FOR WANT OF STEAM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5, 6 September 1913, Page 5

FOR WANT OF STEAM.

THE AJSGELL COLLISION.

OPENING OF THE INQUIRY. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] [United Press Association.] (Received 8.20 a.m.) London, September 5. Several newspapers protest against the Board of Trade insisting on a private inquiry into the Aisgill accident.

SIR ARTHUR DOUGLAS. London, September 5. The condition of Sir Arthur Douglas is unchanged.

GOODS TRAIN STOPS AN EXPRESS.

An express was held up yesterday for twenty minutes owing to a goods train being stopped through shortage of steam, near the scene of the disaster.

AN OPEN INQUIRY. The Board of Trade inquiry has been resumed at Leeds. The public and press are admitted.

QSNG INE-DRIVEIUS EVIDENCE. Nicholson, engine-driver on the first train, gave evidence of losing time from Carlisle. He was making steam badly owing to the smallness of the coal. He added that drivers were frequently stopped from th same cause. Witness admitted tha tit was dangerous to stop as he did. When he noticed the other train,he tried to stop, but the engine refused to budge. Ifcere was no difficulty in seeing the signal lights. Witness asked for a pilot engine at Carlisle, but one was not available.

HAWES JUNCTION DISASTER, One of the most terrible Christmas railway tragedies of recent years took place about 6 o'clock on Saturday morning, December 24, 1910, when disaster overtook the midnight Scottish express from St. Pancras to Glasgow on a lonely Yorkshire moor, the exact scene being a mile and a-half north of Hawes Junction, between Settle and Carlisle. In the darkness and during a storm of rain the train, travelling at 55 miles an hour, overtook and dashed into two light engines going in the same direction. Carriages were derailed and overturned, and, to add to the horror of the scene, the wreckage "caught fire, and was soon blazing almost from end to end. Pinned amongst the debris, many of the passengers were unable to escape, and an indefinite number lost their lives, the remains in many cases being so charred that nothing «'*as left but a few bones.

So violent was the impact that the light engines were driven 150 yards ahead, where their progress was stopped by one toppling on to its side. The express itself ran on for 100 yards or more, tearing up and twisting the permanent way, until both its engines plunged into the hank by the side of the line, the first two carriages being telescoped. The first carriage consisted of a goods van. It was in. the second that the loss of life was experienced. The passengers, who, no doubt, were asleep at the time of the collision, were crushed between the splintered planks, and most of them must have been killed outright. It is known, however, that one or two were not so killed, as they were spoken to 'iy those rendering assistance, although their faces could not be seen owing to the darkness and the tangled mass of wood and iron. When the fire bad burnt itself out sufficiently to enable a search to be made several charred and shapeless lumps were ill that remained of what but a short while before were human beings. Between 20 and 30 passengers were injured and were taken on to Carlisle, while the human remains were reverently removed to the Moorcock Inn, near Hawes Junction.

Owing to the Christmas traffic, the cypress was heavily laden. The country between Hellifield and Carlisle is very hilly, and it was the custom on the Mildand system for pilot engines to be attached to the express at Carlisle for south-bound trains, and a't Hellifield for those going north. \Vhon the summit of the Shap was readied theso pilot engines were detached, and two of them, returning to Carlisle, were passed by a signalman's error into the patli of the express. At the inquest the signalman explained how he forgot the pilot engines and •ct the express pass the signals with these locomotives in the way. The 'local stationniaster gave the signalman an excellent character for steadiness. His colleague, Simpson, said that Sutton had been so busy between 5 and G ■>'elock on the fateful morning that he had actually lost all trace of the two pilot engines, and what contributed to tins forgetfulness was the fact that the pilot engines bad pull- ><! out. on to the main line and gone away a good distance north of the signal cabin, and almost out of sight, vhen Sutton lowered the homo signal allow the "Scotchman" to pass. The pilot engines took this signal to be for them, and thoy crept away slowly out into the night. A m.in'ite afterwards the huge express hove into sight, and it was then too late to ?et out of the wry. The tragedy of it 'ill was that after the "Scotchman" had passed Sutton's cabin he wired to Bellas, the signalman at Aisgill box, and asked him if lie had seen anything of the two pilot engines, as he had lost them, A most remarkable thing was that although four engines were involved in the disaster, all the drivers and stokers escaped death, though they were terribly cut and alaUu,