News

# Human cost of working on the railways revealed in database

A new public database listing records about railway accidents is being launched
at The National Archives on Thursday 5 June to coincide with Volunteers Week.

Published 4 June 2025

The [Railway Work, Life & Death
project](https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/) makes accessible information
about 4,500 railway staff killed or injured at work between 1911-1923. It has
been made possible because volunteers at The National Archives, The National
Railway Museum and the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick have
extracted details from accident registers, compensation claims and safety
correspondence from railway companies.

> Our dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers have been vital in pulling together
> this data. Without their hard work it wouldn’t be possible to gather information
> about who was involved, what they did and what happened to them.

James Cronan, Records Specialist at The National Archives

The database, unveiled in the year of Railway 200, will eventually include an
extra 50,000 individuals’ accident records and will cover the period 1855-1939.

It is an invaluable resource for genealogists and railway historians.

The records detail dramatic incidents, including Great Western Railway driver
Henry Chappell jumping from his engine to save himself as it ran out of control
into another train at Monmouth Troy in Wales.

There are grim reminders of how dangerous this new form of transport could be:
including office cleaner Mary Ramsey run over by a North Eastern Railway train
at South Shields in 1859 as she took out ashes from the station fireplaces and
Ivor Richards, killed by a train aged only 14, while working for the Rhymney
railway in Cardiff.

Data was drawn from the Railway Inspectorate, Eastern Railway Company’s
Benevolent Fund records and the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants/
National Union of Railwaymen trade union, as well as state accident reports for
Britain and Ireland.

The National Archives also holds an extensive collection of railway memorabilia,
including tickets, timetables, magazines, photographs and maps from the W E
Hayward Collection.

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