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Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Commercial Dock on 15th December 1860

Document Summary

The report on a collision in fog between a passenger train and a light engine, between Deptford and London Bridge.

This document was published on 10th January 1861 by Board of Trade.

It was written by Capt. H. W. Tyler.

This item is linked to the Accident at Commercial Dock on 15th December 1860

The original document format was Bound Volume, and comprised 3 pages.

This document was kindly sourced from Barry Turvin and is in our Accident reports collection. It was added to the Archive on 5th June 2012 by Stuart Johnson.

Copyright Information

This document is Crown Copyright, and is subject to the terms governing the reproduction of crown copyright material. Depending on the status and age of the original document, you may need an OPSI click-use license if you wish to reproduce this material, and other restrictions may apply. Please see this explanation for further details.

"Whilst standing at the Junction, the driver uncoupled his feed-pipe, and put some tallow into it, hoping thus to ease his regulator. He had great difficulty in opening it, to get to the main line, but he forced it fully open afterwards, and shut it again because his engine was slipping so badly. He was unable, after that, to get it sufficiently open to enable him to travel at a greater speed than 6 or 7 miles an hour. He was proceeding forward at that speed, and had almost reached the end of the Commercial Dock platform, when a train, which was following him on the same line of rails, caught him up, and came into collision with his engine. Believing that he was protected by two fixed signals and two fog-men, and not expecting that it would stick altogether, he did not say anything to any person as he passed along the line with regard to the difficulty which he experienced in opening his regulator; and he was so much engaged in trying to open it that he did not sound his whistle at all. In the thick fog which prevailed, he neither saw nor heard anything of the train behind him until it was within 10 yards of him. His engine was pushed forward about 50 yards hy the force of the collision."

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