The Marie Celeste Railway

[RichardB]

On the same day (8th December 1852) , a goods train consisting of engine, tender, and forty-five wagons, arived in Sheffield without any one in charge of it.

The engine by which the train was drawn was a new one of very large size. It had come from Manchester, and was on the way to Lincoln. 'When the train was a mile or two off Sheffield, one of the tubes of the boiler burst, and the engine-driver, after endeavouring to remedy the accident, in the course of which he sustained a severe scalding, was fain to retreat to the opposite end of the engine. He was still within the range of the hissing steam, and, after a desperate effort to endure till the scalding vapour should be exhausted, he dropped off the engine in a state of insensibility. The fireman and guard saved themselves by leaping off, and the train was thus left to proceed by itself.

Though the steam had been turned off, the declivity of the line towards Sheffield, made the train move rapidly along, till it reached the goods station at Bridgehouses, when its speed being diminished, a boy in the service of the company took charge of it and brought it to the Sheffield station. Fortunately the line happened to be clear, otherwise great mischief would have been done.