Furness Railway 0-6-0 No. 115
Lindal, Cumbria, UK 		Location: Buried under former sidings
Status: Buried
Posted: Apr 10, 2023 @ 09:04:02 by Steve Frost, European Editor
No.115 is a member of The Furness Railway's D1 class of six coupled freight locomotives. An almost new loco, it was lost on 22nd September, 1892 in sidings at Lindal. The loco was engaged in shunting when the driver, Thomas Postlethwaite noticed the ground cracking below the locomotive. He shut off steam and jumped just before a 30 foot wide hole opened up and the loco fell into it smokebox first. Postlethwaite was alone on the footplate at the time, the fireman having left the engine to take lunch.

The hole continued to widen and deepen and breakdown gangs were unable to recover the loco which had sunk out of sight. Only the engine's four wheeled tender was saved. Estimates of the depth of its present location vary between 60 and 200 feet. The area is riddled with old mine workings, some active at the time of the accident and there was a history of subsidence in the area. Recovery seems highly unlikely, but you never know!