Single Record

Full Details

Surname

GRAHAM

Forename

John

Day

30

Month

01

Year

1905

Age

37

Occupation

Waggon Shifter

Mine/Quarry Name

Cowpen

Mineral Worked

Coal

Owner

Cowpen Coal Co. Ltd

Location

Blyth

County

Northumberland

Details of Event

Deceased, who had been a mineral guard on the North Eastern Railway, and had since worked 11 years on the Colliery sidings, was found standing upright, jammed between the spring buffer of a North Eastern truck and the body of a black or chaldron wagon. Four empty chaldron wagons were standing, secured by chocks, on the empty road, which has a gradient of 1 in 72, and deceased lowered two empty trucks by gravity near them, controlling the speed of the trucks by the brake on one of them. He is supposed to have been coupling the trucks to the wagons so that he could move the six vehicles together controlled by the truck brakes, which are more easily handled than the wagon brakes. A high wind was blowing. The dead buffers of the wagons do not come against the spring buffers of the trucks, but against dead buffers inside them. Coupling poles do not appear to have been ordinarily used at the work.