The Cootamundra Railway Accident.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5012, 4 February 1885, Page 2

The Cootamundra Railway Accident.

The following are particulars of the late railway accident from Sydney papers of January 27th:—

On Saturday, at Cootamundra, it rained heavily, and the low-lying lands were flooded. In thirty-sis hours the rainfall bad reached to the enormous quantity of eight inches. The-scene of the accident is on a tributary of the Cootamuudra Creek, known as Salt Clay Creek. It is situated about 3|- miles south of the station. The embankment has given away for 120 or 130 feet, and into this at half-past 7 on the Sunday evening, the whole train plunged. On the way from Albany a good many changes were made, and it is estimated that the train contained about fifty persons. The night was pitch dark, with a stiff breeze from south and pelting rain falling. It appears that the train was running at about 30 miles an hour, and although nothing certain is at present known it is believed that the men on the engine became aware of the danger before the sad catastrophe actually took place, as tho brakes were found to have been put hard on. The train was composed of a locomotive sleeping first-class and second-class carriages, mail and mountain brake van, and five carriages. Many of the passengers were sleeping, while others were conversing and.playing cards, when a kind of motion like a volcanic shock was felt, a rush, and the train lay in a ruined mass in the bed of the creek, with water pouring over it in a fierce torrent. Then arose shrieks and cries of men and women for help. Just as those inside the last Bleep ing car thought they were about to be smothered, the roof of the carriage was smashed- off by telescoping with the hindmost car, and this enabled the imprisoned passengers, or some of them, to get out, and to swim against the current for the'shore. How so many escaped instant death is a marvel. Others wero killed, and some carried down in the flood waters. As soon as possible assistance was sent for to Cootamundra, and in the meanwhile all possible assistance was ren* dered by those who escaped and those who were injured. Fires were lighted with the debris of the train. Everything was over in a marvellously short space of time., As soon as possible medical assistance was rendered, and everything done for 1 the | sufferers. There were two " wash-aways " on the line, one of which was: known, and a man was sent forward to stop the train,' but it reached this" wash away " or gap, which was not known, and plunged into it before the warning could be received. The wires were down, and there was no means of communication beyond sending a man along the line to warn approaching trains. The cause of the accident appears to be that the engineers who constructed the line made the culverts far too small, and they were totally inadequate to carry off the flood of storm-water.