Following on with the train theme ... Please do not read on if you are likely to be upset by details of a local accident ...
Transcribed from a report in the 'Leicester Journal' of Friday March 8th, 1878. Paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.
LOUGHBOROUGH
FATAL ACCIDENT NEAR LOUGHBOROUGH
On Monday afternoon an elderly man, named John Hyde, about 70 years of age, residing at Cherry Orchard, Loughborough, was crossing the line on a level crossing, about half a mile in the direction of Barrow, from Loughborough, when the Midland Express, which leaves Derby at 2.5 [not sure what time this is actually meant to be], and passes through Loughborough about half-past one, came up without him perceiving it. He was caught by the engine and killed instantaneously.
His grandson, who was with him, saw the train in time, and so escaped un-injured, but he was unable to warn his grandfather in time. At the place where the accident happened there is a clear stretch of railway of about a mile, so that there was plenty of time to get out of the way of the approaching train.
An inquest was held before H. Deane, Esq., coroner, a the Duke of York Inn, on the 5th instant [of this month]. The deceased was 73 years of age. On Monday, he and a grandson, James Rumsby, 10 years of age, went on a walk to the Station on some business, and returned by the Old Cricket Ground, on Nottingham Road, leading to Moor Lane. When they got to the Railway, deceased wished the boy to go across the line; he hesitated, seeing a train coming, and said, they perhaps might get run over.
The deceased wanted to go, so the boy made the best of his way, and got safe across, then turning round he saw the engine of the up express train “strike him up in the air.”. Willaim Brookes, being a short distance from the spot, the went to him crying, and told him the circumstance. On going to the spot he found the body 47 yards from the crossing, with one leg cut off, and the body knocked to pieces.
James Pegg, the driver of the engine in question, said being behind time, they were going at the rate of about 45 miles an hour. He saw the boy cross the line in front of him, and shook his head at him for so doing, but he never saw the deceased.
The body was frightfully mangled. A verdict of ‘Accidental death’ was recorded.
Note: This unfortunate event took place on the Midland Mainline, as although the Great central Railway is in the vicinity of Moor Lane, the line wasn't built until 1899.
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This is one
in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’.
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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for
typos which are all mine!
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Lynne
2.5 in railway timetables of the period would mean 5 past 2.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I knew it would mean something different than I thought would! I was thinking 25 to 1, but that would have meant it took 55 mins from Derby to Loughborough. However, as the train was coming from Derby, if it started at 2 and arrived in Loughborough at 1.30 then that's also a bit odd! Lynne
DeleteHistorically leading zeroes weren't shown in times, so as the earlier Anonymous says, 2.5 is five-past two. It's highly unlikely that it was 2 in the morning, so 2.05 p.m. or 14:05 in modern money (not actually that modern, trains have used the 24-hour clock since the mid-1960s!)
DeleteApropos of nothing much, historic timetables from the early 1900s tend to be very pedantic about the use of a.m. and p.m.: none of this "12 p.m." malarkey for midday; it would be written as 12 n'n, meaning 12 noon, and midnight would be 12 m'n, not that there would be much moving by then.
When I was a kid I had a teacher who was also very pedantic about it and was very forceful about explaining that a.m. (ante median) and p.m. (post median) mean before and after midday respectively so 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. both mean midnight. He'd be spinning in his grave if he saw things like 1700pm, mixing 24- and 12-hour clock!
A little pedant: the line is the Midland main line, three words, named after the Midland Railway which built it. Midland Mainline, two words, is the train company which ran the London trains through Loughborough between 1997 and 2007.
Thank you so much for the clarification on a number of points where I either didn't know, or where I muddled the terminology! I quite see how inaccuracies can be both misleading and irritating! I did think that am and pm meant anti- and post- meridian. Monetary values are also something that seems to have started to be wrongly written now, too! The eateries that price things at say 6.5 when they actually mean £6.50, or places where things are sold at £0.45p - arghhhhhh! Anyway, thanks again for the clarifications - much appreciated, Lynne.
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