Darlington & Richmond Herald. — 1873-12-06 (Darlington, Durham, England)

MAIL TRAIN THROWN OVER AN  EMBA.NKKENT.  A serious collision took place at Syston, a station about five miles north of Leicester, between twelve and one o'clock on Saturday morning. The mail train from London to the north, due at Leicester at half-past eleven, was half-an-hour late when it arrived. It consisted of about twelve carriages, with guard's van next to the engine, and one also in the rear. After a few minutes' stay at Leicester, it was dispatched on its way to Trent, and all went right till it reached Syston. There, owing to something, it is reported, being wrong with the points, the train, instead of passing along the main line, ran on to the line to Peterborough, and came into collision with a luggage train which was stationary. The engine and carriages were thrown over the embankment, and piled up one on the top of the other. The mail was going at the rate of about thirty or forty miles an hour at the time. An alarm was given at once to the officials at Syston Station, and steps were promptly taken to extricate the inmates of the carriages. This was a work of very great difficulty, for the carriages were so smashed up that the passengers had virtually to be dug out, and an hour and a half elapsed before all of them could be liberated. Though the engine was smashed in, strange to say the driver and fireman escaped with a severe shaking and bruises. Not so the guard, who was in the van near the engine, for he received such severe injuries that he died in a few hours. There are not usually many passengers by this train, but it so happened on this occasion there were more than usual, and amongst them were seven members of Mr Carl Rosa's opera company, viz.. Miss Rose Flersee, Madame Vaneri, Mr Chattercon, Mr Aynsley Cook, Mr A. Howell, and Mr H. Howell, who had been singing at a concert in the Temperance Hall, Leicester. Mr Frank Musgrave, lessee of Nottingham Theatre, was with this party, but they were fortunately in the hind part of the train, and, we believe, escaped comparatively uninjured. Besides the guard, a gentleman named Payne, from London, was seriously injured. As soon as possible, a telegram was despatched to Leicester for medical assistance, and several doctors went down by train to the scene of disaster. About a dozen of those injured were brought by train to Leicester, and some of them sent to the Bell Hotel, and some to the White Hart, Mr Payne was removed to the Infirmary. Amongst the travellers was Mr Carey, jun., of Nottingham, lace manufacturer. He fortunately escaped with a severe shaking and bruises. He states that all appeared to be going right, when all of a moment he felt a crash, and the carriage was doubled up in an instant. He was covered with debris, and upwards of an hour elapsdd before he was liberated. He was in a first-class carriage, and attributes his compatative immunity from injury to his being protected by one of the cushions, which was divlaeed by the shock. Several of the passengers, after being brought back to Leicester and having received medical attendance, their injuries being slight, were sent on to their destinations.  Messrs MacMillan will issue in the spring Sir Samuel Baker's account of his recent expedition, in two large volumes. The beautiful work of imagination, by Sara Coleridge, entitled " Phantasmion, Prince of Pa!inland," is shortly to be issued by Messrs H. S. Ring and Co. in a new edition. On Tuesday, off Liverpool, the boilers of the Sir George Grey steamtug burst, and the vessel sank. A lad named Carter was killed, but the rest of the crew were rescued.  At the Maidstone Assizes, on Tuesday, Thos. Atkins, charged with the murder of the policeman, Israel May, at Snodland, last August, was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to twenty years'ipenal servitude.