Saturday 12 Oct 1844 (p. 2, col. 8 - p. 3, col. 1) COLLISION AND LOSS OF LIFE ON THE BRANDLING JUNCTION RAILWAY.-On Tuesday morning last, a little after five o'clock, the butchers' market train left the South Shields Market-place station and proceeded at a quick rate for Gateshead. When nearly opposite West Harton colliery the engineman descried a locomotive coming down upon them at a rapid speed from Brockley Whins; he immediately reversed the motion and jumped off. No sooner had he done so than the other engine ran into the train with tremendous violence, breaking the tender to pieces, and detaching it from the train, and throwing the passengers against the back of the carriage with force. The engine belonging to the train being released from the tender, and having no one to guide it, gradually moved back, and then, with increasing force commenced to run with rapidity, the passengers jumping out all the way. When it came to the station it was going at the rate of 60 and 70 miles an hour. On reaching that place it dashed into the mail quarter-to-six o'clock train, breaking the carriages attached to pieces, and forcing those of the mail train almost over the stone wall. Assistance was instantly rendered, and those buried underneath the carriages taken out. They were found to be John BROWN, drover; and John BURRELL, butcher, Thames-street, (both of whom have died); a young man of the name of LIDDLE, who was slightly injured, and a little lad, apprentice to Mr. REED, Market-place. Of those who jumped off:- William GREENWELL, was picked up with his hip and ancle dislocated; George GAMBLE, with a serious contusion of the head, the frontal sinus opened, the bones of the nose broken, and his jaw and palate injured: he is not expected to recover; John YOUNG, with an internal injury, is now lying in a precarious state; John DOUTHWAITE, with his shoulder blade put out and the muscles of his thigh injured; Thomas BATTY, with the bones of his nose broken, and otherwise seriously hurt. Of the thirty passengers who were in the train, not one escaped without injury. It appears that the cause of the accident was a misunderstanding among the officials at Gateshead. The locomotive that ran into the train should have been down on the previous evening, to take the market train to Brockley Whins, and the parties recollecting that this should have been done, called up the engineman and sent him off at full speed. The conductors at Shields, having waited beyond the time of starting, got a local engine, and it was proceeding at a quick rate up to Brockley Whins when the two engines met, and this catastrophe is the result. The passengers on the train state, that neither train nor engine had a light out.-[It is a monstrous scandal that the lives of so many human beings should be thus sacrificed by the "misunderstanding of Gateshead officials." We trust the coroner's jury will mark their sense of the culpable neglect apparent in the above accident, imposing a heavy deodand.] Friday Morning.-We learn from the Newcastle Courant of this morning that an investigation into the nature of the accident took place before a coroner's jury on Wednesday, and, after several witnesses were examined, was brought to a termination at ten at night. The verdict agreed to was "Accidental death, OCCASIONED BY THE GROSS MISMANAGEMENT ON THE PART OF THE BRANDLING JUNCTION RAILWAY COMPANY," and the jury have discharged their duty to the public by imposing a DEODAND OF THREE HUNDRED POUNDS ON THE ENGINE. A few days ago, Mr. Martin ASHBURNER, of Gosforth, who has numbered three score years and ten, undertook, for a trifling wager, to mow down three acres of well-grown clover in nine hours. The veteran mower went to work, and handled his scythe with so much dexterity that he completed his arduous task in a first-rate style of workmanship in about eight hours! FATAL ACCIDENT.-On Saturday evening last, between ten and eleven o'clock, two boys, each about 17 years of age, named Robert SHAW (servant to J. HIGGIN, Esq., of Kendal, solicitor,) and Thomas BLACOW (servant at Mr. GERRARD's, the Slip Inn,) started from Sunderland, a village about seven miles from Lancaster, in a small boat with sails, intending to have a short sail, and then return, when unfortunately the wind rose, and in a moment the boat was upset, in the middle of the river, directly opposite the houses. Their cries for assistance were piercing, and were distinctly heard by many persons, some of whom were in bed. Several young men, as quick as possible, got into a boat, and rowed towards the place from whence the cries appeared to proceed. At that moment the moan [sic] became obscured, and all at once the sounds died away: and, after rowing about for some time as near the place as they could judge, without being able to hear or see anything of the unfortunate youths or the boat, the search was given up for the night. On the following morning (Sunday), the boat was found, bottom upwards, about a mile from the spot; and at Bazel Point, on the west side, a few rods from high-water-mark. BLACOW was found by C. DICKENSON, of the Bazel Ferry, lying on his back, from which it is supposed that it is scarcely possible the tide could have washed him to that place, comparing the height of the tide at the time the cries were heard with the place where the body was found, and the agreement is no near, that the supposition strongly argues that he had been alive when he first reached that place, being a swimmer, and also that he had been so nearly spent and exhausted, that his consciousness had given way, and prevented his getting any higher out of the way of the tide, which flowed for above an hour afterwards. Search was again made during the whole of Sunday, and was again renewed on Monday, and continued until noon, up to which time neither SHAW, the mast, sail, or paddles had been found. Both the youths were of good character, and much respected by their employers, and the suddenness of the accident has cast a gloom over all the village. It is but justice to Mr. HIGGIN and his family to state that they have done everything possible on the occasion, both as regards the unfortunate youth and his disconsolate parents, and have employed many persons to use every effort to find the body, and without success. The boy, we are assured, has often been warned by Mr. HIGGIN to keep away from the boat.