The UK is currently undergoing a very warm spell, with today, 25 July, looking like it’s going to be the hottest day of the year so far. Searching our database to see if there were any hot weather cases, we found two in which the heat was mentioned as a possible factor. Both were in […]
Tag Archives | London and South Western Railway
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 […]
What happened to James Chown?
By Steve Chown on November 12, 2018 in Accident aftermath, Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources
In this guest blog post, Steve Chown outlines the few details he has of his grandfather Jim’s accident on the railways around the time of the Second World War, including his convalescence. Unfortunately Jim’s accident appears not to have been investigated – possibly because of the war, or possibly because it was one of the […]
A decade on & the trips continue
After many years of concern, the 1902 Prevention of Accidents Rules introduced several measures to improve railway worker safety. One was the requirement to cover or protect trip hazards like point rodding and signal wires. Whilst progress was made, it took time, as today’s case, which took place nearly a decade later, demonstrates. It took […]
Steam vs horse power
What place did the horse have in the steam railway? Perhaps surprisingly, a big one. Horses were essential for shunting wagons in yards and for moving goods to and from railheads. This was particularly the case in the pre-internal combustion engine era – though they lasted long after the introduction of the motor vehicle too, […]
A Valentine’s Day special
Accidents of any sort aren’t particularly romantic, it has to be said, but given it’s St Valentine’s Day this week, we thought we’d have a topical tour through our database and see what, if anything, it held. With so many cases to choose from, it’s perhaps unsurprising that there are some cases that are relevant. […]
Portsmouth-London, in accidents
Each case in our database is interesting (and often sad) in its own right. But one of the powerful things the database allows us to do is to make connections – whatever our interest, we can search the data and make the links that interest us. So, it might be by a particular family name, […]
19 January 1911 – a bad day on the permanent way
Some days on the railways were worse than others – in total, and for particular grades of workers. The 19th of January was one which fell into the ‘worse’ camp. Across the database as a whole, fifteen individuals were involved in accidents between 1911 and 1915. Nine of these were in 1911 alone, including seven […]
The impact of the First World War on accident investigation
It seems perhaps trite to say that the First World War had an impact on virtually every aspect of life in Britain, but we can see it in the evidence from the worker accident reports. A previous post, for example, has noted how wartime expediencies were probably involved in the death of one worker on […]
Hidden traumas
Around 20% of the accidents that were investigated by the railway inspectors and featured in this project were, tragically, fatalities. No question, then, that work was stopped for that individual. The remaining 80% of investigated accidents were, then, injuries; many of them were serious, involving amputations or other life-changing wounds, and no doubt stopping work […]
