Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

heard their Inspector had been called by the L & Y to collect and destroy a box of fish, which had been consigned to Messrs Riley & Sons (Fishmongers), but who had refused to take receipt of them! September At twenty minutes past midnight on Tuesday, the 26 th , there was a thunderous crash which awoke the residents on Lonsdale Street and the nearby dwellings. This was due to a locomotive travelling between Accrington Locomotive sidings and Church Railway Station, being put on to the wrong line and crashing through the buffer stop before plunging headlong down between the two bridges carrying the line over the roadway. People flocked from their houses in darkness to see if anyone had been injured. Fortunately, there had been no one under the bridge at that time. The driver stayed on the footplate and it was very fortunate he did not receive other than minor injuries and was able to clamber down to safety, whilst his fireman had jumped from the engine at the last second. It was also fortunate that the boiler of the locomotive did not explode due to the force of the impact after it had come to rest at a 45 o angle. The luggage train had been shunted before setting off for Hellifield, and then moved off to gain the running lines. When he had seen the mistake the driver had applied the brakes but the weight of the train had pushed it over the parapet, the tender had become detached and it along with the wagons remained upright on the track, whilst the locomotive had fallen 15 feet into the road. Both were Wakefield enginemen and when interviewed, the driver expressed the opinion that the two bridges carrying the lines should be made into one, which Accrington Corporation had refused the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway permission to carry out. A brake-down crane and crew was summoned, but due to the difficulty of the location and the fact that the engine, number 684 weighing 50 tons, had gone through the paving and embedded itself over a foot down in the substrata, the recovery would take until the following Sunday to complete and this included separating the tender from the stricken engine. During this time traffic was allowed to pass by on one side of the highway. A new signal box was in the process of being built on the Church side of the bridge, and this had significantly obstructed the view of the signalman on duty at Church East Box which was in part to blame for this accident. This was the second time that a locomotive had come down into the road at this location as a similar incident had occurred in 1886. ( The Aspinall 0-6-0 tender locomotive was new in February, 1898, and was coupled to a Barton Wright tender. It could not have suffered too much damage as it was repaired and returned to traffic, surviving until February, 1956, as BR number 52382 when allocated to Bury Sheds .) October The Town Council heard correspondence from the Commissioners of the L & Y, about the complaints which had been laid as to the lack of ‘proper accommodation’ at Accrington Railway Station. The Town Clerk was authorised to write to the Railway Commissioners drawing attention to these complaints and requesting they make a thorough investigation. The Legal & Parliamentary Committee received a letter from the L & Y offering to exchange a piece of land adjoining the westerly boundary of the cemetery on Burnley Road for an equal area of land in a strip, which would allow them to widen the railway between Huncoat Station and the Cricket Field Bridge. It was resolved not to accept this offer, and the Town Clerk was authorised to refer the matter on to a single arbitrator, with two representatives from each party, without the cost of involving legal teams, in order to resolve the issue with as little expense as possible! November The Health Committee once again resolved to write to the L & Y on the subject of water seeping out of Scaitcliffe Street Bridge with its attendant problems, and their as yet unfulfilled promise, to rectify this fault “without delay”, which they had made the previous June. The Legal & Parliamentary Committee received a letter from the L & Y asking if the Corporation would agree to them taking only 2,770sq yards instead of the 3,427 square yards as stated previously and requesting the names of the Corporation’s preferred arbitrators. It was resolved that the reduced amount of land be sanctioned subject to the Railway Company paying all the costs and carrying out all the work, as specified in Section 45 of their Act of 1897. A list of four names was submitted to the Company as requested. December In a letter to the Legal & Parliamentary Committee ( dated December 21 st ,) the L & Y stated they now only required 2,400 square yards of land from the cemetery, and hoped the Corporation would agree to this reduced amount of land, with the same terms and conditions applying. They also refused to accept any of the Corporation’s nominees by putting forward the names of four of their own. But it was agreed by this Committee that a Mr Joseph Brierley of Blackburn would be the sole arbitrator.

97