AISGILL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1874, 7 October 1913, Page 8

AISGILL.

♦ — THE GREAT RAILWAY DISASTER PATHETIC DETAILS. In the early morning of September 2, writes a London correspondent, tho grim and desolate waste of Aisgill Moor, on tho border of Yorkshire and West Moreland, was filled with sudden tragedy, and that of such a sort as to shock all England. It was an hour or two before dawn, and the night was at its blaokest. Aisgill Moor is at any time a place of loneliness and melancholy. It is set in the midst of barren mountains. All about it is tho desolation of rock and fell, and gloomy cliff. It is a thousand feet abovo the level of inhabited England, and thero is no town within ten miles of it. But with night about it, Aisgill Moor is a fit fiold for any terror at all that may, walk in darkness. This terror came flying. Aisgill Moor is on tho main line of the Midland Railway Company, and all day and all night the trains that come and go between London and Scotland are passing there. Just now tho Scottish night holiday traffic is very heavy. By reason of this two Scotch expresses left Carlisle on Tuesday morning. with an interval of 12 minutes their respectivo starting times of 1.35 and 1.47 o'clock. . Both wero corridor and sleeping-car trains, and they carried many passengers. The first trainflow on its appointed way across the Yorkshire levels, and began the ascent to Aisgill with all well. But before it had reachcd the summit its steam was found to be lacking, and tho driver pulled up. Apparently, there was nothing unusual in that, as trains are frequently at pause thereabouts in like circumstances. Nor need there have been any danger, since the stoppage was at a mile and a quarter distance from the last signal. This being well understood, the passengers., were quite satisfied when the guard walked through tho train assuring them that nothing was amiss. • . But within ten minutes everything was amiss. The shriek of a ' steam whistle broke the silence of the night. The ceaseless piercing wail, of it echoed about the hills. It so uttered calamity that tho aroused sleepers in tho tram jumped from their beds. They had need to. Tho driver of tho stopped train had seen the express rushing round the level curvo behind him. His whistle screamed all the alarm it could, and the guarfl of the train ran back along tho line waving a lamp. It was too late. There-was a crash of collision; the express dashed out into view, and in a moment disaster and death filled the scene. The two rearmost coaches of the stationary train wore telescoped, and the unhappy passengers wero pinned hopelessly between tho wreckage. Then upon their struggles came the appalling tragedy of fire. There was no water, anf there were no appliances. Despite many workers, much courage, and occasionally almost miraculous rescues, tho bodies of at least thirteen of the travellers wore burned out of all human semblanco. The scenes of agony have been described and hideous stories are abroad of waving arms seen in tho midst of the flames, and crushed and broken bodies. They are bettor forgotten. Two days later the little waiting-room of a romoto waysido station witnessed scones or heartrending pathos. The charred Temains had been gathered up,and were set out here for tho inmost. . Trains and motor-cars wero constantly setting down men and women come in fear tnat they would be ablo to identify 1 some or other missing one. There was nothing left for that purpose save scraps of salvage. The_ bodies were not even that. But beside thom lay a buttonhook, part of a cigarette-case, a pipe-lighter, Duttons, buckles, and a few other fragments of the sort. Somcv ' times the sight of one of these things was sufficient to confirm the worst fears. 1 Ono girl was identified beyond doubt when her brother, turning over the remains, found bits of a pendant chain clinging to them. In other cases other pathotic relics were all that was loft. But perhaps the saddest of all tho evidence was that offered by a stunnedlooking man, whose wife and infant wore injured and in hospital, but who knew that three othor of his children, his sister-in-law, and a'nursemaid wero somewhere represented in thoso charred remains. It is a pitiful story, and it is more pitiful because it is the outcomo of one more failure of tho human element in the mechanism of a railway system. The signals of tho fatal section wero agaiust tho second express, and tho signalmen could only look on with horror, as the train rushed past them. Both the driver and the fireman, it appears, wero doing something that took their attention off tho warning lights. But in addition to that and the matter of tho outbreak of fire, it will probably | be claimed that tho engine furnace was chiefly responsible for that, but already ! there is an outcry on tho subject, of gas for train purposes. Many of the railway companies havo discarded gas, and itse only electricitv. Three years ago, on the occasion of a similarly appalling accident, at almost the so.me spot. Major Pringle, tho Board of Trade's investigating expert, found that the origin of the fire was compressed oil gas stored in cylinders in tho customary way, and ! lio recommended for greater safety the adoption of electric lighting wherever possible, especially on long-distance and . express trains. But as far as the Midland Company, - at any rate, is concerned, ho action b seems to have been taken in respect of 0 that recommendation. Nor docs tlioro t appear to have been much responso to " another of tho expert's reconimenda- : tions, namely, that long-distance and 1 express trains Bhould be provided with tools, supli as axes and crowbars. Both a these matters will have much discusc sion before the inquiry into this dreadful disaster is at an end. 0 ■■ ■ ' ■ ■