Leeds Times - Saturday 30 March 1878
THE RECENT RAILWAY ACCIDENT NEAR BARNSLEY
- On Wednesday, an adjourned inquest was held at Platts Common, touching the deaths of George Jackson, thirty-two, engine tenter; Daniel Barton, thirty-nine, screenman; and Oliver Dabbs, fourteen, a horse driver, who had died from injuries received in an accident on the Hoyland Silkstone Colliery Mineral Railway on the night of the 20th inst,--The inquest was attended by Mr. F. M. Wardell, inspector of mines -- Richard Shenton, a stoker residing at Swinton, in the employ of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company, deposed to being with the deceased, George Jackson, in charge of the engine, at the colliery railway, where they had been engaged for about six weeks in working the waggons on the branch line. Witness saw eight loaded trucks coupled to the engine, and noticed the deceased man Barton on one of the waggons, and two youths on the others. The trucks were started in the usual way, and a man named Smith got off the engine to sprag the wheels of the trucks. Smith, however, failed to sprag them, and witness, at the request of Taylor, the driver, reversed the steam. But the engine having then got over the summit, the waggons pushed it forward. Witness jumped off to sprag the wheels, but could not do so. Smith had a sprag in his hand, but said he could not put it in, as the trucks were going too fast. The train then gained speed, and as he ran after it saw Barton lying on his face by the side of the line, and when he reached the scene of the accident he found Taylor, the driver, lying on the line in an insensible state. Two of the trucks were broken to pieces, and Dabbs was taken up dead. --After further evidence had been tendered, the Coroner said it was his opinion that the incline was too steep, and that a less number of trucks than has hitherto been taken down it ought to be taken down in future. He also suggested a more convenient sprag should be used, --Mr Rhodes, solicitor, said the remarks of the coroner should be laid before the directors, and he had no doubt they would attend to them.--The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death.”
