§ MR. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether it is true, as stated in The Times, that a serious accident occurred to a mixed train near Kincraig, on the Highland Railway, on Thursday morning last, owing to a goods waggon leaving the rails and pulling other vehicles along with it; whether the train was marshalled with 17 waggons, two vans, and four passenger carriages in that order; whether, in Reports of Inspectors of the Board of Trade on accidents of a similar nature to mixed trains, the attention of Railway Companies has repeatedly been drawn to the serious danger of placing passenger carriages in the rear of waggons; and, whether, having regard to the persistent neglect of the recommendations of the Board of Trade by Railway Companies, especially in Scotland, in this matter of placing goods waggons and trucks first in the marshalling of mixed trains, he will include this matter among those on which he proposes to obtain compulsory powers for the Board next Session?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.), in reply, said, he had directed an inquiry to be made into the accident. He had no information as to the way in which the train was made up. On the 25th of August a Circular was sent out by the Board of Trade to different Railway Companies, calling attention to the danger of making up mixed trains, and especially when they were made up as in the case named in the Question. He would certainly consider the expediency of obtaining compulsory powers for the Board of Trade with reference to this practice, which, he believed, was by no means uncommon among Railway Companies.
§ MR. CHANNINGasked, if the right hon. Gentleman was aware that the danger of marshalling trains in this way was much increased when a large number of trucks were loaded by the owner and the couplings defective?