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WRECK OF THE
EXPRESS TRAIN.
A DIABOLICAL OUTRAGE.
PERMANENT WAY PUT OUT OF
GAUGE.
HALF A MILE OF OBSTACLES.
TRAIN DERAILED AT HORSESHOE
BRIDGE
MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF
PASSENGERS.
GOVERNMENT OFFER £500 REWARD
FOR CONVICTION OF
OFFENDERS.
A diabolical, and to some extent, success-
ful, attempt was made last night to wreck
the express train from Launceston to
Hobart, but fortunately the dastardly out-
rage was not attended by injury to any of the
passengers, of whom there were some 60
aboard. They had a miraculous escape from
an awful death, the weeckers having chosen
the Horseshoe Bridge, located at the fifteen-
milepost between Bridgewater and Brighton,
for their terrible purpose. The up express
left Launceston at its usual time, 3 o'clock
in the afternoon, in charge of Guard
Reynolds, Driver Jones, and Fireman
Bagley. Everythiug went well on the
journey till the train arrived at the Horse-
shoe-bridge. Here, according to Mr. S.
Hawkes, member for Ringarooma, and Mr.
Conway, the member for George Town,
both passengers on their way to Parliament,
those on board the train were suddenly and
alarmingly apprised that something was
wrong. There was a violent " bump," and
Mr. Hawkes was thrown to the deck of the
oompartment. The bumping continued till
the train suddenly came to a standstill. On
alighting it was found that the full length of
the train was on the bridge, the engine and
one or two of the carriages being rolled
on their sides and hanging over the bridge,
The bridge is a wood tressel structure on
stone piers, its length is about 150ft, and
its height above the Jordan Valley, which
it spans, about 65ft. The approach on the
north side is straight, and there is a curve
on the Hobart side. It was found that the
bolts holding the fish plates at the Northern
approach to the bridge had been deliberately
broken off, and the permanent way put out
of gauge ; the object of the fiends who did
this apparently being to throw the train
and its living freight over the bridge into
the chasm below. The front part of the
train appears to have left the rails at this
point and dragged itself a full length along
the sleepers. The miracle is how it
remained on the bridge. As it was, the
engine and the first two carriages were
pitched into a sufficiently dangerous position
to endanger the lives of the engine driver
and fireman, and many of the passen-
gers. Traffic Inspector Mann, who was
in the guard's van, went on to Bridge-
water to wire information of what had hap-
pened to Hobart. When the passengers had
sufficiently recovered from the fright they
were naturally thrown into, and had
contemplated the shocking catastrophe,
involving the loss of their lives, which had been
so narrowly averted, it was found that the
wreckers were so fully determined to
accomplish their end, that if the train was not
thrown over the bridge, a half mile of
obstacles, consisting of rails, sleepers, navvies
tools, etc , would at least ensure its being
cast off the line, and for the distance named
the line was found blocked in such a manner
as to make escape impossible. It was a most
abominable outrage, and one for which no
cause is assignable. A melo-dramatic tinge
is given to the affair by the fact that
just about the time the train was
wrecked the Minister of Railways was
alluding, in the course of a congratu-
latory speech in Parliament, to the
freedom of the working of the lines from
accident. The passengers all agree that they
owe their lives to the coolness and courage
of the driver, fireman, and guard. Had it
not been that the two men stuck bravely to
their engine and applied the Westinghouse
brake with a promptness that pulled the
train up after it had but time to travel only
its own length on the first warning of danger,
the loss of life must have been fearful.
Though these brave men must have known
the dangerous spot at which their engine
left the rails, it did not have the slightest
effect on their daring oourage, for when
found the fireman was hanging to the rail
of his engine over a chasm stretching away
down into the darkness—a distance of nearly
70ft. The guard also assisted to bring the
train to a standstill by pulling on the brake
in his van, and his subsequent action in crawling
over the dark bridge to bid the affrighted
passengers retain their seats was un-
doubtedly the means of preventing many
rushing into unnecessary danger.
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