The Times 31 st December 1870
ANOTHER RAILWAY ACCIDENT - On Friday morning the train which leaves
Carlisle at
1.13 a.m. was thrown off the line near to Burton and Holme station, on the London and
North Western Railway, and the greater portion of the carriages precipitated down an
embankment. The train carries passengers and fish from Scotland to Manchester and
Liverpool.
At Oxenholme it was 47 minutes behind time, and just after the train had passed Burton and
Holme station, the tire of one of the carriages broke, and 11 carriages and trucks and
vans were thrown off the line.
They crossed the down line of rails, and then ran down an embankment of about 30 feet, and
passed through a hedge into a field. The escape of the passengers was astonishing. Though
the carriages were more or less damaged, not a single life was lost or bone broken.
several of them received cuts and bruises, but nothing more serious. The guard of the
train had a yet more wonderful escape. His van was smashed to pieces, the two sides being
literally flattened together, and a composite carriage was thrown upon it; but he came out
of the accident unhurt. He can give no account of his escape, except the supposition that
he was thrown out of the end of the van when the composite carriage fell upon it.
Thousands of Herrings and dried fish were strewn upon the field.
Mr Pursell, superintendent; Mr Fitzsimons, roods manager; Mr Gill, of the engineer
department, and other officials, left Lancaster for the scene of the accident
soon after 5 o'clock, and after a delay of about four hours and a half both lines
were cleared and carriages having been despatched from Lancaster, the passengers were sent
on their journey.
The Times 31 st December 1870
|