NARROW ESCAPE OF A TRAIN

Evening Star, Issue 4197, 9 August 1876, Page 4

NARROW ESCAPE OF A TRAIN

An accident of an altogether exceptional character' occurred on 7th June j in a railway tunnel ou the London and South-Western Railway, and a train passing through the tunnel at the moment had as narrow and marvellous an escape as it is possible to conceive. A s the three o’clock express from Portsmouth to London by the direct Portsmouth route was running through the Catherine hill tunnel, befawaen Godalming and Guildford, the passengers were alarmed by finding that heavy •brake power was being applied to the whole train and by hearing the engine whistle sounding loudly. The train was pulled up quickly, and the passengers, after a. short but anxious suspense, discovered that.a large, portion of the tunnel had suddenly given way at the London end at the moment they were approaching. The train, when, brought tb a standstill, was within thirty or forty yards of the mouth of the tunnel, and but for the fact that the driver, when in the middle of the tunnel, observed what looked like a great mist suddenly obscuring the light, and, suspecting that something was wrong, applied the brake and signalled the guards todothesame,thetrain would in all probability have been buried in the debris of something like twenty yards of tho tunnel. The line wae . promptly blocked in the rear, and after a time the train was backed out of the tunnel towards Godaiming, and the passengers were transferred, through huge gaps made in tho loadside hedges, from the train to various vehicles, by which they were conveyed to Guildford by the high road. The passengers were greatly startled when they realised the narrowness of their escape, for the .ruins of the fallen portion of the tunnel covered both up and down lines, And lay in great rnasses of earth and heavy masonry.. In explanation of the Accident it is said that during the day there had been some blasting for chalk in close proximity to the tunnel, and •it is cenjectured that the shocks loosened tho tunnel work to such a

•degree that only the vibration of a passenger train was required to bring it down. Gangs of workmen were at once set to work to clear the line. .