This weeks Project Information is a little bit different. We will be leaving the new build steam locomotive projects, and going to the ‘non-locomotive’ projects this week.

As we start, we will be looking at the Railway Work, Life and Death Project, which is being run by the University of Portsmouth and the National Railway Museum (NRM).

This week, we will be looking into the accidents between 1911 and 1915.

We will also be giving some information on the project and current progress of their work.

Railway accidents between 1911 and 1915

Between 1911 and 1915, a number of railway worker accidents occurred. Unfortunately, some of these went unknown. The ones that were investigated didnt have a set template to what needed to be written down. Some had a page, some only had a paragraph.

Only around 3% of railway accidents were investigated in a given year. So the project has only been given the tip of the iceberg to start their work.

What is the project doing?

The Railway Work, Life and Death Project is making use of the reports produced by the Railway Inspectorate. The Railway Inspectorate is the body that is appointed by the state to oversee railway safety.

Although sometimes brief (as stated above), the reports give details into the investigations of the accidents.

The project, which is being run by the University of Portsmouth and the National Railway Museum (NRM), want to show the number of details, however minor and show how valuable they are as a means of accessing the experience of working on the railways at the start of the 20th century.

The project is a great chance to contribute to research and also to shape the direction. Volunteers have been busy collating the details of the accidents and making them more easily available to everyone.

The project has now completed its spreadsheet, which shows all of the accidents from 1911 to 1915. To view this, please see the project’s website, or click here.

Whats next for the project?

Now that the spreadsheet is available, the project is now entering the next stage of ‘the dream’, where you can use the data for your research and tell the group what you think!

If the project proves successful, then the project would like to expand the idea into a much bigger, Zooniverse style project.

If you don’t know, Zooniverse is the idea behind the citizen science model where large quantities of data are put on the public domain and then they ask willing volunteers to analyse it in some way. This means it will be possible to get through far more material than it would be if they followed the older model.

The project also wants to expand on the documents which can be found around the country, There are currently held at the NRM, Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick and at the National Archives in Kew. In the long run, it may even be possible to start a new project for accidents in other workplaces, such as the mines or the docks.

How can you help?

It has come to end of this week’s Project Information. Don’t worry, we will be back again next week with another project. For further information or to support the project, please visit the website here

Missed last week’s Project Information? You can find it here

What do you think of this type of Project Information? Let us know in the comments below if you want to see more of this!