We have always thought that, except to lawyers and railway carriage and
locomotive builders, railway accidents were great misfortunes, but it is
evident we were wrong and we hasten to acknowledge our error. Speaking
on Thursday with a respectable broker about the heavy damages (£2,000)
given the day before on account of the Tottenham accident against the
Eastern Counties Company in the Court of Exchequer, he observed, “It is
rather good when these things happen as it moves the stock. I have had
an order for some days to buy Eastern Counties at 56 and could not do it,
but this verdict has sent them down one per cent., and enabled me now to
buy it.” With all our railway experience we never dreamt of such a
benefit as this accruing from railway accidents, but it is evidently
among the possibilities.
—_Herepath’s Railway Journal_, June 7th, 1860.