On 10 November 1840, a steam locomotive named ‘Surprise’ exploded in Bromsgrove. It killed its crew, Joseph Rutherford and Thomas Scaife. The incident might perhaps…
June 2024 saw the 40th anniversary of the closure of Shildon Works, in County Durham. The closure, in 1984, hit Shildon hard, with the loss…
In this week’s blog post, guest author Daisy Turnbull looks at some of the challenges involved in crossing railway lines in the past. As she…
We’ve posted about accidents to women railway workers before (see here and here). Each time we’ve noted that there are relatively women in our data…
On 4 March 2024, a passenger train struck an object on the tracks at Walton-on-Thames. Part of the train derailed, though thankfully no-one was hurt.…
As we approach 2018 we thought it might be interesting to have a look at the junction between the old year and the new as…
We’ve already blogged about a couple of cases of multiple accidents: when our database has shown a worker had more than one accident. We’ve considered…
It seems every aspect of railway working was (is?) full of arcane practices. Shunting – moving wagons and carriages around to get them into the…
As travellers today (when we’re able to resume travelling) we may be less than enamoured of the toilets on trains – all too often cramped,…
In the past we’ve blogged about individuals appearing in our records but who weren’t employees of railway companies – detailed here, with an overview here.…