TERRIBLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1621, 15 October 1873, Page 4

TERRIBLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

An appalling accident happened at the ■ "Wigan railway station, on Saturday morh-i ing, August 2, to the tourist train from Euutori to the north. ..-The train was a more than usually heavy one, even for a tourist express. There were twenty-two damages and three vans, employing two powerful locomotives to draw tne enormous load. . , Ate eighteen minutes past one ? the tdurisi; train came dashing on at' the rate of not much less than forty miles an hour, and the whistle was blowing, as is ; usnal when an express passes : through a station { at full speed, when , a sudden wrench I shook all the carriages froni first to last, j and, while eighteen of. the number kept] the rails, the others in the rear, with the I three vans, parted suddenly from, the foremost portion of the train, and took the iiding : at the* points where the down | line is crossed obliquely. Under the in- | fluence of the shock, even that main part ! of; the ;train' which followed ,the two engines along the down line, after the violent : jerk had- dissevered ■, the hinder carriages, rocked and seemed ' to ■ stagger ; and' before itiwas brought. to a! standstill; some hundreds of i yards i beyond- where the : accident occurred,' the Perth van, •which ; was in the rear of the eighteen carriages thatkept the main line, leaped from the rails, and ran for some 'distance in the 'six-feet wayl This van; '^ith 7 one side violently torn out, was forced back' on to the rails when- the front part of the train,' before 'stopping, came as far as the points at tbe : north, box, .The. engines, with;th6 eighteen carriages ,that remained attached to them, /'were 'brouglit' to a standstill a few hundred, yards northward of the station ; and ultimately this part of the train proceeded on its,.way.' r;*The;, crash was so terriblejthat not a soul amongst ; the uninjured < can attempt to solve the question how the accident happened. Those on the railway platform appear to: have been too utterly dazed by the sufldennesß. and extent of the calamity to be atle to give anything like a comprehensible accoanfc. The detached carriages, "having lost their equflibrium r6y the violent wrench at : the; facing points, veered 'over against that portion of the platform which abuts;- on to the siding, and ploughed the fiags and earth up for a length of twenty or thirty yards. The leading , carriage, which was of a: composite Construction, leaped the metals, and bounded upon the platform, throwing itself ii pin mid-air, and alighting "bottom uppermost. As a matter of course, this carriage was smashed in pieces, the wheels flooring, together with all the machinery of; springs and axles being, > all that re. tamed shape or substance. Two succeeding carriages ; sprung, from the metals to the platform, and fell over upon their Bides, and one or two others turned almost completely over a few yards heyond,, blocking the siding, and smashing themselves into indescribable wrecks. A long length .of thick brick; , wall adjoining, built, between the/ railway and, Queen istreet, which is five or six yards bejow the level of the railway, was partly knocked dowi; and a large fragment, oft one of the carriages, as well as the mangled body of a female' passenger; who some hours later was- identified as. an. elderly lady named Roberts, was hurled over the .wall, falling upon and -through the' slated roof of a foundry^ " ( A'numberof ( men were,working a' riigiit turn oh the" premises; but hone It was necessary to procure lights before anything could be done to relieve -the sufferers. Two or_thr.ee fires were lit on thejplatform to aid in; the workpf the wreck, and as the fitful glare, fell on raangled : ' corpses', ' : and "* passengers with bleeding "hdads iand broken-; 'limbs, -the atodtesti hearts quailed. < 'The/sad' work) was, i,hpwey,er ]i ; steadUy..pur i ßued,r, by ,.the aijij.of 'such, iniplemente" .m ;c6uld,be 6t>-' iiiaihed f^pr hacking land'sawing thp 'timber of the wecked carriages/ !! ' :! ; ; ; ' f:l ßen'eaih; the'carriagewhichhad ihrbwnitself -wheels uppermost; oh. the platform, 5 thft bodies i of four passengers,' all dead,! werp |qund, ; a female: among , the Some of the bodies were fearfully, crusKed and, mangled. .Two, ladies, who' '; were got out^' '^iv.e' J frp'm^ other "^'carriages;' died shortly -after 'beiiigtalJen' : into t; the firsts 1 cla^^refreshment-rooms. I ' .There E were' several i miraculous escapes from death. Asaloon garriagej which ;was. occupied by a son and. daughter of the Hon* ..S. ,W,. Palmer, accompanied by a lady's-maid,' who were travelling to Ballymena, Stranraer, was'driven into the carriage immediately before it The saloon carriage and its'passengers were little if at 'all injured. Several members of one family were in thene'xt;' a carriage, and two of the children: and a domestic servant were killed. The father, Mr Andrew Wark, oi Highgate^ escaped uninjured,.'.but his; w;fe was seriously hurt. Another of their children was jammed at . : the, -bottom, , of. , . the among the wood-work broken up oy.itlia saloon : ' carriage,»but. a£tet a, tough,, attacfeuonJiie ] timber with a saw the child w&a got out alive, though with; a fractured thigh, the j same injury having been sustained by its mother. Atthe timeof the catastrophe there was only- one. empty compartment in the train, and this had been vacated; by a passenger who had booked to Orewe^ biit. having overslept himself, awakened just 1 in time to leave the 1 train' so near Wigan as Warrington. i- i •, }, Among the passengers who were taken out badly injured .was .Sir John, Ansonj accompanied by two of his daughters; who. -were severely shaken; Sir John was conveyed to the" Rdyal Hotel,- ,w,here -he^ died about ; half-past three o'clock. , The nurse, of Mrs Work's children was also 'killed.'. ''■ It was : not un^il' latej .that'the;body. of , the; .elderly lady thrown .ovdr the s wall" into Mr Walker's foundry was identifie'd^'as^that "of Mrs Roberts, of Weymouth, who was being taken by .het Bon ip'Carlisl^; to visit her daughter-iri-iawi' The 'son,'a"iiafei of Annan, "Scotland, and master of the Industrial Schools, -was" >also among the killed, his injuries being so great -that he pnly survived a* little while after being carried to the Clarence Hotel. The guard .who. was on duty ; in .the ; van at the end/.'of -the carriages, which ; ran ,on.4he jading hadi , like , his- ■ f ellow-servantj! , the Perth conductor,; on that part of the. train which kept the up-line of metal, a narrow escape. He was pitched headlong 1 J ist6 and buried among the lucga«e, an& Btunhyd for several minute^ "b\it earned out comparatively uninjuwdT •'"•'■- <- >Jl ' (