VEHICLE historian Brian Jackson returns to Looking Back this week, this time with the full story of the fatal crash involving the traction engine Sphinx, which was mentioned on these pages a couple of weeks back.

FOLLOWING the recent correspondence concerning the accident with the traction engine Sphinx at the Verne gate on Monday, July 25, 1921, further details of the accident are as follows.

The engine involved was a Fowler road locomotive No. 8839, FX 6660, named Sphinx and owned by Messrs Barnes, which ran out of control down Meissner’s Knapp in Fortuneswell.

The accident proved fatal for the steersman George White, who was crushed when the front trailer overran the locomotive. At the subsequent inquest, the flagman Robert White, who was brother of the driver and cousin of the steersman, stated he was walking behind the trailers which each had a load of about six-and-a-half-tons when they suddenly disappeared in a cloud of dust.

When the engine was examined it was discovered that the pin that should have been inserted in the gear change lever to hold it in the selected position was not in place, it later being found in the coal bunker. Usually this pin was on a short length of chain to avoid it being lost.

It is clear that without this locking device the engine had jumped out of gear and run out of control, free-wheeling without the assistance of the cylinders to act as brakes. The screw-down block brakes on the rear locomotive wheels stood no chance of holding the combined weight of both locomotive and loaded trailers.

Bystanders stated that the speed of the runaway increased, with the rear trailer swinging from side to side with large blocks of stone being thrown off. Sphinx had been headed for Verne Common Road in an attempt to stop the engine on the rising gradient but unfortunately a car barred the way resulting in the engine being run into the wall to save further carnage. Indeed, with a street full of pedestrians who scattered in all directions it was a miracle the death toll was not higher.

Sphinx was again in trouble during the afternoon of Friday, May 8, 1925, this time ascending Meissner’s Knapp when half way up the hill the right hand rear wheel fell off, the spokes all breaking away and the hub falling partly onto the pavement.

Again, good luck prevailed as nobody was crushed by the falling wheel, which failed to run away ‘Catherine wheel fashion’. A spare wheel was brought down from Easton and fitted during the evening, an operation that created much interest.

Over the years there had been a number of runaways and accidents with traction engines on Portland. However, their time was running out and in 1927 their annual road tax was raised from £30 to £60 and there were new regulations concerning wheels without tyres on public roads.

Following the passing of the 1930 Road Traffic Act the days of road locomotives were numbered, the last engine leaving the island in August 1935.

Sphinx was an old engine built in May 1900 and had been broken up, whereas newer engines were sold to fairground owners who rebuilt them as showman’s locomotives with rubber tyres.

Two of these locomotives survive to this day in preservation, FX 6161 Kitchener renamed in 1962 The Iron Maiden to appear in the film of that name.

The other locomotive FX 7850 Nellie was renamed Queen Mary and operated until the late 1940s with Richard Townsend & Sons of Weymouth returning for the annual Portland Fair, and in recent times for a traction engine rally at Southwell.