 The locomotives occasionally ran over stray sheep, and on 12 September 1888 sparks from one of the Aveling and Porter engines blew back into one of the train's cattle trucks, igniting the straw bedding and badly burning two cows.The line had one serious accident, in which Ellen Maria Nickalls, a servant at Wotton House, was struck by a locomotive near Church Siding and killed.The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death, absolving driver James Challis.