Wednesday, August 10, 2005

100 years ago

Twenty people had been killed in an accident on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. At the inquiry the motorman stated that as he approached the station, the signalman waved him in with the green flag. The signal was thrown on just as he got to it. He noticed the points set for the middle siding, and shut off the current, but he had insufficient room to pull up in, and remembered nothing more until the next Tuesday. He continued that the signalman had shouted "right away" and admitted that the waving of a green flag from the cabin window, and the words "right away" were not in accordance with the company's instructions. The signalman said when the express came up he forgot to reverse the points. He had not been fined for delaying the express, but had been fined 10s for being asleep on duty. He had experienced difficulty three times with signals, and had asked for assistance. He had never used the green flag before in connection with an express train, but got confused when he saw the mistake that had been made, and lost his head.

50 years ago

If you paid a visit to Knavesmire you would possibly have thought that England's greenest stretch was the two-mile racetrack from the gates near the main road to the winning post. This was due to the Race Committee's enterprise in installing mechanical watering. After several weeks it had produced a marvellous effect as a result of putting in the costly plant, which would ease the minds of owners and trainers and the going at York would be good. Let there be no doubt about "over-liberal use" of precious water. Any such carping criticism could be silenced at once as the water sprinkled on the course was pumped from the river.

25 years ago

Hundreds of fish had been found dead in the River Foss between Yearsley Bridge and Brandsby and it was thought ammonia might have been the cause. The Yorkshire Water Authority's North Eastern Area Pollution Prevention Officer, said: "We are investigating a number of farms to see if they have had an accident with slurry." He could not discount the theory that the fish may have been killed after the river was polluted by an industrial source but said it was unlikely because stretches of the river where the fish died were alongside agricultural land. Tests had so far shown that only fish had died in the river and that lower life forms such as invertebrates had survived. "Invertebrates would die because of a build up of unsatisfactory conditions in the river over some time," said Mr Beck. "The fact that the fish have died suddenly shows there was a sudden cause."

Updated: 16:20 Tuesday, August 09, 2005