PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR
12TH DECEMER 1893
INVOLVING FRATTON DRIVER JOHN DAVID GOFF
EXTRACTED AND ADAPTED FROM THE REPORT BY
C.S. HUTCHINSON
MAJOR GENERAL, R.E.
The accident which occurred on the 12th ultimo at Portsmouth Harbour station, jointly owned by the London and South Western and by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Companies.
In this case, about five minutes after the arrival of the Brighton Company's 11.35 a.m. passenger train from Brighton at Portsmouth Harbour, which it reached at 1.40 p.m., 13 minutes late, the roof covering the arrival island platform was blown down by a high gust of wind. Two out of the only three passengers in the train had left the platform before the roof fell, but the third, as he was passing along the platform, was struck by a portion of the roof and sustained a scalp wound. The driver and guard of the train, who were both on the plat-form, were injured on the head, the guard seriously. A porter, who was wheeling an empty luggage cage along the platform, escaped unhurt by crouching down by the side of the cage. The fireman, who was on the footplate of his engine, jumped on to the ballast when he heard the roof falling, and was also uninjured.
The train itself was but little damaged, some carriage windows being broken, but a. double row of cast iron columns supporting the roof over the platform, extending for a length of about 480 feet and about 21 feet wide, was completely destroyed, the columns being uniformly broken off about 1ft. 9 ins. above the platform, as well as near the top, the roof falling nearly vertically on to the platform.
Desmipticm.
Portsmouth Harbour station was opened in year 1876 and contains four lines of rails, one for the departure and two for the arrival of trains and an empty carriage line. The arrival lines, which are on the south side of the station, are on each side of an island platform, and this was roofed over for nearly its entire length. The roof consisted of zinc, timber, and iron, the iron longitudinal and cross members being supported by a double row of cast-iron columns having a total height of about 14 feet. The rows are 7 1/2 feet from centre to centre, where the plat-form is 20 feet wide, but toward the east end of the roof, where the platform diminishes in width to about 16 feet, they are only two feet from centre to centre; the longitudinal distance between the columns is 20 feet, and there are in all 50 of them from the east end of the roof to its junction with the roof at the pier end of the station, which is also connected with the roof over the departure platform. The greater part of the harbour station is built on cast-iron piles, supporting wrought-iron main and cross girders, and the roof columns are bolted down to cross girders 20 feet apart, which also support the platform. For the lower 3ft. 7 ins. the columns are octagonal in shape and 10 inches wide, for the next 7 ft. 5 ins. they are circular and five inches in diameter, for the remaining three feet they are of the same internal diameter, but have projections on the outside for fixing the cantilevers which carry the roof. The metal ought throughout to have been half an inch thick, but there are some slight inequalities observable in some of the broken fragments. There is some ornamental work, both at the bottom and top of the round part of the columns, that at the bottom extending for about six inches above the octagonal portion, and it was at the top of this ornamental portion, which is four feet above the bottom of the columns, that they all broke off, the fractures at the top being generally just at the top of the ornamental portion. The roof projected outwards, with a slight inclination upwards, for seven feet from the centres of each row of columns, and was finished oft' at each side by an ornamental wooden valance about three feet deep.
In falling the east end of the roof came over southward about 10 feet, and damaged about 50 feet of the parapet and railing which bound the station on the south side; its line of fall was then nearly straight for a length of about 280 feet, when it fell about fair on the platform; it then inclined northward for about 100 feet, being about 10 feet to the north at the west end of these 100 feet, and them gradually inclined southward towards the standing part of the roof at the west end of the platform.
Evidence
Henry Sparshatt, station inspector at Portsmouth Harbour station. I have held this position 13 1/2 years and I was on duty on the 12th December at about 1.45 p.m. I was standing at the up end of the up platform attending to the train due to start at 1.50 p.m. for London. I was looking across to down platform, when a sudden gust of wind seemed to strike the shelter on that platform and to lift it up, and it at once fell, beginning at the east end and following on to the west without any apparent interval. A train from Brighton due at 1.27 p.m. and which had arrived at about 1.38 p.m. was still standing on No. 2 line, and some of the falling roof struck the engine and three or four carriages behind it. The driver who was on the platform was covered by the roof and had to be pulled out; he was but slightly injured. The fireman was on the footplate and escaped. Parsons, the rear guard, was talking to the driver and was badly injured. Catt, the injured passenger, was walking with Parsons. The front guard and the other passengers had left the platform before the roof fell, at about 1.45 p.m. The wind had been blowing hard for some time, but not so as to prevent the boat leaving for Ryde at 1.20 p.m. The wind was south with a little west in it. The roof of the up platform was damaged soon after the other roof was blown down. The train could not be set back till part of the roof had been cleared. I can remember heavier winds than this, but they were not in the same direction and no damage was ever done by them.
2. Charles Pearson, porter in the joint companies' service; 19 l/2 years service ; 8 l/2 years at the Harbour station. I came on duty at 9 a.m. to remain till 7.30 p.m. on the 12th December. Just after the arrival of the train from Brighton due at 1.27 p.m. I was engaged on the down platform in pushing one of the empty luggage cages towards the pier head. I had moved the cage forward about 40 yards and was about 30 or 40 yards from the barrier when I heard a noise proceeding from the east end of the platform. I had no time to look round, but feeling sure the roof was falling I knelt down behind the cage at the pier end of it and was thus protected from the falling roof, which came on to the top of the cage. I was not hurt. When I stopped I had just got beyond the engine and I saw the guard and a passenger coming towards me. I did not see the driver or the fireman. I think the roof began to fall from the east end. The wind was very strong. I have never known a stronger one, but I was able to push the cage. I managed to get out in about two minutes.
John David Goff. driver; 27 years' service, 16 years driver. I commenced work on December 12th at Fratton at 8.15 a.m. to sign off at 2.20 p.m. I had brought in the 11.3.5 a.m. passenger train from Brighton, due at Portsmouth station at 1.27 p.m., but arriving at 1.40 p.m. We had been detained waiting for a London train at Ford junction. My engine was a single-wheeled tender-engine, running chimney in front, and the train consisted of nine vehicles, fitted throughout with the Westinghouse brake. The train ran into No. 2 road, the engine stopping about 20 yards from the buffer-stops. The wind had been high all the way down, but was very high along the platform. I only remember one other case of so high a wind, viz., at Ford junction, about seven years ago, when tho sheets were blown off the goods waggons of the goods train I was driving. After the arrival of the train I stepped on to the platform and went as far as the end of the tender to put my running bill into the box on the tender. I had done so, and had stepped back on to the platform to return to the footplate, when hearing a crash I looked over my shoulder and saw the roof just above my head lifting towards the carriages. Seeing this I made a rush for jumping off the platform into No.1 road, but before I was able to do so I was caught by the south valance of the roof, which struck me on the head and knocked me down underneath the roof, close to the edge of the platform over No.1 line. I found I was able to crawl out about opposite the engine. I was off duty four days. The fireman was on the footplate, but on hearing the crash jumped off into No.1 road and escaped without injury. One of the columns fell on to the tender and another on to the framing of the engine. I passed guard Parsons about the middle of the tender as I was going to the back of it. He was on his way round to No.4 road. I did not see him again until after I had crawled out, and I then found him opposite the footplate, injured in the head, I think, by a falling column, and with a piece of wood across his chest. He was lying on his back with his body on the platform and his legs hanging on the edge of the platform. I saw no one else. The roof fell about 1.43 p.m. I saw only two ladies pass away from the train before the accident.
Robert Parsons, guard; 15 years' service, 14 years guard. I commenced work at 8.45 a.m. on the 12th December to sign off at 10.45 p.m. with an interval from 1.37 pm. to 3.20 p.m. at Portsmouth, and from 5.15 p.m. to 8.55 p.m. at Brighton. I was guard of the 11.35 a.m. passenger train from Brighton for Portsmouth Harbour where it was due at 1.27 p.m. We lost time at Ford junction and at Chichester attaching a horse box, and from Havant (where the horse box was detached) the train consisted of engine, tender, and nine vehicles, the Westing- house brake being in operation throughout the train. I was in the rear vehicle, which was a brake van. The front guard kept the time, but I know we reached Portsmouth Harbour some minutes late, with not more than three or four passengers train. The
wind was very high throughout the journey, and particularly so along the Harbour platform. After the arrival of the train I was walking along towards the engine, pulling up windows as I went. I had about reached the rear part of the front van when a tremendous gust came on, and I heard the roof rattle and lift towards my left, and I made a dash at the door of the van, and I had got on to the step when something struck me, I do not know what, on my back and the back of my head. I was knocked right off the platform on to the ballast between the train and edge of the platform, and the first thing I recollect was when I was being lifted on to a stretcher. Catt, the passenger who was injured, was walking alongside of me on my left when the roof fell. He seemed to me to drop off towu:-ds the loft. I do not remember seeing a porter wheeling an empty luggage cage as I was walking along the train, when I had no difficulty in keeping my feet. I may have got as far as the tender and then rushed back to the van door on seeing the roof begin to fall, but I am still of opinion that I fell on to the ballast opposite the van door. I am now feeling much better, but have not yet returned to duty.
Conclusion.
The fall of the roof over the island platform on the arrival side of Portsmouth Harbour station must, in the absence of any other probable cause, be attributed to the effect of a sudden gust of wind during the prevalence of a gale from the south and south-south-west. It would have been natural to suppose that the effect of the gust would have been to blow off the zinc covering of the roof, as took place to a small extent with the roof covering the up platform. Instead of this, however, the roof covering itself did not give way, but the wind-pressure was transmitted towards the base of the cast-iron columns (a double row of which supported the roof), with the result that one (or more) of these was at once broken off four feet above its base (which was bolted down to wrought-iron cross girders, connecting the cast-iron columns employed in the substructure of the station) this being immediately followed by the similar fracture of the whole of the 49 remaining columns, and the fall of the roof, &c. on to the platform, and to a certain extent on to the arrival lines on each side of the platform. The direction of the platform is about east and west, and at what point of its length of about 480 feet the mischief began it is impossible now to ascertain. The position of the fallen roof would appear to indicate that it commenced about 80 feet from the west end, but the evidence of some of the witnesses rather points to the fall having commenced at the east end.
The columns were all broken in two places, the two points of fracture being in each column almost identical, viz., near the bottom at the junction of the plain part of the column with the ornamental moulding, and near the top at the junction of the cap with the part to which the roof cantilevers were attached, or four feet from the bottom and three feet from the top. The thickness of metal was intended to have been uniformly half an inch, and it must have been either from a deficiency in this thickness, or from a flaw in the casting, that the force of the wind was able to break a column thus weakened. The evidence of the witnesses does not lead to the impression that they had felt the force of the wind very excessive when the roof fell, and as they were all near the west end of the platform at the time, it rather seems to indicate that a gust of wind with a force considerably in excess of that recorded at 2.15 p.m., as 7·9lbs. to the square foot at Coaling Point, some 1,400 yards distant, must have brought a heavy pressure to bear upon a comparatively weak column and fractured it. Theoretically these columns should have been able to sustain a far greater pressure than they were ever likely to have been exposed to.
In renewing the roof the joint Companies intend to use wrought-iron or steel supports instead of cast iron columns, and to close in the space (which has been hitherto open) between the valance and the parapet at the south side of the island platform. With these improvements there ought to be no reason to apprehend the recurrence of any such accident as the present one.
In structures of this kind, where exposed to the force of the wind, it is desirable that the end columns and some intermediate ones should either be made stronger than the others, or clustered.