speed of express trains is limited to thirty miles an
hour; drivers are not to make up for lost time, but
merely to account for it. Mr. Hurst, superintendent
of the locomotive department at Manchester, stated
that the locomotive No.13 had been repaired three
weeks ago. "No.13 was a four-wheeled engine,
which was considered quite as safe as a six-wheeled
one. The engines varied in weight from ten to twenty-
four tons; No.13 weighed fourteen tons. He had
examined the engine since the accident, and he found
that the axle had been broken within the axle-box.
The fracture was on the left as the train approached
Manchester. His opinion was that the axle broke
before the engine went off the line. His reason for
this opinion was, that he had found an impression
upon the road, showing that the wheel had run inside
the off rail (or right) for a distance of twenty-seven
yards before any wheel appeared to have got off the
inside rail, and the wheel at the broken side of the
axle had ploughed up the ground for a distance of
twenty-seven yards. When the axle broke, the wheel
at the broken part would incline inwards under the
body of the engine. The axle was five and a half
inches in diameter, of the usual thickness, and the
metal was perfectly good and sound. A violent blow
on the flange of the wheel, or a violent oscillation,
might cause the axle to break; or a train going at a
quick rate over a curve might tend to break it. The
wheel could not get away from the engine after the
axle broke, and he believed a separation first took
place when the engine fell over upon its side. He had
known a wheel to run a mile after the fracture of
the axle. He never had any representation made
to him about the oscillation of this engine, or any
objection to its general character." The inquest
was adjourned, that witnesses unconnected with the
company might be examined on engineering points,
and that the government inspector might attend.
It was resumed on the 11th. Several passengers
declared their belief that the train had been going at
excessive speed. Mr. Nasmyth, the eminent engineer,
said he had examined the locomotive and the road: he
pronounced the engine not to be in first-rate condition
—not very clean—and dangerous at a high speed. Of
the permanent way he spoke in the most condemnatory
terms. "I consider the present condition of the line is
such that it is not fit for public safety. That is
condensing a very great deal of observation into a very
short sentence. The sleepers, I consider, are in a very
decayed condition; and on account of the peculiar
manner in which the rails and chairs are fastened, by
spikes driven into the timbers, the sleepers are split and
rent in the direction of their length. I consider the
mode of the construction of the chairs, and the mode of
attaching them to the sleepers, are defective in principle
and bad in workmanship. The rails are very much
exfoliated at the top, the joints gaping considerably—to
the extent of an inch, and more than an inch in several
cases. They are not such in material or construction as
I should think they ought to be. They are so badly
packed up, that when a train traverses them they rise
and fall to the extent of nearly an inch up and down,
as each successive wheel passes; particularly at the
chair junctions. The place where the accident occurred
is where a pretty rapid curve terminates. During the
sweeping round of the train there would be a considerable
centrifugal tendency given to the train; and at
the place where the curve ceases, that centrifugal action
would not cease at the moment, but would produce a
sort of outward squeezing, acting on the straight rails.
There is one portion of the line in a very sound and
satisfactory state—that which is laid on cross sleepers."
Mr. Fairbairn, the engine-manufacturer, was of opinion
that the axle of the locomotive was broken before it
arrived at the place where the accident occurred. The
engine might be safe up to forty miles an hour, but not
beyond that. He would not go the length of Mr.
Nasmyth in condemning the road: he would not fear to
travel on the rails at fifty miles an hour; but the rails
were not made on the best principle, and additional
security might be given to the public by the repair of
the line—it wants repair in many parts. He did not
think this accident had been caused by the state of the
road. The inquiry was again adjourned to the 14th,
when Captain Wynn, the Government Inspector, gave
a very bad account of the state of the railway. "I
have gone over the line (he said) commencing about a
mile east of Clifton Junction, and thence walking to
Bolton. The great object to be attained in a line of this
description is that the sleeper should have a solid bed.
The construction of this line is such that that object is
not attained, or at least only partially so. When this
line was originally laid down, it was never contemplated
that the traffic would be so great, or the locomotives in
use so heavy; and, in consequence of this being the
second line of rails the timbers now carry, in taking off
one set of rails and putting down the other, the timber
has been so wounded and shaken, added to the long
time during which it has been exposed to the atmosphere,
that I have no doubt its bearing strength is impaired
fully one-half. Therefore, although if has to bear a
greater traffic and heavier weight, its strength is greatly
decreased. I found that the rails worked very much in
the chairs, and the chairs worked very much on the
timbers. The point to which I attach great importance
is the proper security of the chair; for the compound
moving of the timber bending, and the rail moving up
and down in the chair, will communicate a very
complicated motion, and great uneasiness to a passing train.
I found the keys required very generally renewing.
The worms were worn off the screw which secured the
chair to the sleeper in many instances. In some cases
the nut into which the bolt should have been screwed
at the bottom of the sleeper was defective, and would
not hold. Underneath the chairs fresh pieces of timber
were required to raise it up and give it a firm bend;
and I should say 75 per cent. of the chairs were deficient
in these respects." Only two men per mile were
employed to maintain the line,—an insufficient number.
Trains ought not to run on these rails at thirty miles an
hour. Where the rails had been relaid on cross timbers
the permanent way is good. The curves are not
objectionable. He thought the iron of the engine-axle
was of good material. In answer to the coroner, he
said—"I think the part of the line I was describing is
unfit for twenty-five miles an hour; I think twenty
miles an hour might be safe. I should like to make
one observation. I do not think this is an extremely
bad line, as an exceptional case: I regret to say that
there are a great number of lines in the kingdom where
very high speeds are maintained, of which this line is
only a type." A Juror—"Do you suppose the accident
would have happened if all the permanent way had
been in good condition?" Captain Wynn—"If it
arose from the breaking of the axle, which seems not
improbable, the state of the roads would certainly be one
likely to produce it." Crossley, a plate-layer, stated that
the line was kept short of men and materials. When he
had asked for bolts, keys, and chair-packings, he had
been threatened with discharge: this had prevented him
from applying to a higher officer. Messrs. Brassey and
Field are the contractors for the maintenance of the line.
Some officers of the company explained the nature of the
contract with Brassey and Field, who are paid £120 per
mile per annum for keeping the roadway in order, not
finding rails, chairs, and sleepers. No complaints had
been made by the company's inspectors. In eighteen
months ending December last, £59,735 was expended in
relaying forty-six miles of single rails.—Captain Laws,
the manager, said: "I cannot remember having seen
three trains running close together in the same direction
at any time."—A Juror: "Last Friday night two trains
started for the Clifton Junction within ten yards of each
other; one from the East Lancashire, the other from
the Lancashire and Yorkshire line." Captain Laws:
"Then that was a gross breach of the regulations, which
provide that no train shall, under any circumstances,
follow another within five minutes."—Mr. Hawkshaw,
the consulting engineer, admitted that the old part of
the road was "not quite in a state for a high velocity"
—a speed of forty or fifty miles.—Mr. Andrew Izat,
inspector of repairs on the line, said he did not think
£120 a mile sufficient to maintain in repair the length
between Manchester and Bolton, the traffic was so
great. He had made a demand for this particular
mile to be relaid; and Mr. Watts, the engineer, had