Thursday, March 16, 2023

The Facts of Life - According to British Rail

 

The Facts of Life

Come on - it cost a pound. How could I resist? 

Measuring 13 by 9.5cm, this little booklet is a Health & Safety guide from the Accident Prevention Service of BR in 1968. Inside there are sections on Manhandling, Tools of the Trade, Machinery, Electrical Apparatus, High Pressure Gases and Liquids, Ladders, Walkways, Scaffolding and Roof Surfaces. 


Illusrations are cartoons alongside the text. The Getting about section shows our hero leaping across the tracks in front of an advancing CoBo loco, omitting to point out it had probably broken down...

In its 30 pages, there's a lot of information, highlighting just how dangerous an environment the railway can be. You need to keep your wits about you at all times, and not just assume this 'elf and safety stuff is for other people.


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6 comments:

  1. Paul B.3:33 PM

    Health and safety - a subject that should, alongside religion and politics, be banned from every forum lest the aged grumblers bore us endlessly about the 'good old days', omitting the parts where people died or were seriously injured at work.

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  2. Phil Parker3:45 PM

    I remember in a discussion about the requirement to wear hi-vis during setup, bloke telling me that the railways were all built without all this H&S stuff. "But people died during it", I replied. "Not many."was the response.

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  3. Paul B.4:24 PM

    Phil, read The Railway Navvies by Terry Coleman if you haven't already. You'll enjoy it.

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  4. Phil Parker5:41 PM

    It's an excellent read, and part of the reason "only a few died" annoys me.

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  5. Paul B.5:58 PM

    Even if it was 'only a few' that's still a few too many.

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  6. James Finister8:44 AM

    Even in the mid-eighties I remember visiting a BR railway works, I won't say which one, and being sickened when I read the accident book. I was reading "I tried to run a railway" a few years ago and the one thing that struck me was how major train crashes were obviously part of everyday life.

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