Sensational Railway Accident.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 104, 6 May 1904, Page 2

Sensational Railway Accident.

COAL TRAIN FALLS TWENTY FEET. A sensational accident occurred nt Seymour, sixty-one, utiles north of Melbourne, recently. A train, consisting of live trucks of coal and an engine, was being shunted on to the stage for the purpose of being discharged. The stago. which is at the north end of the station, is <so constructed that the lino is overhead, and runs uphill from the. ordinary line to a height of about 2Sft, where the buffer heads bring the line to an abrupt termination. To shunt o load of coal on to this, it is necessary for the driver to get up a good pace, and go full steam ahead. Whilst they were doing so, it is presumed that the Westing-house brake refilled to act, and the train went crush into the buffer heads and toppled over the ends on to a large stack of 2ft wood. The distance from the buffer heads to the wood is about 20ft. The trucks were piled one on top of the other and made an effective landing for the fore part of the engine, the two front wheels of which are resting on the piled-up mass of debris, while the hind part and tender arv still on the rails at fie end of the line.

The engine lis nearly perpendicular, and it presents a remarkable spectacle! hanging os it Is in- m'uinilir. Driver (J, Caflin ami Fireman 1). Kcnelly and I). O'Brien (shunter) were ail on the engine ut the time of the accident, and had a miraculous escape. O'llrien jumped clear on to the side of the line when two trucks had, gone over, and Kenelly just got oil' us the engine reached the end of the line. Priver Onllin never left the engine, and it Is marvellous that he escaped uninjured. Where the other men got oIT there are just the rails and sleepers mounted on piles 2">ft from the ground, with a hand-rail along the side, and they also had a narrow escape, for if they had missed their footing they would have hud a terrible fall.