Update - see below the original ----- Original Message ----- From: lizzy johansen <lizzy.johansen@btinternet.com> To: <GLAMORGAN-L@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 This bridge was made to be withdrawn or replaced at discretion by 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