We’re really pleased to be able to feature this guest blog post from Neil Gordon – it’s always heartening to receive contributions, but this is particularly interesting one, written by a descendent of the worker, John Haughton, at the centre of the piece. We met Neil at the Family Tree Live show, where he mentioned […]
Tag Archives | guest post
Trap & Drag – 1914 style
By Peter Munro on July 8, 2019 in Accident reports, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Passenger
In this guest post, project supporter Peter Munro looks at a passenger accident from 1914 – what would today be known as a ‘trap and drag’ incident, something that the Rail Accident Investigation Branch flagged as a real concern on our recent visit to its Farnborough office. Peter has also helped the project in a […]
Volunteers’ Week 5: The fatal dangers of shunting
By Cheryl Hunnisett on June 5, 2019 in Accident reports, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources, Volunteers’ Week
In the latest of our Volunteers’ Week posts, project volunteer Cheryl Hunnisett, working with us at the Modern Records Centre, takes a look at one case she encountered in the records of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants trade union. This is another great example of the ways in which our volunteers are actively taking […]
Volunteers’ Week 4: One NRM volunteer’s experiences
In our fourth Volunteers’ Week blog post, National Railway Museum volunteer Philip James outlines some of what working on the project involves, and one case from our ongoing interwar extension which caught his eye. We’re indebted to Philip, who has been with us since the start and is now working on the third set of […]
Volunteers’ Week 3: Coming Across My Great Grandfather in an Accident Register for 1917
We’ve been looking forward to featuring this post from Rosemary Leonard, one of the volunteers working at The National Archives on the railway company records. Rosemary mentioned the subject of this post, a remarkable coincidence, when we first met in a co-production session – so we’re really glad that she has ‘written it up’ for […]
Volunteers’ Week 2: Volunteering with the Railway Work, Life & Death Project
In this post, the second in our series for Volunteers’ Week – the first is here – National Railway Museum volunteer Chris Heaton outlines why he volunteers with the project and what he gets out of it. Perhaps the greatest testament occurs at the start of the final paragraph, where Chris says he’d do it […]
Volunteers’ Week 1: Volunteer voices!
By Mike Esbester on June 1, 2019 in Blog, Guest contribution, Transcription Tuesday, Volunteers’ Week
1-7 June is the UK’s Volunteers’ Week – a celebration of the hard work and amazing achievements of people giving up their time freely to help others. As we’re fortunate to have lots of wonderful volunteers contributing to our project, we wanted to make sure their efforts were recognised publicly – including by saying a […]
Edward Gevaux: one accident in a wider life
In this guest blog post, Peter Bloomfield was able to use our database to add further detail to his existing research into North London Railway (NLR) staff, via the case of Edward Gevaux. There are several other NLR staff that appear in Peter’s database and ours, further demonstrating the possibilities for linking research undertaken for […]
Female gatekeepers killed by trains 1846-1906.
In this guest post, Helena Wojtczak explores fatal accidents to women working on and living around the railway, particularly those women either paid and employed as gatekeepers or those women engaged in an ‘informal economy’ and carrying out work on behalf of their husbands who were otherwise indisposed when required. In doing so, Helena gives […]
J Moore (a shunter)
By Chris Jolliffe on April 15, 2019 in Accident reports, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources, Transcription Tuesday
In this post, Chris Jolliffe, one of the project volunteers based at the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick and transcribing trade union records, picks up on one case that emerged from the ‘Transcription Tuesday’ event. In it, she delves deeper into the sources to pull together a much more complete picture of […]
