhausted itself in vain efforts at the solution of this tremendous problem. it appeared at the Shipton-on- Cherwen investigation that the associated general managers of the leading railways ''did not think that any [suchl means of communication was at all required, or likely to be useful or successful" So also as respects the application of the train- brake, which places the speed of each car under the direct and instantaneous control of him who is in charge of the locomotive; for years the success of these brakes has been conceded even by the least progres- siye of Amencan railroad managers, and the want of them had directly and ob- viously contributed to the Shipton- non Cherwen disaster, even if it had not
 wholly caused its murderous destructive ness and yet in the investigation which ensued from it, it appeared that the au- thorities of the Great Western Railway.
 being eminently practical men" still en- tertained ''yery great doubts of the wis dom of adopting. continuous brakes at all. Such conservatism as this is open
 to but one description of argument, the
 RitiDaG rGtiO of railroad logic. So long
 as luck averts the loss of life in railroad disasters, no occasion IS seen for disturb
 ing time-honOred precautions or antiqua
 A~U