As with so many tings, once the railways came, and made travel faster and more commonplace, people started figuring out what sort of crimes this new mode of transport could facilitate.
All sorts of crimes and weird encounters took place on trains.
On Saturday the 5th of March, 1870, The Pall Mall Gazette took a look at some of the crimes that seemed to be commonplace on the railways of the day.
RAILWAY MURDER
A correspondent has sent to us a record of the attempts made at various times during the last two years to upset passenger trains.
The writer’s account of these records is that he has simply taken them from the newspapers as he has happened to read them there; he supposes that he must have missed many, and he believes, from the testimony of various engine-drivers, that there are other cases, in which the train “bumps” over the obstacle placed to overset it – such cases being rarely heard of at all.
No apology was needed, however, for the supposed incompleteness of these annals of attempted railway murder. They are complete enough.
43 PUBLISHED CASES
The writer sends us 43 published instances investigated by the police in two years.
Of these 17 took place in i868, and 26 in i869, from which it appears that the crime is on the increase.
Of the 43 recorded cases in the last two years, 25 are due to England, eight to Scotland, seven to Ireland, and three to Wales.
THE PERPETRATORS
Out of all these offences the perpetrators of only two were discovered.
One of these culprits was a discharged railway guard, who was caught in the act, and who was sent to penal servitude for life.
In the other case, a boy of thirteen, engaged with other young ruffians in arranging for “a spill and a smash,” placed several iron chairs on the line, and actually succeeded in throwing the train off its track, though fortunately without loss of life.
The boy was punished with a whipping and a month’s imprisonment.
But for his tender years we should have recommended a month’s whipping with or without imprisonment.
Just as in this case nobody was killed, so we generally find that the mischief is far less by accidents arranged for in this way than might reasonably be supposed.
LOSS OF LIFE AND INJURY
Still there have been several cases of loss of life and serious injury.
On the Neath and Brecon line, the engine driver was killed on the spot and several passengers dreadfully injured.
One of the sufferers brought an action for damages; the company pleaded that the obstacles which had thrown the train off the line had been maliciously placed there, and therefore they were not liable.
The judge, however, did not countenance this defence, and the jury gave 500l. damages.
MOST FREQUENT LOCATIONS
In England, these terrible crimes are more frequently committed in the neighbourhood of Stockport, Manchester, and Wigan.
THROWING STONES AT TRAINS
A less dangerous offence, but an equally senseless one, is that of throwing stones at passing trains.
Another correspondent informs us that only the other day, as his wife was travelling with her child and maid on the London and North Western line, half a brick came crashing through the window of the carriage, breaking the glass into a shower of small fragments.
Luckily, no one was hurt, because a moment before the lady had moved from the place against which the missile struck.
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO DETECT
These crimes are most difficult of detection, which is an additional reason for making the punishment, whenever it can be applied, of a very exemplary kind.
Bad signalling, open points, and inadequate supervision are surely risks enough, without being supplemented by mere idle amateur ruffianism.