3 November 1862

A little after 10:00am

Quarter of a mile from Chewton towards Castlemaine

Melbourne to Castlemaine - about 100 passengers

2 balast trucks

No one seriously bruised, though one lady fainted twice after leaving the carriage

The train left Chewton and on rounding the curve, there stood right on the line two ballast trucks belonging to a contractor who was completing the ballast in that part of the line. The driver immediately shut off the steam, reversed the engine, and gave the danger-whistle as a signal to the guard to jam hard down his break, whilst the fireman and engineer hung on to the engine break with all their might. The engine struck the two trucks with tremendous force, the blow sending them on ahead for some little distance. Almost immediately the engine caught them again and fairly lifting them up, carried them for a distance of about one hundred yards. After proceeding in this way for some further distance, the engineer and fireman gallantly holding on to the break, in lieu of jumping off, some greater obstacle in the component parts of the trucks threw the engine off the rails, and a further course was run on the sleepers and metal, the passengers meanwhile were in a great state of alarm, which was not lessened by the terrific noise made by the grinding of the trucks. After a short distance, the engine gave one terrific lurch, and came right over the rails, embedding its wheels deeply in the metal, and almost canting clean over. This brought up the train with a tremendous shock, the tender half rising on to the engine. Had it gone a little further, it would have instantly killed the engineer and fireman

The wheels of the first truck were literally broken up into lumps like road metal. One of the heavy axles was snapped in two like a carrot, and the wheel rolled over the side of the rails. The woodwork was subjected to a disintegrating process, splinters flying about in all directions like straws, whilst the ironwork was being also thrown about and smashed with equal ease. Apart from one or two side boards, the trucks were literally shivered to atoms. On all sides were pieces of ironwork, fragments of wood, and portions of wheels, broken railway chairs, split bolts, smashed rivets, whilst the rails were torn up in various places, and the sleepers dislodged. Some of the thick axles, and some of the rails, were bent like wire; the strong guard-irons of the engine were snapped almost off. Pieces of the hard, wrought-iron rail were in places cut out by the force and weight of the wheels, like pieces of cheese. The engine itself is strained tremendously and will need a complete refit, if it is not wholly spoiled