LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Bedworth Station: lnwrb23

Photograph of runaway Newdigate Colliery coal wagons which had finished up derailed in the Griff arm of Coventry Canal on 21st May 1885. Published by the now defunct weekly newspaper the" Coventry & Warwickshire Graphic" the photograph illustrates the problem when handling loose coupled wagons. Often controlled by a 'shunter' running alongside the wagons, the wagons were shunted free of a locomotive relying upon the skill of the 'shunter' to apply each wagon's brake, either singular or as a combination, to slow them down. If the shunter made an error of judgement then the above is what can happen. In this instance the wagons had overrun the canal arm, near to the exchange sidings and which were to the left of the photographer, and continued down the embankment into the cut. The wharf was used by the Newdigate Colliery to tranship coal to canal barges as an alternative to movement by rail.

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