Father & Son

By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc.

In January 1896 an accident happened to Railway Guard Frederick William Hainsworth. Fred was born in 1849. In the History Page in July, 2022, I wrote about him coming to Australia on the ship ‘Elamang’ arriving at Sydney in March 1877 and employed by the nSW Railway Department as a porter at Bathurst where he married Annie Devany and they moved to Penrith in 1878. Their family cottage was in Belmore Street. Fred was employed as a guard on the railway here. Fred’s accident happened at Bathurst when the train started leaving the station and a door was still open and he went along the side and closed it but was caught and wrenched off the train dropping onto the open bridge and killed. His body was brought back to Penrith by train and he was buried in St Stephen’s Cemetery at Penrith. His son Hugh Frederick born in Bathurst in 1878 followed his father to work on the railway. In november 1903 an accident happened to an Irish man named John Gunn as he was taking a short cut, being in a hurry to meet the train at the Medlow railway station and while crossing the line he was not aware that the train was so close. His death was instantaneous and his body was frightfully cut up from being dragged under the train. Hugh was 25 and at the inquest said he was a fireman on the No 31 down train and employed by the railway department and was arriving in the train at Medlow. When a quarter of a mile away from the platform he was looking in that direction and could see the line was perfectly clear and he heard the driver sound his whistle as usual. He had nothing more to do as the steam was shut off and he was keeping a sharp lookout. He saw no one approaching and knew nothing about anyone being run over until the driver sang out to him “is he out” and the only thing he saw was the hat of John Gunn fly out from the side of the line and he noticed the driver had applied the Westinghouse brake at the same moment he called out to him and they pulled up in about 40 or 50 yards. He then remained in charge of the engine while the driver went back to see who was run over. Fast forward to 1917 and an inquest in the Penrith Court House on the death of Hugh who died from injuries received from falling from a railway engine in October. At the inquest Harry Edwin Field said he was a fireman in the employ of the Railway Department as fireman on No.1 Passenger Mail train that left Penrith about 9 pm and Hugh Hainsworth who was wearing a cap that night was the driver. He said Hugh was speaking to him shortly after passing Emu Plains Station about the dirty state of the coal, and about half a mile to the Glenbrook tunnel he missed him and thought he must be on the footplate looking around the engine but did see him leave the cab. They reached the tunnel and he knew Hugh would not be on the footplate going through there and because Hugh had not reappeared he drove on to Glenbrook and reported the matter to the Night Officer. He knew drivers went out on the footplate to investigate as occasionally the donkey engine might cease working which meant attention was needed. The night was fairly dark and they were travelling about 15 miles an hour, so Hugh could leave the cab easily and he was attending to his own work of keeping a look out as there was plenty to do. He had known Hugh for about two years and he was a man of very temperate habits and we had been friends since and it did not strike him that he could have stopped the train when he first became anxious about Hugh at the tunnel but being so near to Glenbrook he thought it wise to go straight on there. He qualified as a fireman and could drive the engine. Hugh was in good spirits on the trip and did not appear depressed in any way and he could not suggest any cause for the accident but Hugh might have been leaning over to pull the water range down or looking to see the side of the engine and over-balanced himself; or more probably been leaning outwards from the engine and tender with his back towards the engine. This is a common practice with drivers and there is a regulation that the driver should watch to see if the train is following properly but he was fully occupied on the trip and therefore did not notice Hugh’s disappearance. James Riley said he was a Railway ganger and on the night he was awakened at 9.30 pm and he was informed that Hugh Hainsworth had been lost off a train somewhere between Emu Plains and the tunnel, so he got on his tricycle and searched and he found the body about 11 p.m., more than 3 miles from the tunnel, lying on the downside of the line and 4 ft from the rail. He lifted Hugh onto the tricycle and Hugh said “I am done,” being the only words he spoke. He brought him along on the tricycle half a mile and got a mate to put Hugh on the double tricycle and brought him to Emu Plains where he went to ring up Dr Higgins and Hugh was taken to the Hospital. The next morning, he returned to the scene and found a cap, and looking at the cut on the right side of the cap he thought Hugh must have been looking back to Emu Plains when he was struck, and he must have been struck hard and held on for a while and then fallen off. Where Hugh’s body was found the sleeper at that spot had hair and blood on it showing that he had fallen on it. Wesley Thomas Cavanaugh the Railway Stationmaster at Emu Plains said he was there when Hugh was brought to the Station then unconscious and he saw the examination by Dr Higgins and presumed Hugh was coming around the projection at the time of passing Hall’s Bridge and he would have 9 inches less of space and his theory was that Hugh had been returning from the side of the engine to his cab in a stooping condition when he struck the post that corresponds with the cut on the cap. Dr Higgins said that he went to Emu Railway Station and examined a man in a very critical condition and recommended his immediate removal to the Hospital. On his arrival he discovered a fracture of the skull about 3 inches long and he was suffering from shock at the time and practically pulseless, but two days later his condition did not improve and an operation was undertaken to release the pressure caused by a depressed fracture, but some hours later he died. The cause of death being probably due to a laceration of the brain and haemorrhage and the depression on the skull was more than likely caused by coming in contact with the sleeper where the body was found, and the injury to the skull was across the back of the head and not the side. The Coroner’s finding was Hugh Frederick Hainsworth at the nepean Cottage Hospital, Penrith, died from laceration of the brain and haemorrhage consequent thereon, the result of injuries accidentally received at Emu Plains whilst driving no. 61 down Mail train.

Sources: Nepean Times, Mountaineer Katoomba, Ancestry, NSW Registers of Coroners’ Inquests, Australian Birth Records, Australian Death Index, NSW Deceased Estate Files-Probate, Family Search (Mormon website).