Raine

In a word, Athers, no. Just a life-long interest in railways, which is a spin-off from a passion for steam engines that started before I can even remember. I’m a nerd, basically. Though not an anorak: I was never a trainspotter, and collecting numbers seems a pointless exercise to me. Though if you were to ask me about the technical workings of a…[Read more]

Richard, it may be something I missed over the time that you’ve been writing these (excellent) blogs: I know where you used to work, but do you have a connection to the railway yourself?

No, I hadn’t heard of this one, but with two (as it turns out) of the four fatalities being railwaymen it probably wouldn’t have made a big splash except in the local press. Your father’s reaction, though: kids, eh?

Richard,
My late father would tell of a train crash in Diggle, then in Yorkshire, in 1923 or 1924. He was four and witnessed the accident whilst out walking with his granddad. He was interviewed by the local newspaper and is reported to have said “It were a grand smash” or similar. I see from google that four people died, so it probably wasn’t so…[Read more]

Really enjoy these tales of the rails, thank you.

Just nipped into the Den in the middle of a busy week to discover another of your interesting blogs, Richard, so had to stop and read. Thank you!

Yes, I’m sure that the signalmen must have thought their systems were foolproof. As for their motivation, it seems to have been professional pride more than anything else. It was a matter of pride not to fall down on the job, to keep the traffic moving if at all possible. And though no one would have blamed them if that arriving train had been…[Read more]

Another fascinating blog Richard. And unlike so many of them, where there were obvious risks being taken or safety features omitted, with this one it’s so unlikely as to surely have been unforseeable. Do you think the signalmen were reassured by all the built-in the safety features that nothing like that could have happened, freeing them to run t…[Read more]

Sounds like my kind of novella, Stevie 😁

Sounds like my kind of writer and you’ve definitely sold him to me.

Thanks Richard. I’d never heard of him but have down loaded a collection of his and will have a look – maybe not at night with the wind howling round the house like it did yesterday evening!

That’s definitely one of the problems Bella – people, self included, really want these things to go well and can easily blind themselves to the problems. There’s that siren voice of ‘yes, but you’ll be published…’ – as if that means anything by itself

Go for it, Stevie. I bet you can knock out more words in 5 months than you think. And worst case scenario, you’ll still have the makings of a story if you don’t hit the deadline.

Thanks @philippaeast – you’re most welcome. I feel very silly having made all these avoidable errors, but I wouldn’t want anyone else to fall into the same trap. Mostly I don’t want people to get stuck with publishers who act in bad faith.

Would you mind retweeting the link the next time you’re on Twitter? Just to get the highest circulation…[Read more]