%0 Journal Article
%T Collaborative working with challenging histories: the Railway Work, Life & Death project
%A Karen Baker
%A Mike Esbester
%D 2025
%V 
%N Autumn 2025
%K accidents
%K collaboration
%K collaborative research
%K Railway
%K railway 200
%K railway history
%K volunteering
%X This paper reflects upon notions of value for research collaborations with differing stakeholder agendas and suggests modes of working that could be useful to other academic/Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museum (GLAM) collaborations. It focuses on the Railway Work, Life & Death project, a collaboration between the National Railway Museum, University of Portsmouth and a number of other institutions. It demonstrates the benefits that meaningful, long-term collaboration can provide to those involved, and to wider stakeholder communities. It also considers some of the challenges of working with difficult pasts – in this case, accidents which killed and injured many tens of thousands of railway workers, and which run counter to popular perceptions of a ‘golden age’ of rail travel in Britain and Ireland. These tensions are noted and related to 2025’s Railway 200 celebration as both an opportunity and a challenge in terms of telling more diverse stories about the past. 
%Z For an excellent example of the potential of focusing on workers, see Ammermann, F N and Sithole, N E N, 2024, ‘Working around exclusive infrastructure – African workers and their families navigating race and gender on Rhodesia Railways, 1945–1964’, in The Journal of Transport History, 45(3), pp 671–91. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00225266241255184 (accessed 17 October 2025).
%Z From Vergunst, J and Graham, H, 2019, ‘Introduction: Heritage as community research’, in Graham, H and Vergunst, J (eds), Heritage as Community Research: Legacies of Co-production (Policy Press: Bristol), p 6 
%Z ‘Thomas W Manners’ (1871). Census return for Yorkley, Coleford subdistrict, Monmouth. RG10 5298, folio 123, p 11; ‘Thomas W Manners’ (1881), Census return for Newland, Coleford subdistrict, Monmouth. RG11 5223, folio 123, p 10 
%Z 'Mr Thomas W Manners’, Western Mail (6 January 1932), p 9
%Z ’Thomas Manners and Hannah Matthews’ (1898), marriage banns, Glamorganshire, Wales (24 November 1898). Welsh Archive Services. Available at: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FM%2F851080169%2F1&expand=true&tab=this (accessed 3 March 2025) 
%Z ‘T W Manners’ (1899), Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants membership record. Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, MSS.127/AS/2/3/8, folio 215
%Z Returns of Accidents and Casualties as reported to the Board of Trade by the several railway companies in the United Kingdom during the three months ending 31 March 1905, Appendix B. Reports of the Assistant Inspecting Officers of Railways on accidents to railway servants and other persons employed on railway premises (Cd. 2721), p 112
%Z Barry Railway Company Workmen’s Compensation, record of payments by settlement or award. The National Archives of the UK, Rail 23/64, p 44  
%Z Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants non-fatal compensation details, Reports and Proceedings (December 1906), p 33. Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, MSS.127/AS/1/1/34 
%Z See, for example, the case of Frederick Potter, injured at Portsmouth in 1913, losing a leg and being re-employed as a crossing keeper. Esbester, M, 2022, ‘Work-caused disability: Frederick Potter, Portsmouth’, available at https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/work-caused-disability-frederick-potter-portsmouth/ (accessed 17 October 2025). 
%Z Barry Railway Company Workmen’s Compensation, record of payments by settlement or award. The National Archives of the UK, Rail 23/64, p 44
%Z ‘Thomas William Manners’ (1911). Census return for Barry subdistrict. RG14 32194, schedule 312 
%Z ‘Thomas W Manners’ (1915), National Union of Railwaymen membership record, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, MSS.127/NU/OR/2/44, folio 7
%Z ‘Thomas William Manners’ (1921). Census return for Barry subdistrict, Cardiff. RG15 26543, schedule 134
%Z 'Mr T W Manners, Barry’, Western Mail (29 December 1932), p 4
%Z Family contributions are a significant feature of guest authored blogs for the Railway Work, Life & Death project. They also have significant potential for use in academic publication, though to date examples are thin on the ground. An excellent academic piece, which demonstrates the value family insight can bring, is Brett, A, 2024, ’Fading into the Murky Past. Legacies of New Zealand’s Hyde and Tangiwai Railway Disasters’, Journal of Disaster Studies, 1:2, pp 149–188.
%Z ‘The unquestioned assumption underlying Matarasso’s research is revealed by his intention to “identify evidence” of impact…presumes that the impacts are indeed there, and so is the evidence, it is just a question of identifying it.’ As quoted in Belfiore, E, 2009, ‘On bullshit in cultural policy practice and research: notes from the British case’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15(3), p 353. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10286630902806080  (accessed February 2025).  
%Z Science Museum Group, 2022, ‘Inspiring Futures, strategic priorities 2022–2030’. Available at: https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/about-us/policies-and-reports/inspiring-futures-strategic-priorities-2022-2030 (accessed 7 January 2025)
%Z Science Museum Group, 2021, ‘Inclusive Displays and Interpretation: Exploring Our Colonial History’. Available at: Inclusive Displays and Interpretation
%Z CILIP’s Ethical Framework: https://www.cilip.org.uk/general/custom.asp?page=ethics (accessed May 2025) 
%Z Science Museum Group’s Open for All values: https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/our-work/open-for-all (accessed May 2025)
%Z https://www.port.ac.uk/research/research-centres-and-institutes/centre-of-excellence-for-heritage-innovation (accessed 17 October 2025) 
%Z For those outside the UK, ‘impact’ is one of the aspects against which research undertaken in universities is assessed, as part of the periodic ‘Research Excellence Framework’ review process. Impact represents how far and in which ways academic research spreads outside higher education and (most importantly) the change in actions, thinking or understanding that flows from this.
%Z Email to Esbester, 24 January 2025
%Z For example, see ‘Memorial plaque to remember those lost in Abermule train collision on 100th anniversary’, 26 January 2021. Available at: https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/memorial-plaque-to-remember-those-lost-in-abermule-train-collision-on-100th-anniversary (accessed 17 October 2025)
%Z This is not publicly accessible, as it is part of the operational environment in the area. No attempt should be made to reach the memorial.
%Z ‘How do we re-energise Britain’s museums? Based on research from the Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change’, March 2025 https://demos.co.uk/research/how-do-we-re-energise-britains-museums/ (accessed 2 May 2025)
%Z ’Plaque commemorates workers killed on railway in Hereford’, Hereford Times (28 April 2025). Available at: https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/25119950.plaque-commemorates-workers-killed-railway-hereford/ (accessed 17 October 2025)
%Z See, for example, ‘Tondu railway station’, which includes a summary of the incident involving Elizabeth Trevelyan and a link out to the RWLD detail about her case: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=tondu-railway-station (accessed 17 October 2025)
%Z See, for example, Haynes, C, 2025, ‘Corporate memory matters’, Rail Safety Review 103 (Rail Safety and Standard Board), pp 5–6
%Z ‘Railway 200 Blue Plaque: William Betterton’ (2025). Available at: https://www.southeastcrp.org/railway-200-blue-plaque-william-betterton/ (accessed 17 October 2025)
%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/collaborative-working-with-challenging-histories-the-railway-work-life-death-project/
%J Science Museum Group Journal