DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF COLISSION ON RAILWAYS. 303 



Immediately after this, the driver of the first engine perceived a 

 different motion in his engine, which, to use his own expression, 

 " wavered backwards and forwards," and in a very short interval of 

 time, the fore wheels were thrown off the rail, causing the engine to 

 upset, and giving rise to the accident, with all its frightful concomitants. 

 The motion which preceded the upset of the engine, is described by 

 the driver of the second engine as a rocking motion, and by a labourer 

 who viewed it from the road, as a jumping up and down of the fore 

 wheels. The short period of time for which it lasted was estimated by 

 the driver of the second engine, and the person who viewed it from 

 the road, at half a minute ; and though the driver of the first engine 

 stated that it " lasted only an instant," some allowance must here be 

 made for the vagueness of language, and we shall probably be not far 

 from the truth, if we regard it as an interval of very small but sen- 

 sible duration. It appeared also, by the evidence of one of the engine 

 drivers, that at the time the accident happened, " the pilot engine was 

 doing very little work, merely keeping tight the chain ;" from which 

 incidental expression it may be inferred with certainty, that the two 

 engines were connected by a chain, which was at liberty to be loose 

 or tight according to the distance between the two engines*, a fact, 

 be it observed, which is of the greatest importance in the explanation 

 which is about to be offered. 



It further appeared in evidence, that the engine had been examined 

 and found to be in perfect order ; and though the driver of the second 

 engine gave it as his opinion, that the accident was occasioned by clay, 

 or some greasy substance, lying on the rail, yet it appears by the evidence 

 of the person whose duty it was to inspect this portion of road, that the 

 rail was perfectly clean and had nothing slippery upon it, that it was, 

 moreover, on a bed of sand, and not on clay. The preceding rains had 

 indeed rendered it a prudent precaution that the train should come steadily 

 over this portion of road, and such was alleged to be the meaning of the 

 signal which the man made by holding up his hand, a practice which 



* I have lately seen a chain of this description connecting two engines drawing a heavy 

 train on the Birmingham railway, allowing a considerable variation of distance (to the ex- 

 tent perhaps of about a foot) between the engines. 



KK2 



