WE'RE going back much further in time in today's nostalgia pages.

We remember an incident reported in the Bridport News on Friday, March 30 1888.

The headline read: 'Shocking accident at Maiden Newton station' and the report tells of a poor porter at Maiden Newton who lost an arm after the truck he was in collided with another and threw him out on to the rails.

His arm fell across the metal with a truck wheel passing by it, severely crushing and lacerating it just below the shoulder.

On these pages we also bring you some nostalgic views of the village of Maiden Newton and its railway station.

"Railway work of every description is at all times subject to great risk and danger, but perhaps the most dangerous branch of it is that known as “shunting”. We believe we are right in stating that the majority of accidents and fatalities that occur among railway servants happen whilst they are engaged in this necessary branch of their work.

"Considerable care, however, seems to be taken at the stations in this district, for occurrences of the kind referred to are not, fortunately, very frequent. Maiden Newton, however, on Monday night was the scene of a sad accident of this character, by which a railway servant named Joseph Bullock, a foreman porter, at Maiden Newton, lost a limb.

"It appears that about a quarter to six Bullock was engaged in checking off the goods in a truck while shunting operations were going on, and the truck in which he was at work was shunted back, and came in contact with another, pitching the unfortunate man out on to the rails.

"He fell with his arm across the metals, the consequence being that the wheel of the trucks passed over it, severely crushing and lacerating it just below the shoulder.

"He was speedily picked up and Dr. Rendall was quickly in attendance, by whom the injured man was accompanied to the hospital at Dorchester, where the injured limb was properly amputated, and we are glad to learn that he is going on as satisfactorily as can be expected under the circumstances."

'Genealogy Jude' delves into this incident further on the excellent website www.genealogyjude.com

They write: "From the two reports, it seems that Josiah had been in an open-sided goods truck when suddenly, it was shunted violently, throwing him out onto the tracks.

"Another truck ran over his left arm, severing it above the elbow.

"Fortunately, for him, the local surgeon, Dr Rendell, was quickly on the scene, conveying him by train to Dorchester Hospital. He was operated on and his arm was amputated just below the shoulder. Poor Josiah, what a terrible thing to happen! No wonder it had taken him five months to recover.

"As mentioned previously, I also discovered from newspaper reports that Josiah had been called as a witness in court on at least two occasions when there had been accidents on the railway line. The first incident happened in 1877, when Josiah was working as a foreman porter at Weymouth, prior to his move to Maiden Newton"

The report from the Southern Times and Dorset County Herald Saturday May 5 1877 tells of a fatal accident involving Thomas Smith, aged 70.

The article says: "A very distressing accident occurred on Wednesday afternoon on the tramway near the Great Western goods shed, by which an old man named Thomas Smith, about 70 years of age, residing in the Old Poorhouse, was literally cut to pieces by a goods train whilst in the act of shunting. The deceased had gone to the station-yard to purchase some coal, and, after being supplied with it, he went on the tramway for the purpose of picking up some "slag".

"Whilst so engaged he could not have either seen or heard a goods train, consisting of six-and-twenty carriages, was being shunted, and he was knocked down by the last truck, and the whole train went over him, mutilating him in a dreadful manner, no one being in charge of the train being aware of what had happened until the intelligence was communicated to them at Portland.

"Happily death had released the decease from all suffering; in fact he must have been killed almost instantaneously....."

These very graphic reports illustrate just how dangerous it used to be working around the railways and for members of the public entering the tramway, like poor Thomas Smith, who tragically perished on the line.