Colonel Rich, in his Report on the terrible Downton accident
of June 3rd, by which five passengers were killed and forty-one injured, passes a severe censure on the London and South- Western Railway, for running trains made up of inferior rolling- stock at express speed over an old and very light permanent way. The train-engine used at the time of the accident was an old and unsteady one, and deficient in steam-power, and was quite unfit to run a train at express speed. The train, with two engines and eight short vehicles, with short wheel bases, was quite unfit to run steadily at great speed on a line of such gradients and curves. Colonel Rich holds that the force and weight of the engines had first displaced the permanent way, and thus led to the accident. The Board of Trade have, of course, com- municated Colonel Rich's report to the Directors of the London and South-Western Railway, and intimated to them the neces- sity for a reform of management. The London and South- Western have, says Colonel Rich, had three cases of passenger trains leaving the rails since September last, and on Thursday evening there was a fourth serious accident at Staines added to the number, though fortunately no lives were lost.
Previous page
