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Incident at Tinsley Goods Yard.


paulhib48

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My uncle was an engine driver and ,shortly before he retired through ill health, I have a vague memory of him being involved in an accident at Tinsley Goods Yard .

He was operating a diesel locomotive when he ‘blacked out’ and managed to run it through the buffers of a siding close to the Parkway which, due to its elevated position, left it hanging in the air.

I might not be entirely accurate in my recollection but, as I remember it , it was some time in the 70s and the story was covered, I think, on the front page of the Sheffield Star and some other papers.

Can anyone come up with any information regarding this ?

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I  vaguely recall the incident but thought the offending loco was working on the  BSC steelworks sidings.....The Marshalling yard ,from memory, was in something of a hollow.... with the steelworks being at a higher level....but I could be wrong.

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That’s possible I guess cos my own memory of the marshalling yard was a vast flat area away from the Parkway as you say.

I know he worked usually out of Grimesthorpe shed if that makes any difference 

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There were several instances of loco's running through the buffer stops, but they were in the Tinsley shed, not the yard, which was at a higher level. At least one ended up on the Parkway.

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I seem to think it was most likely to be where the locomotive almost ended up on the Parkway, I’m sure that was why it was covered by the Star

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The Sheffield Star Railway Album has several pictures that show it was quite common for locomotives to end up on the carriageway!

The first picture shows shunter 08 223 in 1978 on the road. Then 56 003 on December 19 1978 and then a few months later a pair of class 20's!

By the way there's a better picture of the 56 003 loco in the book, but it's right across the two pages and so wouldn't make a good scan. I suspect it's the one that his uncle drove! 

08223.jpg

56003.jpg

Class 20.jpg

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Thanks History Dude, 56 003 does fit my recollections of the newspaper cuttings I saw at the time and 1978 seems about right. 
I’m grateful to you all for resolving this for me.

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As a second man based at Tinsley the problems happened more often than not when stabling a loco on the 6 lines of the maintenance shed sidings. 
Space in these sidings could be at a premium, Tinsley was a very busy place in its heyday. 
If you ran up to another loco that had been parked in the sidings for some time, the air pressure of the parked loco could have dropped so far as to release the brakes. If both manual handbrakes hadn’t been applied properly when you stopped your loco with its buffers touching the one that had been parked for some time could move. Obviously the law of gravity took hold and the loco could roll only one way, downhill. Next stop the Parkway.

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