Worker Safety Background

A brief overview of railway worker safety

At the birth of the mainline railway era, in the 1830s, public concern grew over passenger accidents and the lack of standardisation between railway companies. The 1840 Railway Regulation Act imposed some duties upon railway companies, including providing the state with statistics about passenger accidents; crucially the act also established the Railway Department of the Board of Trade, including the appointment of Railway Inspectors. Until the early 1890s, the majority of their accident investigation work was focused on passenger accidents – employees were, largely, neglected. However, from the 1890s dedicated inspectors were appointed solely to investigate employee accidents – and it is their reports into employee accidents we are working on.

Reports were printed, by order of Parliament, once per quarter. These reports (confusingly, called ‘Returns’) would typically feature a brief summary of the quarters accidents, and three appendices. Reports in Appendix A were the longest and most detailed, often running over multiple pages: they considered passenger accidents, and reflected the visibility of passenger crashes and the concerns of the public.

Reports in Appendix B examined employee accidents; they were often around half a page or a page in length. Reports in Appendix C were rather briefer – sometimes only a paragraph or two. Employee accidents were so numerous that only around 3% were investigated in a given year, so what we are left with is really only the tip of the iceberg. However, it does give us some very useful insight into work on the railways.