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The Sunshine rail disaster happened at the Sunshine railway station, which is the junction for the Ballarat and Bendigo railway lines, from Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia.〔''The Sunshine Railway Disaster'' Buckland, John Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, July 1969 pp146-153〕 On the night of Easter Monday, 20 April 1908, 44 people were killed and over 400 injured when a Melbourne-bound train from Bendigo collided with the rear of a mail train from Ballarat, which was just leaving the station. Around 1,100 people were aboard the two trains. Almost all of the casualties were from the Ballarat train, as the Bendigo train was cushioned by its two locomotives. A temporary mortuary was set up at Spencer Street Station (Melbourne's regional terminus, now Southern Cross Station), and flags at the station flew at half-mast. The disaster was the worst train crash in Victorian railway history. ==Cause== The Stationmaster on duty that fateful night had 20 years of service, including 20 months at Sunshine, but was alone without relief staff. He had been continuously on duty for 10 hours without relief prior to the accident. This state of affairs was reflected in his having applied repeatedly, without avail, for extra qualified assistance.〔 Four locomotives were involved in the disaster – three AA class locomotives – AA 564 and AA 544 on the Bendigo service and AA 534 and 'Old A' 202 on the Ballarat train.〔Cave, Buckland & Beardsell, ''Steam Locomotives of the Victorian Railways – Volume 1: The First Fifty Years'', Australian Railway Historical Society, Vic. Div., Melbourne, 2002, ISBN 1-876677-38-4, p. 179〕〔See VR A-class〕 The Ballarat train was scheduled to arrive at Sunshine at 22.03 hrs, but was struggling to keep time. Upon arrival, it was unable to be fully accommodated at the platform because of the increased holiday consist. After unloading passengers from the front section, it was about to move forward to allow passengers in the rear cars to alight. Whilst these manoeuvres were taking place, the train from Bendigo was due to arrive at 22.30 hrs and was 20 minutes late. As the train from Ballarat prepared to move forward, it was struck from behind by the Bendigo train.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sunshine rail disaster」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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