Title:  General Report to the Board of Trade upon the Accidents that have Occurred on the Railways of the United Kingdom During the Year 1912. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty,1913, London, 95-96
Date: 21 June 1912
Place:   Lowestoft

Date, time and place of Accident — 21st June, 1912, 3 p.m., Lowestoft Loco. Yard. Name, grade and age of Person — Frank Wm. Pluck, acting fireman, 24. Booked working hours and time on duty — 11½; 9 hours. Nature of Injury — Left foot crushed and since amputated.

At this loco. depôt the stock coal is stored on a wooden stage. The floor of the stage is about 12 inches higher than the floor of the coal waggons and, consequently, there are recesses made in the floor of the stage on the rail side to allow for the lowering and support of the waggon doors. On the date in question acting fireman F. W. Pluck, not being required for fireman’s duties, was assisting to unload coal into stock. At about 3 p.m., during the unloading of a 20-ton waggon and whilst Pluck was standing with his right foot on the door and his left foot on the floor of the recess, a light engine which had been standing about 5½ yards in the rear was forced forward by another engine in motion and, in turn, the engine closed up to and moved the waggon, which resulted in Pluck’s left foot being severely crushed between the end of the waggon door and the side of the recess in the coal stage. The moving of the engine referred to was due to the following caus :— When coalman J . M. Vardigan was taking engine No. 124 from the shed No. 4 road to the turntable he failed to effectively apply the brake, with the result that the engine ran over the table and collided with engine No. 811 then standing about 1.0 feet ahead, and by the impact the latter was forced forward on to the coal waggon.

In this case coalman J. M. Vardigan did not exercise the care he might have done and in that respect he is, of course, to blame, but in my opinion the mishap was due more to Vardigan’s inexperience than to any fault of his own. It appears that, although this man was an ordinary coal labourer at Norwich. without any previous experience whatever in working engines, he was sent to Lowestoft in November, 1910, not only to act as coalman but with full authority to move engines in and about the shed and yard as necessary. From Vardigan’s own admission he knows very little about engine working even now. He should never be allowed to move engines in steam, and for the safety of all concerned I recommend that the practice should be at once discontinued.

AMOS FORD.

This is PL1239 who can be found in Tree 18.