18 SEPTEMBER 1852, Page 14

DANGEROUS STATE OF PERMANENT WAYS.

Tim two grand accidents of the week carry on, with painful force, the illustration of that which we have continually affirmed, that the present arrangements of railways are exceedingly defective, while the permanent way demands the most minute and unceasing attention.

The collision on the London and North-western Railway at the Leighton station is an instance of the mode in which railway com- panies endeavour to effect critical operations without sufficient margin of space or time. Near a mile-post, a quarter of a mile from Leighton, all up-trains are to be crossed on to the down-line, and then again on to the up-line. A pilot-engine was to remain at the point of crossing, and to accompany every train on the single line. This pilot-engine had been leading a tram from Leigh- ton ; it had been detached, and was making the best of its way in- to the other line in order to suffer the train to pass ; but the driver of the train which it had led advanced at too great a speed, dashed the engine across the line down the embankment, and several car- riages of the train were seriously damaged. A passenger remarked that the manager of the pilot-engine habitually found great diffi- culty in getting out of the way. Whether that report is strictly accurate or not, there is no doubt that operations of this kind are planned on too small an allowance of time, and that no sufficient margin is given for mistakes, for casual slippings, or many other of those small accidents for which provision should be made. The blame is thrown upon the driver of the train ; but uneducated men are commonly influenced more by example than precept, and the general disposition to hurry everything forward, and to shave corners with a nicety of speed, are too powerful incentives to be escaped. Like master like man: a good servant will copy the bearing of his master, and railway servants do but imitate the homicidal recklessness of their directors.

These trials of skill and nerve might be the less hazardous if the permanent way of railroads were planned and executed with great nicety; but the reverse is the fact. The evidence at the inquest • on the other accident, which happened on the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, is conflicting. The one thing obvious is that a passenger-train ran off the line at a curve on a steep em- bankment thirty feet high. The fact that a curve of that kind happens on an embankment thirty feet high is of itself an instance of bad construction, and ought to have suggested a considerable diminution of speed at that point. The train, however, is said to have been going at the rate of thirty miles an hour ; and there is one circumstance which suggests a doubt whether the accident did arise entirely from the effect of the speed and the curve :

• while the engine ran off the embankment on one side, the train ran off upon the other. Some of the witnesses profess to have noticed that the line was defective. Leah, the stoker, said the road was very bad to travel on between Sheffield and leetford—so bad that "it made the engine shake about terribly." Kemp, a Great Northern guard, accustomed to the part of the line, said "the line was not so good as the Great Northern line"; that trains were accustomed to shake. lie accompanied the up express- train ; "the van shook, and on looking out of the window, he saw that the inner wheel was crooked." Other witnesses denied this : a driver who passed beforehand "saw nothing amiss with the rail." Mr. Peacock, the locomotive superintendent, said that "if

the rails had been bent it would not have made the engine go off the line." A plate-layer had examined that part of the line in question on the day before the accident, "and found it in good running order." Professedly, the cause of the accident remains a mystery; but it appears that the hinder-wheels of the engine had probably gone off the line first. Now this negative testimony, as to the absence of obvious de- fect in the line, fails to impress us very greatly. The testimony of the men who had observed the engine to shake is much more trustworthy, because it is more palpable. If an engine or a car- riage shakes on a railway line, it is a proof of some defect either in the structure of the carriages or in the permanent way; of some defect, in either case, which tends to throw the carriages off the 14ne. It is to be noted that there is a marked difference between the amount of oscillation which would be fatal to a railway carriage and that which would overturn an ordinary coach. In the case of the coach, the full amount of swinging is perceived and passengers know that a very considerable degree may be undergone with im- punity. In a railway, the structure of the rails and the wheels acts as a cheek upon the apparent oscillation, until it accumulates to that degree at which the wheel is lifted above the rail; and then, in falling back, the wheel is inevitably carried beyond the rail, and the carriage is off the line. Certain persons on the Manchester, Shef- field, and Lincolnshire Railway, report that the lines were in good order; although other witnesses report a serious shaking in the en- gine and carriages. We do not believe that engines and carriages can shake much when the line is in good order. We presume, however, that the competent officers report duly, at proper periods, that all the great railway lines out of London arc" in proper order " ; just as they did in the case of this Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln- shire Railway. But every railway-passenger knows that, on most of the lines leaving London, the swinging of the carriages is very great—far greater than it could be if the permanent way and the carriages were properly constructed. We have therefore strong negative testimony to the fact that railway servants report the line to be in good condition although it is in bad condition.

This defect of the permanent way, which positively tends to create railway accidents, is not only a permanent cause of ac- cidents, but is a cause daily receiving an increase. The enlarged traffic on railways has in no way been accompanied by a pro- portionate attention to the repairs ; and anybody habituated to the use of the great trunk-lines must know that in no direction out of London is the work so perfect as to prevent formidable oscillation. This cause of accidents, therefore, is constant, and will be increased as time goes on, unless there be some great change. The an- nouncement of a very speedy train to an important town, which once would have been esteemed a boon -without admixture of evil, now causes some alarm ; inasmuch as speed on lines not per- fectly constructed has so frequently been attended by fatal results. Until our railways be thoroughly fortified and adjusted, extraordi- nary speed can only be attained at great risk to life.