DREADFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 620, 8 January 1870, Page 3

DREADFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

A shocking railway accident took place on the Midland Railway on Saturday, 9th October. Four excursion trains, conveying over 4000 persous, left Leicester jn tho afternoon for Nottingham Goose Fair, and the last of the return trains, which consisted of 35 carriages, returned from Nottingham about twenty-five minutes past eleven o'clock, the mail train from Nottingham, which meets the down train to the north at Trent, being timed to leave five minutes later. At Long Eaton Junction, about half a mile east of Trent station, the excursion train was stopped by a " block" on the line, the Derby mail having run into a goods train, and the mail train came up and dashed into the end of the excursion train at the rate of forty-five miles an hour. Several of the carriages were smashed to pieces, seven persons were killed, and about 11 injured, many of them very seriousfy. The night was dark and foggy, and the driver of the mail train is said not to have seen the signals which warned him to stop. The inquest was held on 11th October. Elliott, the driver of the mail train, said that when he arrived at Beeaton, be was told by the station-master that the excursion train had been gone, two minutes. He waited three minutes, and then' proceeded on his journey at the speed of 16 to 18 miles an hour. When he saw the break of the excursion train if was. only -about 10 yards in front of him. : The reason he did not see it sooner was owing to the dense fog. No fog signals had been placed for him. The fog signalman at Beeston station said that he told Elliott that the excursion train was before him, and he had better go on cautiously.- Mr Allport, the general manager of the company, stated that the reason why the express train was allowed to start so soon after the excursion train was that the mail was a longer train, and had a larger number of passengers than usual : and this train having to stop at Beeston, while the special train had not, it was supposed the special would have plenty of . time:to get clear out of the way. The jury, after consulting together a long time, returned a verdict of " accidentally killed."