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Sample Quote
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"The pointsman who works the cross-over road at the south side of the station, over which the gas tanks were running, put the break on the leading gas tank waggon, and pinned it down. He subsequently heard the guard call out that the whole of the waggons had run away, and he ran to the gas tank waggon on which he had placed the break, got on it, and pressed down the hreak, but he slipped off, and could not stop
the waggons.
Another pointsman at the south end of the sidings also heard the guard calling out. He ran after the waggons, and succeeded in getting on the foremost of the two gas tank maggons which the other pointsman had slipped off. He pressed down the break ; but the 10 waggons and two gas tanks were all running close together at a speed of about seven miles an hour, and he could not check them. He was knocked off, by his knee coming in contact with the central iron girder of an under bridge, to the south of his station.
The whole of the waggons were seen by the signalman at Finder Oaks Colliery junction, by the signalman at the Quarry junctions, and by the signalman at the Old Oaks Colliery junction, as they ran past them down the incline on the rail to Stairfoot station. These men saw the danger, but the only one of them who had the control of facing points, to turn the waggons, was the signalman at the Quarry junctions, and this man could only have turned them on to the Midland Railway, which is also on a falling gradient, where the danger could not have been avoided. These junction signalmen had block telegraph instruments by which they could call the attention of the signalman in advance to something being wrong ; but the signal posts are within 1/3 of a mile of each other, and the Old Oaks Colliery junction, which was next to Stairfoot, is 250 yards to the north of that station, so that there was no time to do anything.
The waggons gradually gained a speed of 30 to 40 miles an hour before they reached Stairfoot station, which is a mile and a half from Barnsley... The passengers and the persons attending [the passenger train] at Stairfoot station were only aware of their danger a moment before the goods waggons crashed into their train.
They were surprised by the noise of the goods waggons running across an iron under-bridge, which is situated about 200 yards to the north-west of Stairfoot station. The driver of the passenger train had only time to look out, and see what was coming, when he was knocked down by the shock of the goods waggons striking the tail of his train. He got up, eased his tender break, and his engine shot forward 30 to 40 yards."
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