FYI, the place name is pronounced with a short A, as in "hat". The site wasn't in Abram in any case, it was at Platt Bridge to the north. There were literally hundreds of shafts in the area; it is impossible to build without worrying about problems caused by coal mining.
Still they build. Most of the area is covered in Lego houses now, right through to M61 at Westhoughton. CRT and local farmer have cut off a public right of way just yards from where Dorothy sank, presumably in preparation for more houses
@@bigmick5964 It certainly did happen. Plenty of photo evidence, an inquest on 18th May 1945, and questions in Parliament. The inquest verdict of "misadventure" seems quite inappropriate.
Everyone that's a Thomas fan on your channel is probably going to link this to down the mine. I actually linked it to Sodor's Legend Of The Lost Treasure, as Thomas fell into a cave pretty much how Dorothy fell into that mineshaft.
Oh wow :D I live about 2 miles from where this happened and heard about a train disappearing into the ground as a child! Its not too far from where one of the worst mining accidents in the UK happened, an underground explosion killing 344 men and boys at the Pretoria Pit in nearby Westhoughton. The whole of this area of South Lancashire is criss-crossed by mine workings, at one point there were over 1000 pit shafts within 5 miles of Wigan town centre! Of interest to train enthusiasts is the Lancashire Mining Museum, situated at the former Astley Green Colliery and home to a volunteer built narrow-gauge railway and one of the largest mine related rolling stock collections in the UK! :) Thanks for bringing this incident to light, its awesome to see the history of my local area on youtube, even if it isn't a very happy tale!
When I was kid I was told about people disappearing, never to be seen again, into holes that opened up beneath them in my home town. I always assumed they were either fabricated or exaggerated but it turns out that it did actually happen. That was water erosion in chalk causing sink-holes rather than mining.
That’s fascinating, I’ve driven past that mining museum hundreds of times and never realised what it was (usually early in the morning on a weekend going to work at Bodens). I’ll have to visit the next time in Lancashire
That sounds like my hometown of Ipswich in Australia even tho the last underground mine in the Ipswich area was closed in the late 90’s they are still causing problems today in fact one of the old mines has a huge cap built on top of it because it is leaking toxic gases another one has been on fire since about the 1930’s.
I've been getting loads of train videos in my reccomended recently after I gave up trying to fix my train networks in Cities skylines and went on a googling spree to try and find solutions on the internet, and every time I watch a video with trains in the title, or in the description, or anywhere at all to be honest, I get the exact same ad for Thomas the Tank Engine toys aimed at like 4 year olds and it's driving me insane. But uh yeah 9/10, cool vid, interesting topic. Too many Thomas and Friends ads.
I think what makes this story truly awful is the fact that Ludovic died on the day WW2 ended he probably spent the entire war working himself to the bone and barely escaping certain death from the Blitz only to be killed on the day the European conflict of the war ended
I love the choice of using this track from Undertale because it definitely has that sort of sad feeling where someone had died, and you’re thinking of all the good times you had with them before they had passed... 💧
I live in Pennsylvania in the US, a friend always wondered why this section of his driveway never had snow accumulation until someone told him it was a ventilation shaft covered over. If you live in coal areas, they're almost everywhere.
@@cr10001 Actually I'm 15 miles from Centralia. In the 50s a hole opened in the Susquehanna at Knox mine and they threw something like 50 rail cars in it to help plug the hole.
@@cr10001 I remember being a kid in the 80s, my father would take me up there to see the place when they enacted emindent domain. The first time it was famous was from the book A Walk In The Woods, which I was asked about when I was in college. Second was the Silent Hill.
An underground locomotive went down a shaft in South Africa perhaps twenty years ago. Took a cage full of miners with it. That time the driver did jump
This might be an interesting video you could do, did you know that On the Clogher Valley Railway at Fivemiletown, in Ireland, a lady called Maggie Coulter had a goat and it frequently stood on the track blocking the path of trains oblivious to shouts from the Loco Crew, until hot coals were thrown at it. The uncharitable Maggie Coulter would let it stand until the fireman had thrown enough coal to do her fire.
I read somewhere (online) that the picture at 0:20 is a photo of "Dorothy" and that Ludovic Berry is the man in the cab (top left). Ludovic was 67 when he died but, if it is him, he looks a bit younger. The engine looks new so I do not know how old the photo is.
I love how you and History in the Dark have similar content and style. How about a collab? No? Well, anyway.... what a tragic story. Thanks for sharing
@@gameoholic1994 Only if done without the approval of either the council &/or the current landowner. Having a member of the press (the local one at least) on hand does seem to be standard practice for such excavations for a reason though.
TrainBoy covered this real life event before. This disaster is almost Shakespearean in a way, as you said it yourself, Ludovic Berry probably didn't want to be buried with anything else. I see a striking similarity with this and the sinkhole scene in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure.
Viewers: * thinks of another engine that fell down a mine * Train of Thought: "Do not do it! Do not even think about doing it! Do not even think about not doing it!"
This and the prior video about ground subsiding recalled a incident from awhile ago outside of Canton OH. A new highway had been built over an old coal mine that was not on any of the maps available. As I recall, two lanes collapsed and it took about two years before that piece of highway got reopened.
Yet another Lost Treasure moment... I feel bad for Mr. Berry. He loved that locomotive so much. But, it was kind of foolish of him. He should have jumped off the locomotive. And if he could, run to the couplings and uncouple the engine to the train. What makes this worse is that Mr. Berry died 12 days before the first Railway Series book was published.
Did anybody get lowered into the shaft to look for the driver? Somehow this feels more like "it's going to be expensive to look, so we won't" rather than "it's not possible to look, so we won't", which wouldn't surprise me given the time period.
Is that a picture of 'Dorothy'? Can't read the nameplate. Looks like a 19th century Peckett going by the Salter safety valves & smokebox wing plates as well as the shape of the saddle-tank. Those huge baulks of timber attached to the locomotive's frames must make it rather distinctive. They are to reduce damage to the locomotive in a de-railment incident. No good when the thing drops down a disused mineshaft. I bet some of the miners who attended the disaster would have liked to try and bring the body of their brother miner to the surface & be buried decently.
So this is where Wilbert Awdrey came up with the Thomas story Down a Mine from. Too bad the engine who fell down that mineshaft didn’t make it like Thomas did when Gordon came to rescue him though.
The first incident is like Down the Mine, this one is more like Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure. Sorry, had to say it. Also this is such a tragic story.
So the Ancient Egyptians used to bury belongings and slaves with Pharaohs so they could have it in the afterlife. If this were to be true, then that means Mr Berry has a steam engine in the afterlife
He would have already suffocated. There are often gases in old mines trapped and Oxygen dies out quickly especially as the engine would have been using it up as the fire burns out.
If the engine fell 100 feet (or whatever it is in metric) and landed cab first there's a pretty strong chance that it, and he would have been crushed by the engine's weight - the cab back and side sheets were only thin sheet metal. I only hope it was that quick for him - being asphyxiated or roasted alive (if crushed against the firebox backplate) would be horrendous ways of dying. Poor man - why, I wonder did he not jump when he could see what was happening? At least he saw his daughter and grandchild beforehand. What a rotten end.
FYI, the place name is pronounced with a short A, as in "hat". The site wasn't in Abram in any case, it was at Platt Bridge to the north. There were literally hundreds of shafts in the area; it is impossible to build without worrying about problems caused by coal mining.
Also Sodors legend of the lost treasure
Still they build. Most of the area is covered in Lego houses now, right through to M61 at Westhoughton. CRT and local farmer have cut off a public right of way just yards from where Dorothy sank, presumably in preparation for more houses
Doubt it actually happened, just saying 😅
@@bigmick5964 It certainly did happen. Plenty of photo evidence, an inquest on 18th May 1945, and questions in Parliament. The inquest verdict of "misadventure" seems quite inappropriate.
I feel bad for the driver, his daughter, and Dolly. He sounds like such a sweet father. Rest In Peace...
Rest In Peace to Ludovic, its very sad to see him die in one of the worse ways possible with a steam engine.
A “dark side” Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne!
You mean the wierdest like imagine his great grandson telling how ludovic died.
Ludovic died from falling down a mine in a train and also buried
The joy from the Phineas and Ferb reference at the beginning is outweighed by the general sorrow of this event.
Also the fact that immediately after this video during his intro I saw a Phineas and Ferb video with Doofenshmirtz on the thumbnail…
Poor Ludovic. Unlike the Lindal Railway incident, this one was more tragic.
Everyone that's a Thomas fan on your channel is probably going to link this to down the mine. I actually linked it to Sodor's Legend Of The Lost Treasure, as Thomas fell into a cave pretty much how Dorothy fell into that mineshaft.
Good thinking.... And I'm absolutely agreed
Meanwhile Mr. ToT loses another year of life.
Oh wow :D I live about 2 miles from where this happened and heard about a train disappearing into the ground as a child!
Its not too far from where one of the worst mining accidents in the UK happened, an underground explosion killing 344 men and boys at the Pretoria Pit in nearby Westhoughton. The whole of this area of South Lancashire is criss-crossed by mine workings, at one point there were over 1000 pit shafts within 5 miles of Wigan town centre!
Of interest to train enthusiasts is the Lancashire Mining Museum, situated at the former Astley Green Colliery and home to a volunteer built narrow-gauge railway and one of the largest mine related rolling stock collections in the UK! :)
Thanks for bringing this incident to light, its awesome to see the history of my local area on youtube, even if it isn't a very happy tale!
When I was kid I was told about people disappearing, never to be seen again, into holes that opened up beneath them in my home town. I always assumed they were either fabricated or exaggerated but it turns out that it did actually happen. That was water erosion in chalk causing sink-holes rather than mining.
That’s fascinating, I’ve driven past that mining museum hundreds of times and never realised what it was (usually early in the morning on a weekend going to work at Bodens). I’ll have to visit the next time in Lancashire
That sounds like my hometown of Ipswich in Australia even tho the last underground mine in the Ipswich area was closed in the late 90’s they are still causing problems today in fact one of the old mines has a huge cap built on top of it because it is leaking toxic gases another one has been on fire since about the 1930’s.
I was wondering if you'd bring up this story. A much more tragic tale that could have inspired down the mine for sure. Anyway great job as always.
"Down the mine" as in the Thomas the Tank Engine episode?
@@fishandjam5383 yes, the very same "down the mine". Lots of Thomas stories were actually inspired by real life events or accidents.
R.I.P Ludovic. They do say a captain goes down with the ship. He likely wouldn't want to be buried with anything else, though.
I was gonna comment, just like a captain going down with his ship lol
I've been getting loads of train videos in my reccomended recently after I gave up trying to fix my train networks in Cities skylines and went on a googling spree to try and find solutions on the internet, and every time I watch a video with trains in the title, or in the description, or anywhere at all to be honest, I get the exact same ad for Thomas the Tank Engine toys aimed at like 4 year olds and it's driving me insane.
But uh yeah 9/10, cool vid, interesting topic. Too many Thomas and Friends ads.
Thanks for this video! Just what I needed after school much love man!!! Keep your fine work up, you never failed to entertain me!
Note to self: don’t build a railway over a mineshaft
They didnt even rope down to see if he was actually dead? Damn thats cold.
As tragic as this is, I can't help but think about how his wife would have handled this.
"How'd he die?"
"With his engine"
"His. What"
What about his daughter who had seen him pass by with his train sheer minutes before desaster happend....
I think what makes this story truly awful is the fact that Ludovic died on the day WW2 ended he probably spent the entire war working himself to the bone and barely escaping certain death from the Blitz only to be killed on the day the European conflict of the war ended
That’s sad bro. R.I.P Ludovic
I love the choice of using this track from Undertale because it definitely has that sort of sad feeling where someone had died, and you’re thinking of all the good times you had with them before they had passed... 💧
i also like the choice of using an Undertale song because the story is about an engine actually falling underground
This brings to mind the large numbers of people who drown trying to save their dogs who plunged through thin ice.
I live in Pennsylvania in the US, a friend always wondered why this section of his driveway never had snow accumulation until someone told him it was a ventilation shaft covered over. If you live in coal areas, they're almost everywhere.
Doesn't live near Centralia, by any chance? ;)
@@cr10001 Actually I'm 15 miles from Centralia. In the 50s a hole opened in the Susquehanna at Knox mine and they threw something like 50 rail cars in it to help plug the hole.
@@reubensandwich9249 Umm, ok. That was a wild 'stab in the dark' and half in jest - Centralia is 'world famous on RUclips' of course.
@@cr10001 I remember being a kid in the 80s, my father would take me up there to see the place when they enacted emindent domain. The first time it was famous was from the book A Walk In The Woods, which I was asked about when I was in college. Second was the Silent Hill.
@@cr10001 ruclips.net/video/4X-074T06s4/видео.html
An underground locomotive went down a shaft in South Africa perhaps twenty years ago. Took a cage full of miners with it. That time the driver did jump
Ah, a Doofenshmirtz reference. A man of culture, I see.
Not well versed in said series (besides the TopGear clip): may I be enlightened? :D
@@jimtaylor294 ruclips.net/video/iRa_cSZ-Hag/видео.html
This might be an interesting video you could do, did you know that On the Clogher Valley Railway at Fivemiletown, in Ireland, a lady called Maggie Coulter had a goat and it frequently stood on the track blocking the path of trains oblivious to shouts from the Loco Crew, until hot coals were thrown at it. The uncharitable Maggie Coulter would let it stand until the fireman had thrown enough coal to do her fire.
Still impressed about the Doofinshmerts reference.
So, you mean to tell me that scene from SLOTLT where Thomas falls into the cavern was based off this event?
I have a model of this type of engine, I can see why he was so fond it is beautiful, rip
RIP Mr Berry and condolences to his friends and family. Thanks for sharing this story, ToT!
"Fire and smoke!" said Dolly. "I'm sunk!" And she was.
I read somewhere (online) that the picture at 0:20 is a photo of "Dorothy" and that Ludovic Berry is the man in the cab (top left).
Ludovic was 67 when he died but, if it is him, he looks a bit younger. The engine looks new so I do not know how old the photo is.
Here before the obilgatory "Down the Mine" and "Thomas The Tank Engine" comments.
Rest in Peace to Ludovic and Dolly.
I love how you and History in the Dark have similar content and style. How about a collab? No? Well, anyway.... what a tragic story. Thanks for sharing
Pity they were never recovered. It's an empty field now. So digging for it won't upset anyone.
But MIGHT be considered grave robbing.
@@gameoholic1994 Perhaps. But Dolly would make a great museum piece.
@@gameoholic1994 Only if done without the approval of either the council &/or the current landowner.
Having a member of the press (the local one at least) on hand does seem to be standard practice for such excavations for a reason though.
Rest In Peace to that man.
Is your pfp lui?
@@flamedude_1111 yes
Hey man, are you considering of bringing the quintshill disaster?
RIP Dolly and Mr. Berry.
TrainBoy covered this real life event before. This disaster is almost Shakespearean in a way, as you said it yourself, Ludovic Berry probably didn't want to be buried with anything else. I see a striking similarity with this and the sinkhole scene in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure.
This was more tragic than the last time
Viewers: * thinks of another engine that fell down a mine *
Train of Thought: "Do not do it! Do not even think about doing it! Do not even think about not doing it!"
Talk about a captain going down with their ship this driver pretty much did that with his engine.
If I keep watching your videos my Iq will be over 9000.
The loading icon fits perfectly with the penny
This and the prior video about ground subsiding recalled a incident from awhile ago outside of Canton OH. A new highway had been built over an old coal mine that was not on any of the maps available. As I recall, two lanes collapsed and it took about two years before that piece of highway got reopened.
That’s so tragic
May I suggest the Church Hill disaster for a future episode?
Interesting fact: April 30th 1945 was the same day when Hitler committed suicide
"Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened more than once."
Actually, it's weird that it happened _at all._
Fascinating never heard of it thanks man!
A man still working at 67 years of age - “the good old days?”
It was wartime, lots of retirees went back into the worforce because so many younger men were serving in the armed forces.
I mean he was fond of the engine, and likely the job as well, why stop when you're having fun?
Nice but sad video. This is actually located quite close to me! RIP Ludovic Berry.
Didn't you already post this video?
Yet another Lost Treasure moment...
I feel bad for Mr. Berry. He loved that locomotive so much.
But, it was kind of foolish of him. He should have jumped off the locomotive. And if he could, run to the couplings and uncouple the engine to the train. What makes this worse is that Mr. Berry died 12 days before the first Railway Series book was published.
No way, even if he had time, that you could uncouple the couplings when they're under tension.
Jump out and then help get it out of the hole.
Wow, I'm from Wigan, and I didn't know about this. Mind you, I don't really go to that area of town.
Honestly, I'm surprised it's only happened twice.
That was so 😭 almost in a case of like Casey Jones
Yet another one that will utterly bamboozle archaeologists of the future, that's for sure.
R.I.P. Ludovic
liked video sad to 👍😥🚂
I will say the music choice was very appropriate here
Very tragic story for sure
Thank you Daimler for your illuminating proof
if anyone's looking for solemn Thomas story...this seems like something that would be good to adapt in trainz
Yea it would make for a good ghost story for Thomas( not Thomas himself though)
is this a reupload? I swear I've seen this before-
okay just finished watching the whole thing, I've definitely seen this before
He posted a video about a different train falling in another hole a few weeks ago
@@christhompson4950 Yeah I know I was curious so I went and checked out, this still feels oddly similar, probably just deja vu
Did anybody get lowered into the shaft to look for the driver? Somehow this feels more like "it's going to be expensive to look, so we won't" rather than "it's not possible to look, so we won't", which wouldn't surprise me given the time period.
What a sad little story.
I was going to make that penny joke in the comments the second I clicked on the video, only to be pleasantly surprised by the introduction.
Does this remind you of Sodor legend of the lost treasure when Thomas fell into the hole
T_T God Speed to them both.
I wonder if there were such things as emergency disconnects
Captain went down with his ship
Why is there Undertale music in the background?
The engines name is actually Dolly. Not Dorothy.
Is that a picture of 'Dorothy'? Can't read the nameplate. Looks like a 19th century Peckett going by the Salter safety valves & smokebox wing plates as well as the shape of the saddle-tank.
Those huge baulks of timber attached to the locomotive's frames must make it rather distinctive. They are to reduce damage to the locomotive in a de-railment incident.
No good when the thing drops down a disused mineshaft.
I bet some of the miners who attended the disaster would have liked to try and bring the body of their brother miner to the surface & be buried decently.
Now say that intro but as Dr Heinz Doofenshmirtz
So this is where Wilbert Awdrey came up with the Thomas story Down a Mine from. Too bad the engine who fell down that mineshaft didn’t make it like Thomas did when Gordon came to rescue him though.
Train lore has the strangest stories.
Isnt that a pecketts?
so...... the engine is still there
alnong whith the wagons and a corpse.......
The first incident is like Down the Mine, this one is more like Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure. Sorry, had to say it. Also this is such a tragic story.
A sad little story. A railwayman's answer to the viking funeral.
Thomas playing Minecraft.
May the two of them rest in peace. As a man who loves his car I get it.
You botched the quote, I’m mildly disappointed.
“…but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?”
A cross between Thomas and Bill or Ben
it kinda feels a bit strange in some way...coz this incident happened just as the War in Europe was coming to a end
If that happens to you what you do is apply brake then decouple the consist that hasn't fallen in already..
Aww bless the poor guy, talk about the captain going down with his ship
Thomas: 👁👄👁
Thats sad i wonder if he might have been still alive when they said he was dead and no hope
Sodor legend of the lost treasure reference
Always a suspicious back story....
He probably was alive down there they just didn’t want to try
Don't you mean you'd have tuppence?
only watch RUclipsrs that don't ask for subscribers after a heartbroken tale.
Frikkin Doofensmirtz meme.
Yeah, driving a heavy steam locomotive over hollow ground. WhAt CoUlD pOsSiBlY gO wRoNg?
Hey a Docter Doof refrence!
So the Ancient Egyptians used to bury belongings and slaves with Pharaohs so they could have it in the afterlife. If this were to be true, then that means Mr Berry has a steam engine in the afterlife
RIP
At least he is buried with one of his beloved
Cheering up Ludovic
Didn't even try to dig him out. What if he was still alive in the cab when they filled the hole in?
He would have already suffocated. There are often gases in old mines trapped and Oxygen dies out quickly especially as the engine would have been using it up as the fire burns out.
@@ChimpManZ1264 plus anyways he was probably burned and severely injured from the fall
If the engine fell 100 feet (or whatever it is in metric) and landed cab first there's a pretty strong chance that it, and he would have been crushed by the engine's weight - the cab back and side sheets were only thin sheet metal. I only hope it was that quick for him - being asphyxiated or roasted alive (if crushed against the firebox backplate) would be horrendous ways of dying. Poor man - why, I wonder did he not jump when he could see what was happening? At least he saw his daughter and grandchild beforehand. What a rotten end.
I think it's how he would've wanted to go. Sort of.
someone is gonna say thomas arnt they