Year: 1870

An Excursion Train Wrecked on the Great
From the London Telegraph, June %.


The facts of the terrible accident which oc-
Cured near Newark early on Tuesday morning
were so clear at first that little remains to be
added to the accounts published yesterday. A
general goods train from the north was proceed
ing at the rate of sixteen TO twenty miles per
hour past Newark station, on the main up line
of the Great Northern, when, on passing under
Claypole Bridge, half mile from the station,
the axle of a siX-ton truck belonging to the Man
chester Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Company,
which formed part of the train, broke. The i'm
mediate consequence appears to have been to
throw this truck with jerk on TO or across the
up-line at the very moment when the Yorkshire
excursion train of thirty carriages, conveying
500 or 600 persons from London, ran up at the
rate of between twenty and thirty miles an
hour. The engine of the passenger train seems
to have bounded off the line, struck the embank-
ment, rebounded towards the line without re-
gaining the rails, and to have dashed on with
the train behind it, partly on and partly off the
way, and under the bridge, the engine itself, or
one of the carriages, chipping piece of stone
off the buttress as it passed. For fifty yards or
more, the engine, locomotive of fifty tons
weight, and the carriages Immediately behind
jolted and bumped along off the metals. Then
the engine, having left the way, darted off to the
embankment on the left struck the bank, and
turned completely over. Nearly if not quite
half the train was instantaneously thrown over
and about the PROSTATE locomotive. The latter
half consisting of fifteen or sixteen carriages had
become detached, and remain on the rails The
whole of the other carriages were, by the force
in one general wreck, piled high by the way
side rather than scattered around. A brook ran
at the foot of the small embankment of the rail-
way; and green bank, surmounted by thin
thorn fence. marked the companys land off
from small pasture-field adjoining. Here, at
1'30 o'clock, the quiet of the summer morning
in the country was broken by the horrid roar of
the overturned engine and by the cries and
groans of wounded persons Naturally, the
passengers in the after-part of the train were
the first to give assistance and to run off to
Newark and scour the district for further aid.
Adequate help, both surgical and mechanical.
appears to have been gotten together as promptly
as could be expected at so untimely an hour.
Still the agony of the sufferers were in some
cases necessarily protracted.


1t would appear that the truck which caused
the accident remained attached to the fore part
Of the train after it struck the excursion engine,
and was drawn distance of three hundred
yards or more before the coupling gave way and
it was thrown off, while several trucks in the
rear of it were scattered about at the first shock
two being overturned into pool of stagnant
water on the London side of the bridge. 1t is
fortunate that nothing particularly infammable
or explosive was in the goods train, and thatthe
engine did not run full tilt against the buttress
of the bridge, and so render the wreck of the
train even more complete than it has been.
Gangs of men are still employed in clearing
away the debris and as every train, whether to





windows are filled with the heads of passengers
endeavoring to get glimpse of the scene of the
accident.


Mr.. c. A. Wilson, music seller, of Leeds, acted
with remarkable presence of mind. This gen
tleman was seated in q compartment with one
lady and four gentlemen. He felt first bump
saw the lamp shake, felt the train off the line
and the next instant found himself almost
buried, he knew not where. Recovering breath
and collecting his faculties, he discovered tina
he was tightly held by heavy weight of timber
pressing on his ankle and hip. Overhead ant
around him were broken planks and splinters


good deal of this he managed to clear away,
but he was quite unable to extricate his leg.
On all sides he heard the cries of the wounded
He could give NO help, but, with manly forti
tude, he refrained from calling for assistance
until others IN greater danger than himself were
relieved The circumstances were trying, be
cause, as Mr.. Wilson found, while his ankle wai
gentleman below him-one who had sat in the
same carriage, friend whom he knew
and who not unnaturally urged him very
earnestly to "sing out" Cropping about as fa
as his outstretched hands could reach, Mr.
Wilson felt and saw the arms of a lady
with blood. The lady was Mrs. Robinson, whC
had sat in the next seat of the carriage, and wa
here crushed to death. For two hours did h'
and his friend below remain firmly held in th
grip of the heavy timber pressing on them.


When at length the workmen got to them, Mr.
Wilson directed their operations, and after dan
ger from misapplied leverage, and an Academia
and probably well-meant blow on the head frou
a crowbar, he and the man beneath were libe
rated. Mr. Wilson's ankle was believed to b
broken, but it is happily whole, though bruise
and sprained. Many other incidents of a NOR
or less severe nature must have marked tn
scene before all the wounded were cleared off t
Newark or sent on to their homes.