A very bad accident happened on Thursday evening on the
Greenwich branch of the North Kent Railway. For certain facilities in working, the trains to Greenwich run alternately into the up and the downplatform. On Thursday night, a train for London started at 9.5 from the down platform, and should have crossed by self-acting points about eighty yards from the sta- tion into the up-line. But some accident had happened to the points, they did not act, and the train continued its course on the down-line. It is a strange fact, that the driver of the train was not aware that he had continued on the down-line. About 150 yards from the Deptford station, the train came into collision with another running from Deptford to Greenwich. Both trains were going at a low speed, the up-train slackening to stop, the down-train not yet having attained its full rate. None of the carriages were driven off the line, but the concussion was very severe, and many persons were seri- ously hurt. Castles, the stoker of the up-train, foreseeing the collision, jumped over the parapet into the street below, a depth of twenty-five feet, and was much hurt. James Ward, the driver of the down-train, suffered a compound fracture of the jaw and a severe scalp wound, and bis nose was split. Fractures and contusions were plentiful ; but at present there does not appear to be any fatal case.
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