Recent content by RWLDproject

Two interesting sites here, re the General Strike and a particular railway connection - the Cramlington Flying Scotsman derailment: https://www.cramlingtontrainwreckers.co.uk/ https://sslh.org.uk/2025/12/19/cramlington-a-place-in-labour-history/

Thank you all so much for this really helpful conversation and detail - it's greatly appreciated. I've been back to the report and it just says 'Engine No. 5000' - so guessing it is a case of the general class number being used for an engine from that class, rather than the specific loco. Thanks...

A question for those with a bit of LMS loco knowledge out there - thanks in advance! We've a staff accident report in the Railway Work, Life & Death project files that mentions LMS engine no. 5000. The accident took place on 16 Feb 1935, at Cheetham Hill Junction, Manchester. Could this be the...

Absolutely - like this, from c.1914. 1688651216 Thank you - didn't know about this. As you say, with codes to account for it, it sounds as though there was some 'demand'/ need being served. Hadn't focused on ambulance trains (e.g. WW1) as they were serving a very specific and time-limited...

Thank you, that's brilliant! Much appreciated.

Thank you! 1688548164 Re your comment on Quintinshill and the special train, that's timely today, as with the 75th anniversary of the NHS we've been thinking about what happened to railway workers in the event of an accident which required removal to hospital. Sure we've seen cases of workers...

On the 75th anniversary of the NHS, the Railway Work, Life & Death project has put together a blog post, looking at some of the ways the railways dealt with healthcare (particularly in relation to accidents) before the NHS. Keen to share it here - it's a starting point and quite surface-level...

Good point. Always liked Riccarton Junction! 1687952036 Thank you - that's a good idea.

Hi All, Came across a reference on Wikipedia to the Midland Railway keeping an 'ambulance wagon' at Toton to provide treatment for injured shunters, and wondered if anyone had any more info on this? Interested in Toton or any other UK location (outside the works like Derby or Crewe, which had...

Thanks! Really glad to hear it - and yes, absolutely about that wider context. We're really hoping it'll be useful to people to get a sense of the 'bigger picture.' Thanks for letting us know!

The Railway Work, Life & Death project has just released a major new update to its free database of accidents to British and Irish railway staff before 1939. We've added around 25,000 more records, bringing our database to nearly 50,000 in total. The new records come from the ASRS/ NUR union...

Again, thanks to you all for the pointers so far - greatly appreciated. Will be having a look through the Railway Work, Life & Death project records to follow up on these. Just ran across an interesting (pre-grouping) example of the sort of thing I was thinking of - an accident to a worker from...

Thanks all, this is really helpful - much appreciated. Just had a related thought - differences in terminology between pre-grouping companies and their grouped successors; might there have been problems there, from using different terms for the same thing/ action, but not understanding? Thanks...

Thinking about the Grouping bringing together companies with very different identities and cultures, there's been some interesting discussion about how the mergers were carried out e.g. around branding, liveries and so on. But what about differing operating practices? So, how - in practice - did...

Interesting and thought-provoking thread, thanks all. I know that ASLEF have put together a list of footplate crew who died on duty as a result of accident: https://aslef.org.uk/footplate-fatalities - though my recollection is that it's missing names, it's a good starting point. Fully agree...