British Railway Disasters
Cha p t e r 3 18 65 Stapl eh urSt: h er oi Sm of o ur m ut u a l f r i en d
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ovelist Charles Dickens, one of the world’s best-loved authors, was a passenger in a train which crashed on a viaduct at Staplehurst in Kent, after workmen told nobody that they had removed a length of track on it. Ten people died; the writer tended to the wounded and dying, and then ran back inside the wrecked train to rescue his latest manuscript. On Friday, June 9, 1865, the South Eastern Railway’s daily boat train to London left Folkestone just before 2.40pm, having taken on board passengers from the tidal cross-channel ferry from France. The service, headed on this occasion by SER tender locomotive No. 199, one of the famous Cudworth singles with 7ft diameter driving wheels, was often referred to as the ‘tidal train’. Packed with continental pleasure-seekers, it comprised a brake van, a second-class carriage, seven first-class carriages, two more second-class carriages and three more brake vans, carrying in all 80 first-class and 35 second-class passengers. Three of the brake vans contained a guard and these were able to communicate with the driver using a whistle on the engine. Shortly after the train passed Headcorn station at 45-50mph, the driver saw a red flag. He whistled for the brakes and reversed his engine, but the locomotive and brakesmen were unable to stop the train before it derailed at 3.13pm while crossing the 10fthigh River Beult viaduct at Staplehurst. There, unknown to the train crew, a length of track had been removed during engineering works on the viaduct, with inevitable consequences. The 10ft-high viaduct spanned a riverbed, which was mostly dry at the time of the accident. The train jumped the rails before splitting into two. The locomotive, tender, a van and a second-class carriage made it across and remained coupled to a firstclass carriage, the other end of which rested in the dry river-bed. The next seven carriages ended up in the mud and the last second-class carriage remained coupled to the trailing vans, the last two of which remained on the eastern bank. Ten people died and 40 others were seriously injured while seven carriages were destroyed. Inside a first-class coach left hanging over the bridge with its rear end resting on the field below were novelist Charles Dickens, his mistress Ellen Ternan and her mother Frances Ternan, all returning to London from a month in Paris. Ellen’s presence was a guilty secret that Dickens was concealing from his adoring public, and he now found himself in a predicament that came very close to exposing that secret. We do not know why Dickens chose to travel in the front carriage as it was an unpopular location with travellers at the time as the first and last carriages were the most likely to be destroyed in the event of a crash. Maybe he felt that the brake van in front of his coach would absorb any impact. Nonetheless, Dickens played a significant part in the subsequent rescue efforts. Despite sustaining minor injuries himself, he climbed out of a window, and noticed two guards running up and down. He summoned them and, with their help, used planks to lead the Ternans out of the carriage and to safety. He helped them up the bank and returned to the carriage. Once back inside, he retrieved his top hat and a flask of brandy. Filling the hat with water, he scrambled down the bank and started to tend the other victims, some of whom died while he was with them. He administered brandy to a 18
