144 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
REAR END COLLISIONS.
THE annals of railroad accidents are full of cases of "rear-end
collision," as it is termed.* Their frequency may almost
be accepted as a very accurate gauge of the pressure of traffic
on any given system of lines, and because of them the companies
are continually compelled to adopt new and more intricate systems
of operation. At first, on almost all roads, trains follow each
other at such great intervals that no precaution at all, other
than flags and lanterns, are found necessary. Then comes a succeeding
period when an interval of time between following trains is provided
for, through a system of signals which at given points indicate
danger during a certain number
* In the nine years 1870-8, besides those which
occurred and were not deemed of sufficient importance to demand
special inquiry, 86 cases of accidents of this description were
investigated by the inspecting officers of the English Board of
Trade and reported upon in detail. In America, 732 cases were
reported as occurring during the six years 1874-8, and 138 cases
in 1878 alone.
THE BLOCK SYSTEM. 145
of minutes after the passage of every train. Then, presently,
the alarming frequency of rear collisions demonstrates the inadequacy
of this system, and a new one has to be devised, which, through
the aid of electricity, secures between the trains an interval
of space as well as of time. This last is known as the "block-system,"
of which so much has of late years been heard.
The block-system is so important a feature in the modern operation
of railroads, and in its present stage of development it illustrates
so strikingly the difference between the European and the American
methods, that more particular reference will have presently to
be made to it.* For the present it is enough to say that rear-end
collisions occur notwithstanding all the precautions implied in
a thoroughly perfected "block-system." There was such
a case on the Metropolitan road, in the very heart of London,
on the 29th of August, 1873. It happened in a tunnel. A train
was stalled there, and an unfortunate signal officer in a moment
of flurry gave line clear" and sent another train directly
into it.
A much more impressive disaster, both in its dramatic features
and as illustrating the inadequacy of every precaution depending
on human agency to avert accident under certain conditions, was
afforded in the case of a collision which occurred on the London
& Brighton, Railway on August 25, 1861; ten years almost to
a day before that at Revere.
* Chapter XVII.
146 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
Like the Eastern railroad, the London & Brighton enjoyed
an enormous passenger traffic, which became peculiarly heavy during
the vacation season towards the close of August; and it was to
the presence of the excursion trains made necessary to accommodate
this traffic that the catastrophes were in both cases due. In
the case of the London & Brighton road it occurred on a Sunday.
An excursion train from Portsmouth on that day was to leave Brighton
at five minutes after eight AM, and was to be followed by a regular
Sunday excursion train at 8:15 or ten minutes later, and that
again, after the lapse of a quarter of an hour, by a regular parliamentary
train at 8:30 These trains were certainly timed to run sufficiently
near to each other; but, owing to existing pressure of traffic
on the line, they started almost simultaneously. The Portsmouth
excursion, which consisted of sixteen carriages, was much behind
its time, and did not leave the Brighton station until 8:28; when,
after a lapse of three minutes, it was followed by the regular
excursion train at 8:31, and that again by the parliamentary train
at 8:35. Three passenger trains had thus left the station on one
track in seven minutes! The London and Brighton Railway traverses
the chalky downs, for which that portion of England is noted,
through numerous tunnels, the first of which after leaving Brighton
is known as the Patcham Tunnel, about five hundred yards in length,
while two and a half miles farther on is the Croydon Tunnel,
THE CROYDON TUNNEL COLLISION. 147
rather more than a mile and a quarter in length. The line between
these tunnels was so crooked and obscured that the managers had
adopted extraordinary precautions against accident. At each end
of the Croydon Tunnel a signal-man was stationed, with a telegraphic
apparatus, a clock and a telegraph bell in his station. The rule
was absolute that when any train entered the tunnel the signal-man
at the point of entry was to telegraph "train in," and
no other train could follow until the return signal of "train
out" came from the other side. In face of such a regulation
it was difficult to see how any collision in the tunnel was possible.
When the Portsmouth excursion train arrived, it at once entered
the tunnel and the fact was properly signaled to the opposite
outlet. Before the return signal that this train was out was received,
the regular excursion train came in sight. It should have been
stopped by a self-acting signal which was placed about a quarter
of a mile from the mouth of the tunnel, and which each passing
locomotive set at "danger," where it remained until
shifted to "safety," by the signal-man, on receipt of
the message, "train out.' Through some unexplained cause,
the Portsmouth excursion train had failed to act on this signal,
which consequently still indicated safety when the Brighton excursion
train came up. Accordingly the engine-driver at once passed it,
and went on to the tunnel As he did so, the signal-man, perceiving
some mistake and knowing that he had not yet got his return
148 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
signal that the preceding train was out, tried to stop him
by waving his red flag. It was too late, however, and the train
passed in. A moment later the parliamentary train also came in
sight, and stopped at the signal of danger. Now ensued a most
singular misapprehension between the signal-men, resulting in
a terrible disaster. The second train had run into the tunnel
and was supposed by the signal-man to be on its way to the other
end of it, when he received the return message that the first
train was out. To this he instantly responded by again telegraphing
"train in," referring now to the second train. This
dispatch the signal-man at the opposite end conceived to be a
repetition of the message referring to the first train, and he
accordingly again replied that the train was out. This reply,
however, the other operator mistook as referring to the second
train, and accordingly he signaled "safety," and the
third train at once got under way and passed into the tunnel.
Unfortunately the engineer of the second train had seen the red
flag waved by the signal-man, and, in obedience to it, stopped
his locomotive as soon as possible in the tunnel and began to
back out of it. In doing so, he drove his train into the locomotive
of the third train advancing into it. The tunnel was twenty-four
feet in height. The engine of the parliamentary train struck the
rear carriage of the excursion train and mounted upon its fragments,
and then on those of the carriage in front of it, until its smokestack
came
THE WELWYN TUNNEL COLLISION. 149
in contact with the roof of the tunnel. It rested finally in
a nearly upright position. The collision had taken place so far
within the tunnel as to be beyond the reach of daylight, and the
wreck of the trains had quite blocked up the arch, while the steam
and smoke from the engines poured forth with loud sound and in
heavy volumes, filling the empty space with stifling and scalding
vapors. When at last assistance came and the trains could be separated,
twenty-three corpses were taken from the ruins, while one hundred
and seventy-six other persons had sustained more or less severe
injuries.
A not less extraordinary accident of the same description,
unaccompanied, however, by an equal loss of life, occurred on
the Great Northern Railway upon the 10th of June, 1866. In this
case the tube of a locomotive of a freight train burst at about
the centre of the Welwyn Tunnel, some five miles north of Hatfield,
bringing the train to a stand-still. The guard in charge of the
rear of the train failed from some cause to go back and give the
signal for an obstruction, and speedily another freight train
from the Midland road entered and dashed into the rear of the
train already there. Apparently those in charge of these two trains
were in such consternation that they did not think to provide
against a further disaster; at any rate, before measures to that
end had been taken, an additional freight train, this time belonging
to the Great Northern road, came up and plowed into the ruins
which already
150 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
blocked the tunnel. One of the trains had contained wagons
laden with casks of oil, which speedily became ignited from contact
with the coals scattered from the fire-boxes, and there then ensued
one of the most extraordinary spectacles ever witnessed on a railroad.
The tunnel was filled to the summit of its arch and completely
blocked with the wrecked locomotives and wagons. These had ignited,
and the whole cavity, more than a half a mile in length, was converted
into one huge furnace, belching forth smoke and flame with a loud
roaring sound through its several air shafts. So fierce was the
fire that no attempt was made to subdue it, and eighteen hours
elapsed before any steps could be taken towards clearing the track.
Strange to say, in this disaster the lives of but two persons
were lost.
Rear-end collisions have been less frequent in this country
than in England, for the simple reason that the volume of traffic
has pressed less heavily on the capacity of the lines. Yet here,
also, they have been by no means unknown. In 1865 two occurred,
both of which were accompanied with a considerable loss of life;
though, coming as they did during the exciting scenes which marked
the close of the war of the Rebellion, they attracted much less
public notice than they otherwise would. The first of these took
place in New Jersey(PA?) on the 7th of March, 1865, just three
days after the second inauguration of President Lincoln. As the
express train from Washington to New York over the Camden &
Amboy(?)
TWO AMERICAN COLLISIONS. 151
road was passing through Bristol, about thirty miles from Philadelphia,
at half-past-two o'clock in the morning, it dashed into the rear
of the twelve o'clock "owl train," from Kensington to
New York, which had been delayed by meeting an oil train on the
track before it. The case appears to have been one of very culpable
negligence, for, though the owl train was some two hours late,
those in charge of it seem to have been so deeply engrossed in
what was going on before them that they wholly neglected to guard
their rear. The express train accordingly, approaching around
a curve, plunged at a high rate of speed into the last car, shattering
it to pieces; the engine is even said to have passed completely
through that car and to have imbedded itself in the one before
it. It so happened that most of the sufferers by this accident,
numbering about fifty, were soldiers on their way home from the
army upon furlough.
The second of the two disasters referred to, occurred on the
16th of August, 1865, upon the Housatonic
road of Connecticut. A new engine was out upon an experimental
trip, and in rounding a curve it ran into the rear of a passenger
train, which, having encountered a disabled freight train, had
coupled on to it and was then backing down with it to a siding
in order to get by. In this case the impetus was so great that
the colliding locomotive utterly destroyed the rear car of the
passenger train and penetrated some distance into
152 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
the car preceding it, where its boiler burst. Fortunately the
train was by no means full of passengers; but, even as it was,
eleven persons were killed and some seventeen badly injured.
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