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The Explosion at Curzon Street

Heartland

master brummie
On November 7th, 1850 , early in the morning, a goods train left Curzon Street and started to cross the Viaduct over the Rea, There was an explosion that demolished an arch. A subsequent Board of Trade enquiry tried to discover the cause. The inspector looked at the possibility of marsh gas (from the Rea Valley) ignited by the locomotive, but eventually discovered a that a gas pipe carrying gas to the station, station hotel (the remaining building there) and lamps had been fractured. The gas had dissipated downwards as well as upwards and was in a sufficient concentration for ignition.
 
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