Update - see below the original
----- Original Message -----
From: lizzy johansen <lizzy.johansen(a)btinternet.com>
To: <GLAMORGAN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 5:03 PM
Subject: [GLA] Railway Accident at Swansea l865
Whilst looking for some information for someone else I came across
the
following article in the Illustrated London News for December 9th
l865....
I thought it might interest some on this List...
Fatal Railway Accident at Swansea
The accident which happened on Wednesday week, close to the Swansea
Terminus of the Valley of Neath Railway, was one of a very remarkable
kind. It appears that the railway there passes over an iron drawbridge
constructed on the telescopic principle across the lock of the North
Dock. This bridge was made to be withdrawn or replaced at discretion by
the power of one of Sir W. ARMSTRONG's hydraulic engines and was
constructed in order to open the entrance of the dock for the passage of
shipping. At 6 o'clock that morning when the coal trains were about to
pass as usual at that hour of the day, the bridge was left open. The
line is worked by the most simple and efficient code of signals that
modern science and railway engineering could advise yet by some strange
and inexcusable negligence upon the part of the signalman, on this
occasion the signals were made to give information precisely the reverse
of the truth. The bridge, we have stated, was open at the time but the
signalman gave the signal "line clear". The consequence was that the
train of 23 coal trucks rushed on and upon reaching the bridge fell over
into the lock below. The two men on the engine, the driver and stoker,
were killed on the spot. The red or danger signal was seen by the
guard. John HOWELLS, the signalman, was taken into custody and will
stand trial for manslaughter. Mr GULLIVER of Swansea provided the
illustration.
Kind regards, Diane Johansen
______________________________
Unless I am much mistaken, the site of the accident is now the main road
between Sainsbury's supermarket and Toys-R-Us car park. The North Dock, the
original course of the river Tawe, was filled in, largely with rubble from
the 1941 3-nights blitz, and Toys-R-Us and the rest of the Parc Tawe
shopping centre stand on it. The way in to the North Dock from the tidal
river was through two locks, between which was the (North Dock) Half Tide
Basin. Sainsbury's is built on this filled in site, with the car park
extending over the old Central Graving Dock and the Weaver's flour store
site. Visitors to the store may notice cast iron bollards, originally for
tying up ships, retained, though I think moved. The piers from the 'Vale of
Neath' railway bridge across the 'New Cut' are still there in the river,
visible from the [1896?] New Cut bridge as you drive in to Swansea from the
east.
So if you are stuck in a traffic queue on your way to St. Helen's rugby
ground, or the Vetch Field <bg>, ponder on the railway disaster at the spot
over 136 years ago!
Glamorgan Archives used to sell a reprint of the 1897 25-inch-to-the-mile OS
map of central Swansea, and the recent highlight on copyright would limit
any attempt to scan bits of it.
Jeff