Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Hatton Coal Wharf on 5th August 1852

"When the pilot engine stopped at the crossing on the present occasion, the coal merchant's servant, who had charge of the points, was not to be found, and the fireman proceeded to hold the switches open, while the driver guided the engine backwards through the crossing. Both men were thus fully engaged, and there was no one to run round the curve, to give a signal of the obstruction to the approaching express. Had there even been a semaphore signal at the place it is probable that by turning it to danger the men might have averted a catastrophe. The pilot engine had nearly got clear of the line when the express engine coming up, struck the side of the tender, which was then moving across between the two lines, and, casting it to one side, met the pilot still moving slowly backwards, and the collision which ensued threw both engines, smashed and crippled, off the line, upset the tender and the leading van, and, breaking up the train, caused the leading carriages to leave the rails."

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