William was the engine driver of a Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) goods train involved in a serious railway accident at Sandal, just south of Wakefield.
The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser Monday November 30th 1891
DOUBLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT NEAR WAKEFIELD.
A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.
On Friday night, on the Great Northern Railway at Sandal,
near Wakefield, owing to the prevalence of a dense fog, two goods trains came
into collision, and the result was that both lines were blocked. The Great
Northern express from London subsequently came up at full speed and dashed into
the debris. Fortunately it kept the line, and
was pulled up a, few hundred yards nearer Wakefield , when it was found
no one was seriously injured. The escape from injury and death, was marvellous,
as the engine and coaches, after colliding with the goods trucks, passed over
various kinds of iron work, and became entangled in the gearing. A wheel of one
waggons stuck fast in the bogie of a Pullman car in the express, and it is
astonishing that this did not throw the train down the embankment, close to
which the mishap occurred.
