STOP
SIGNAL
Issue #5 - August 1998
Welcome to issue #5 of Stop Signal, the newsletter for Danger
Ahead!
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What's in this issue:
- A bad time in India
- ICE tragedy - Special
Feature
- Sunshine Disaster
- New in the Gallery
- Branch Line (Rail accidents and other railway stuff on the WWW)
- Searches at Danger Ahead!
- Site Notes
- Tail Lamp
A bad time in India
The last week of July was a
particularly bad one for India's Central Southern Railway as it sustained
accidents to two of its express trains. Both the Visakha Express and the
Narayanadri Express were derailed, fortunately without loss of life or serious
injury. The Narayanadri Express derailment is thought to have been caused by a
deliberate act of sabotage.
Sengal was less fortunate in the consequences of a derailment of a freight
train on 18 July. In this incident about which I have few details, five people
are thought to have been killed.
ICE tragedy - Special Feature
The cause of this
accident has been the subject of much speculation and questions which only the
result of the Inquiry will answer. This Danger Ahead! Special Feature is the
product of considerable research which seeks to provide a review of the current
knowledge of the incident. It does not attempt to provide any answers although
it may raise some in the minds of its readers.
The item is a true hyper-text document that
makes full use of HTML. Although the file size is quite large, the new server
which is extremely fast ensures that the download times are acceptable. It does
require a browser that is tables-aware and javascript capable (although NOT
java) to gain the full effect. There is a plain-text version which visitors who
have a slow connection or an older browser may wish to access instead.
Visit the site soon and feel free to let me have your
comments
about this Special Feature
Sunshine Disaster
Braybrook Junction in Australia was sometimes called Sunshine. It was here,
in 1908 that four people were killed when two Melbourne bound trains were in
collision. A brief article about this has been posted to the site. However, my
information is very scant. If you know more about this incident, please let me
know.
New in the Gallery
Recently added to the Gallery are
images of accidents at Wigan (1873), Paris - Montparnasse Station (1895) and
Harrow & Wealdstone (1952). More images are on their way and will be added
over the next week.
Branch Line
West New York Railroad Archive
A link to this site has recently been added to the Departure Board. WNYRR
Archive has loads of material from the last century about RRs in the NY area.
They are original documents which the site owner has converted into HTML and
posted in his CLIPPINGS section. There is a large number of contemporary
newspaper articles which make fascinating reading. I contributed heavily to
British Telecom's profits during my visit to the site.
Chuffington and Oval Light Railway
nb You can visit the General Manager's virtual office - but DO NOT open the
confidential file!!!
Site
Notes
Searches at Danger
Ahead
The new site search engine is now up and running. Unlike the previous
engine I have written it myself and it is located in a directory on the site.
The advantager of this is that it runs and returns results relatively quickly.
It scans all the douments on the site and compares any search-words provided
with the complete text of these files. If you have any problems with it, please
let me know.
Hard Hats Please
There's still some loose wiring at Danger Ahead! but we're trying to get it
cleared-up as quickly as we can. Should you stumble across some - broken links
etc, I'd be grateful if you would let me know so that we can get in there and
sort it out.
Previous issues of Stop Signal are available in an archive at the
Danger Ahead! web site. If you have missed earlier issues you will be
able to find them here...
Tail Lamp
Danger Ahead! moved to a new server on July 4th and to
celebrate a firework display was featured on the front page. This multi-media
java program was running over the weekend until midnight GMT on the Monday. If
you missed it, it is still possible to see it. Just point your browser at
http://danger-ahead.railfan.net/fireworks.htm
Feed-back is always appreciated - praise or criticism. If
you would like to make any comment about
Stop Signal or
Danger Ahead! please send e-mail to:
davidfry@railfan.net.
Danger Ahead! Historic Railway Disasters