3-082-484 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Subsidence of St. Catherine's Tunnel, Guildford, 1895. '...a curious, and what might have proved a very dangerous, subsidence of a tunnel on the London and South-Western Railway...occurred early on Saturday morning, March 23. The tunnel...runs under the high sandhill surmounted by the ruins of St. Catherine's Chapel. Just before midnight on Friday a train with three or four empty carriages...was suddenly stopped in its progress through the tunnel. The driver, fireman, and guard then discovered that a portion of the tunnel had fallen. About an hour later more debris was dislodged, and embedded the engine and carriages. About 30 ft. from the tunnel is a house, of which the stables and coach-house were built over the tunnel. These, with four carriages and two horses, have been swallowed up by the accident, and the animals must have perished almost immediately...a gang of a hundred navvies extemporised a platform, [and] omnibuses were commissioned to convey passengers whose journey was interrupted...Naturally, the scene...has been visited by thousands of persons, including some directors and prominent officials of the London and South-Western Railway Company...There is sound reason for congratulation that no passenger-train was involved'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.