Colliery Lines

Coventry Colliery: misc_cc011

Photograph of a rake of derailed loose coupled Newdigate Colliery wagons lying in Coventry Canal on 21st May 1885. This photograph was published by the now defunct weekly newspaper the 'Coventry & Warwickshire Graphic' and illustrates the problem when handling loose coupled wagons on 21st May 1885. Often controlled by a 'shunter' running alongside the wagon(s), wagons were shunted free of a locomotive relying on the skill of the 'shunter' to drop each wagon's brake to slow them down. When the shunter made an error this is what can happen when wagons run away. The wagons had over run the canal arm, near to the exchange sidings, to the left of the photo continuing 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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