The Railway Engineer Volume 21 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 Excerpt: ...was standing in a position corresponding with the crossover road leading from the up fast to the up slow, all the wheels being off the rails, except those of the leading bogie of the middle coach. The engine of the goods train was lying on its left side on the up slow line, at the foot of the platform ramp. Its tender and 5 wagons, which had forced their way past the engine, were standing alongside the up slow platform, with all their wheels off the rails. Ten more wagons were derailed and scattered along the up slow line between the platform and the junction with the fast lines, while the remaining 7 wagons and the brake van were on the up slow line, north of this junction, and undamaged. Near the spot where the first mark of a wheel having been derailed showed itself, a quantity of cloth was found lying in the four-foot way of the up fast line. This consisted of very thick and tenacious material, which, though i yds. wide, had been folded down the middle and rolled up into a compact bundle weighing 84 lbs., and originally enclosed in sacking. The bale was at the time of its discovery almost entirely unrolled; some of the cloth had been completely torn away and the remainder had small cuts at regular intervals along its whole length. On the top of the left-hand rail of the up fast line, north and south of the first wheel mark, small fragments of cloth were found, which had been hammered down by wheels passing over them, until they had become quite hard and adhered closely to the rail. Close by the up distant signals a depression was found in the ballast between the up slow and down fast lines, and a second mark of a similar nature showed itself between the down fast and up fast lines. These had the appearance of having been caused by a heavy object w...