Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/116

 rushed to their relief, and at once sought your powerful aid to release them, and fortunate indeed were we to find that your able services were at our disposal. We are proud to congratulate you upon the valiant manner in which you conducted them through the ordeal through which they had to pass, and brought them out scatheless, and by so doing brought joy and happiness back again to those homes and families which to all outward appearance had been almost forlorn and destitute. Never, therefore, can we forget the great sympathy you evinced towards them, and the indefatigable zeal you displayed to bring about so glorious and successful an issue."

It may be of interest if I recall the simple facts of the Hexthorpe disaster. In consequence of the extra traffic to Doncaster Races, the M.S. & L. Company adopted the very dangerous policy of suspending the use of the block system, instead of introducing extra block signal boxes. The starting signal was off for the M.S. & L. express, in charge of Taylor and Davies, to come round the curve from the Junction Box to the ticket platform. The curve, and the bridge over the line, obstructed the driver's view of the Midland train standing at the ticket platform until he was within 359 yards. The express was only provided with Smith's simple vacuum brake, which failed to act, as it had often failed to act before, and terrible loss of life resulted. The Company, and not the driver, ought to have been indicted for manslaughter, but even after acquittal of the two men, there was difficulty in getting them re-instated.

The influx of new members noticed in the year 1887 after the Hexthorpe trial continued during 1888, and the balance sheet for that year, which also gave for the first time the branch balance sheets, said the Society was getting over the severe financial strain of last year, and we are now in a more prosperous financial and numerical strength than at any time in the Society's history. The income from all sources was £4,510 18s. 3d., and the total funds are £10,946, the gross expenditure being £2,671 7s. 10d., showing a