Maylard

[Sue]

Having been unable to locate a summary of this article in the oneguy archives, I have decided to publish it again. This is the format in my book 'The Genealogical History of an Ordinary Family. My Maylard family'. It is in a slightly different format than the one in the archives

Thomas Maylard, the deceased was my g g grandfather

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The inquest, a Transcript

“The Burnley Gazette: February 3, 1877
THE SHOCKING ACCIDENT AT BANK TOP

On Monday morning an inquest was held at the Adelphi Hotel, kept by Peter Slater, before H.U. Hargreaves, Coroner, on the body of Mr Thomas Maylard, a number taker in the employ of the Lancashire and Yorkshire (goods department), who was killed in front of the platform at Bank Top railway station on Friday last. - Charles Nixon, of 9 Rowley Street, off Trafalgar Street, goods driver on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, said he knew the deceased who was a number taker in the goods department, having to take the numbers of all wagons leaving the station. He saw deceased about a quarter past 10 o’clock on Friday morning last in the four foot of the goods line taking the numbers of waggons of a train going through the station to Chatburn on the down line. A train was coming from Accrington on the up main line at the rate of about five miles an hour, and had about four or five hundred yards to go before the waggons were detached. The train was on the near the station about 40 yards from the deceased when the driver opened his whistle. He saw deceased leave the 6-foot and go into the 4-foot, and when he heard the whistle he looked round towards the deceased and called out to him, but the sound of the whistle, he thought, drowned his voice. He (witness) saw the driver reverse his engine. The deceased did not seem to notice it, appearing to be deeply engaged in his work of number taking and labelling waggons. (… spelling as per the newspaper report) The driver first gave a long whistle and then a number of chirps. He (witness) did not think the driver was at all to blame. Witness saw the engine strike the deceased. _ Christiana Maylard, widow of the deceased, said she resided at Burnley Lane. The deceased was 31 on the 7th of last July. She was not present when he died-Frances Wild wife of James Wild, of 35 Newcastle Street, engine pattern maker, spoke to having laid out the body of the deceased. Both the legs were taken off, one above the knee, and the other high up in the thigh. The right hand was taken off. There was a large wound on the left side of the belly, and a cut on the head_ Hartley Sharp of Colne, the driver of the engine and goods train that ran over the deceased said his train was coming into Burnley station. He had 28 or 30 waggons all laden. He was about 50 yards from the deceased when he saw him in the four foot, and he whistled as soon as he saw the deceased. The deceased appeared to take no notice of the whistle. Witness reversed his engine. The engine and three waggons ran over the deceased before the train could be stopped. He felt the engine run over the deceased. There was only the engine and guard’s breaks (… spelling of brakes as per the newspaper report) where with to stop the train, but there was a slight fall at that place and witness was not beginning to pull up before he saw the deceased. He brought the train to a stand in about 70 or 80 yards. -The jury unanimously attributed the death to accidental causes, and returned a verdict to that effect.”

[Stanley]

Good thinking Sue. I am doing the same thing with some of the old images that were on the old platform. It's not wasted space even if Doc finally cracks the matter of the old archive. It's a massive task and I doubt whether he'll have the time. That's why I posted a lot of the old research topics like the index lists. Far easier to find if they're on this version.

[Sue]

Its a good way to keep the topic alive too, Stanley

[Gloria]

Crikey, health and safety would have a field day with that nowadays.

[Sue]

Wouldn't they just Gloria. It was a tragic death at the age of only 32 years

[Whyperion]

Waggons , as applied to both rail and road wheeled carts and larger is an acceptable spelling.

Such deaths continued on the railways into the C20th , in shunting yards , particulary at night.

And into the era of Preserved steam railways
http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/cur ... osmont.cfm

as that web address might change the preliminary report states The RAIB’s preliminary examination and tests found that when the steam locomotive concerned (an ex Southern Railway S15 class) was working tender first, the reverser could change from reverse to forward gear unless it was prevented from doing so by the operation of a locking device. Should the reverser not be secured in position, any change may not be noticed by the driver and, in these circumstances, would only become evident on opening the regulator, when a change in direction would occur.

This is a bit of a different scenario but shows the problems involved.

Perhaps more similar , and this time not a fatality in the modern era

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/cur ... m_yard.cfm

Accident at Margam Yard, near Port Talbot, on 12 June 2012

The accident occurred at about 10:50 hrs when two wagons were being coupled together after the completion of repair work. The wagons had been standing a few metres apart while the injured party and the designated person (the person in charge of shunting operations) were preparing them for coupling. The injured party had been working between the wagons. He stepped to the side of the track on the far side of the wagons from the designated person, who then moved to release the handbrake on one of the wagons. The designated person, while standing beside the handbrake, instructed the driver of an adapted forklift truck to push this wagon against the other to engage the couplings. The injured party was crushed between the buffers of the two vehicles when this instruction was carried out.

The RAIB’s preliminary examination found that after stepping to the side of the track, and without the designated person’s knowledge, the injured party had returned to a position between the wagons. A reconstruction by the RAIB showed that the designated person could not see the area between the wagons when instructing the forklift driver. In addition, the forklift driver was unable to see this area.