The 10-Ton Deathtraps on British Railways

Runaway goods wagons killed British railwaymen and passengers for nearly a century, from Abergele in 1868 to Chapel-en-le-Frith in 1957. A steam era goods train had no continuous brake the driver could reach, just a handbrake on the engine and another in the guard's van, with the rest pinned down by hand. The troublesome trucks in Thomas the Tank Engine were based on something real.

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Covered in this video:
Why a steam era goods train had brakes in only two places
Pinning down wagon brakes, and what three link couplings actually do
The Abergele disaster, 20 August 1868, and Colonel Rich's report
Stairfoot near Barnsley, 1870
Shunting deaths and the Railway Work, Life and Death project
Armagh, 1889, and the Regulation of Railways Act
Driver John Axon GC and the runaway at Chapel-en-le-Frith, 1957

Sources:
Board of Trade report by Lt Col F. H. Rich into the Abergele collision, 14 September 1868, www.railwaysarchive.co.uk (docID 171)
Board of Trade report by Lt Col F. H. Rich into the Stairfoot collision, 28 December 1870, www.railwaysarchive.co.uk (docID 217)
Board of Trade report by Maj-Gen C. S. Hutchinson into the Armagh collision, 8 July 1889
Ministry of Transport report by Brig. C. A. Langley into the Chapel-en-le-Frith collision, 10 July 1957
Regulation of Railways Act 1889, www.legislation.gov.uk
Railway Work, Life and Death, University of Portsmouth with the National Railway Museum and the Modern Records Centre
https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/the-accidents/
https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/goods-guards-safety-burdens/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp0753rz0p4o
www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=106
British Railways General Instructions and Notices, Eastern Region, via limitofshunt.org.uk

Books:
Goods Wagons in the UK: Survivors from the Twentieth Century, John Jackson https://link.amazon/B01heMb8T (#ad)
Freight Wagons and Loads in Service on GWR, J. H. Russell https://link.amazon/B028si286 (#ad)
Pre-nationalisation Freight Wagons on British Railways, David Larkin https://link.amazon/B0j8KOVRZ (#ad)
BR Wagons: Their Loads and Loading Vol 2, Brian Grant and Bill Taylor https://link.amazon/B0dLd0V97 (#ad)
Freight Trains of the Western Region in the 1980s, Kevin Redwood https://link.amazon/B04YUueAv (#ad)
British Rail: The Making and Breaking of Our Trains, Christian Wolmar https://link.amazon/B0f8CglpQ (#ad)
Rail Freight: The Midlands, Paul Shannon https://link.amazon/B0gOflTBP (#ad)
Thomas the Tank Engine: Railway Series Boxed Set https://link.amazon/B08xc0Rwa (#ad)

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Credits:
Footage shot at the Kent and East Sussex Railway, https://kesr.org.uk/
Thomas the Tank Engine clips, series 1 and 2, Mattel and rights holders

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