DISASTROUS RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 141, 14 November 1874, Page 3

DISASTROUS RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

One of the most destructive railway accidents ever known in South Wales happened on August 12th at Bargoed station, on the Rhymney Railway. A mineral train of forty 10-ton waggons, laden with coal, was taken out of the siding of the Dowlais Iron Company’s Yochriew Colliery, drawn by one powerful tank engine, and with an ordinary brake-van at the tail. A drizzling rain had come on which made the rails slippery, so that the brake would not act with any effect, and the speed increased with such rapidity that it soon became evident ohat the train was running wild, and the brake whistles were sounded for the alarm of everything ahead. The distance between Deri station and the Bargoed Junction, three miles, was traversed in a few seconds over two minutes. The curves on this part of the line are very sharp, and nothing but the tremendous weight of the metals travelling at such a speed kept the waggons on the line. When the runaway train arrived at the Junction Road, an engine, which had several detached waggons behind it, was taking water at a tank on the down main line, and into this locomotive the coal train dashed with indescribable force, The stationary engine was literally lifted off its wheels and pitched in exactly the same position into the ravine 100 feet below, while the engine of the runaway train rolled over with the shock and came to a stop on the side of the embankment, lying on its bank. The waggons were crushed into one indistinguishable heap ■of broken iron and wood and coal, imany of them being totally destroyed, while scarcely one of them escaped material injury. The driver and fireman , 0 f the runaway train were killed instantly, ■their remains being afterwards recovered ifrom the wreck in a dteadful condition. The breaksman laid himself flat upon one of the trucks of coal, and was mixed up in the general wreck of coal and trucks, from which, however’ he escaped most providentially without greater injury than a few •concussions. The guard had previously, on finding the train could not be stopped detached his van and so saved himself. The driver and firemen of the watering engine had only just time to save themselves by jumping from their places, and the detached trucks, started by the collision, ran several miles down the main line before they could be stopped, having been finally thrown off the rails at Hengoed.