GUARD DIES AT POST

WARNS OTHERS OF DANGER

Hi! Hi! Hi!!!

This exclamation, shouted in a man's loudest tones, was heard by the stationmaster at Macedon early this morning.

It was the cry of an elderly guard sticking loyally to his duty.

The stationmaster saw that trucks had broken away and were running downhill at a speed of almost 70 miles an hour and that the guard was calling out to warn others on the line of the danger so that they should not be in jeopardy. A minute later a loud report rang out. The stationmaster then knew that the worst had happened. The runaway trucks had crashed into an oncoming goods train. Evans, the guard, who had shouted the warning, was found dead on the line 200 yards away from the scene of the accident.

I had been researching the old newspapers on Trove when I came across the newspaper reports of this fatal train crash that occurred not far from where I am living now. I haven't lived here that long so it was no surprise that I hadn't heard of the crash but it did surprise me that when checking on Google and Wikipedia, there didn't seem to be any mention of it at all.

“He must have been a game man,” said one railway-man in a quiet tone, “or he would have jumped off before the trucks gathered such an awful speed."  Ted Evan’s act will not soon be forgotten by the railwaymen.”

Just trying to make sure that doesn't happen.

I have transcribed the contemporary newspaper reports of the accident and they are attached here as a series accessible via the Menu at the top and bottom of the page.

A Brief Summary of the Accident

Around 1.30 am on Saturday 4th February 1922 between Macedon and Woodend, Victoria, a collision between two goods trains occurred.

The first train was a double-header - two engines, an A2 and a DD - were hauling 45 trucks. Edward Evans was in the rear guard's van.

The train struggled to reach the top of the Macedon Railway incline under its heavy load and stopped to produce more steam in order to be able to reach the top.

It's believed that the re-start on the incline and under heavy load exerted too much pressure on the coupling of one of the trucks which gave way and separated itself and the trucks behind it from the main train.

Thirteen trucks, plus the Guard's van with Edward Evans as the occupant, gathered speed and hurtled back down the incline, whooshed through Macedon Station - when Evans was heard calling out by the stationmaster - and crashed into another goods train making its way slowly up the hill.

The guard, Edward Thomas Evans, was killed but, miraculously, none of the crew of the second train received serious injuries.

Anne Logan - April 2020 - currently in lockdown because of the COVID-19 Virus.