THE JOLIMONT RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 231, 6 September 1881, Page 3

THE JOLIMONT RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

[By Tblbgbaph.] [Per b.B. Te Anau, at the Bluff.l MELBOUENE, August 31. A terrible railway accident happened on the Hobson Bay railway on Tuesday morning, August 30th, attended by loss of life, besides seripus injuries to numerous passengers. An express train left Brighton as usual at nine o’clock, and all went well till within half a mile of Melbourne station, when & baa Jolting underneath the carriage and a marked oscillation of the train warned the passengers that something was going amiss. Efforts were made to call the attention of the guard and engine driver, but unsuccessfully, and these officers; remained quite unconscious of any danger. The rattling noise grew more marked, till a sharp curve at Jolimont was reached, at which the coupling between the third and fourth carriages snapped. The engine and three carriages remained on the metals and continued on the journey, but the fourth carriage toppled over an embankment about 10ft high into a pool of water beneath, the other carriages behind coming crash above it. .The first carriage was completely smashed, those following being also badly damaged. The news of the catastrophe spread rapidly in town, and a crowd quickly gathered round the scene. A body of police kept order, and the officials removed the dead and wounded, the former being Messrs Bailliere (publisher), Jamieson (law clerk), and Bev. Garrett, of Brighton. One passenger states that he was aware that some accident was imminent from the continued jolting about 400 yards from where it actually happened, hut it was impossible to communicate with the train officials to give warning. Mr Elsdon, manager, and Mr Fordo, engineer of construction, made a tour of the line at the scene of the accident after the event on Tuesday morning, and found that a piece of the line near Jolimont had given way. This flaw was no doubt the cause of the accident, and the train dragged on from that point till the carriage parted. The line was cleared and traffic resumed by 11.30 a.m., hut during the day thousands of people visited the scone of the disaster.