Anyhow, there was plenty of fun to be got out of the experience. "The doors of the old coaches were narrow, and many a tussle to get inside occurred. One lady in particular who was very stout and a regular passenger on a certain train, always had to be assisted both in and out--the stationmaster pulling and the guard pushing, while the fireman was enjoying the joke. One morning, when the train was a few minutes late, the guard came running up to the front with his 'Hurry up, Missis,' when the old dame, with her two baskets, an umbrella, similar in size to a modern camping tent, and a crinoline fashionable in mid-Victorian days, got firmly wedged in the door way, whereupon some wag suggested that, to expedite departure, a break-down gang and crane should be sent for and the lady hoisted into an open cattle waggon." II. But even with all the care which the management enjoined from the first, accidents were, perhaps, not altogether unavoidable. Sometimes the errant "human factor" showed itself in tragic fashion even in those distant days. By a melancholy coincidence, the first serious mishap occurred close to Abermule, a name since associated in the public memory with the last and the worst catastrophe in Cambrian annals. It was on a November morning in 1861 that a goods train leaving Newtown for Welshpool, called at Abermule, where they picked up three wagons and some water. But, unfortunately, there was time--or they thought there was time--for the driver, fireman, and guard to adjourn to the adjacent inn, where they took up something rather stronger than the engine's refreshment. Time fled, as it is apt to do in such circumstances, and when the staff rejoined the train, an effort appears to have been made to gain lost minutes, with the result that the train ran off the line, and driver, known to his comrades as "Hell-fire Jack," and fireman were killed. An inquest was held before Dr. Slyman, coroner, one of the most enthusiastic promoters of the Montgomeryshire lines, and the jury solemnly found that "the accident was the result of furious driving," but they exonerated from blame everyone but "the unfortunate driver." [Picture: An Early Cambrian Coach with its Makers. In Coach: Edward Morgan (3rd from right), Job Thomas, E. Shone. Back Row (left to right): 1, (Unidentified); 2, John Thomas; 3, E. Windsor; 4, R. Williams: 5, W. Parry; 6, J. Richards (foreman); 7, S. Holland; 8, Rd. Davies; 9, Edward Lewis (living); 10, J. Powell; 11, Lazarus Jones; 12, E. Price. Front Row (left to right): 1 (Unidentified); 2, J. Astley; 3 and 4, Boys; 5, Joe Ward; 6, Wm. Jones; 7, T. Morgan; 8, "Fat Charlie"; 9, R. Morgan; 10, John Sanger (brother-in-law of Mr. George Lewis, General Manager); 11, David Davies, Aberystwyth (living)]