Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	1st March 1929
Colliery:	Brandon Pit House
Cause:	Scalded
Lives Lost:	4

At Brandon Colliery, Durham, a loco tank engine, with six wheels coupled, weighing about 45 tons, had just undergone minor spring adjustments because of a heated bearing and was out on a trial run in charge of a fitter, who was considered to be an experienced driver, and the usual loco fireman. After pushing three empty trucks up a winding branch line, 2 miles long with an average gradient of about 1 in 24, it was attached, cab first, in a siding dipping 1 in 29, to the front of a set of 1 empty and 7 full trucks — just over half the usual load — which had to be taken down. Contrary to definite instructions and a request to come out, a winding engineman and a weighman were in the cab of the engine beside the driver and fireman. Without permission, warning, or signal, and while the foreman fitter — who had previously informed the fitter that both he and the engineer were going to travel down in the cab (ostensibly to satisfy themselves that the adjustments were correct) — was tightening up the brakes on the trucks preparatory to setting off, the engine was started away with a jerk. A fierce application of the engine brakes locked all the wheels and the engine skidded. The trucks had been jerked forward and when they joined up the impact caused the train to slide away down the gradient. The driver appears to have "lost his head." The load soon got the better of the engine and the train ran amain. After running about a mile the trucks became derailed and were smashed. The hook of the first truck broke and the engine shot forward for 375 yards when it became derailed and turned somersault into a field. Boiler fittings were torn off and all four men in the cab were scalded to death by escaping steam.

Whilst the reasons for the engine starting off so suddenly and the failure to rectify the skid remain a mystery, it is difficult to believe otherwise than that the exercise of ordinary caution would have avoided the accident, whilst observance of instructions given with a view to safety would certainly have avoided the deaths of the winding engineman and master's weighman. Had the usual driver of the engine been in charge it is highly probable that the accident would not have occurred. Regular drivers will be in charge in future on the Pit House Line.

Subsequently a runaway siding with an open switch designed to ensure that a train coming down the incline will require to stop in order to close it, was put in near the top of the incline before reaching the heaviest curve, the load to be run on the line was reduced, notices were posted and drivers were instructed in writing that no person other than the driver and fireman were to ride on the loco without written permission from the manager, and that in no circumstances were more than three persons to ride on the loco at one time.

Source:

1929 Mines Inspectors Report

	Brown, Norman, aged 29, Fitter, scalded in cabin of locomotive
	Johnson, Ralph, aged 44, Fireman, scalded in cabin of locomotive
	Taylor, Thomas W., aged 58, Weighman, scalded in cabin of locomotive
	Watson, Fred, aged 32, Winding Engineman, scalded in cabin of locomotive
	All names found

02 Mar 1929

Four Miners Killed, Trapped in Overturned Engine (The Times)

 

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