Step of fate killed driver

1917 – Shunting driver Alfred “Leonard” Breeding was working at Cockburn on the border of NSW and SA, when he got the heel of his boot stuck between two rails and was run over.

That is what initial newspaper reports of his death claimed. But there was no mention of his foot being stuck in the coronial inquiry which followed, where it was claimed his body was found well clear of the tracks.

It was 9.30ish in the evening and Breeding, 26, had not long started his evening shift as a shunting engine driver at the Burns yard on the New South Wales side of the border.

Breeding should have been safe doing his work in the engine. Although the inquiry into the incident heard that an engine driver should not have been uncoupling railway trucks, two witnesses had heard him say he was going to show the porter the best way to divide the train.

But no-one seems to have seen what happened. The porter said he heard a “bumping sound between the two pits of the level crossing” and ran to tell the men on the engine to pull up.

Breeding had died instantly – his  body was found lying clear of the rails. His right arm and jaw were broken, as well as his left leg.

The coroner’s finding was one of “accidental death, no blame being attachable to anyone”.

Breeding left a widow and three children, aged four and two years, and three months. They lived at Petersborough, where Breeding was buried.

The  Silverton Tramway which employed Breeding was a 58-kilometre-long  railway line running from Cockburn on the South Australian border to Broken Hill in New South Wales.

It linked the differing line widths between the two states – South Australia using a narrow gauge and NSW government railways using “standard gauge”, thus allowing silver-lead-zinc ore to reach South Australian ports.

SOURCES: Barrier Miner, Tuesday 20 November 1917 p 2, Wednesday 21 November 1917, p 2

Chronicle, Saturday 24 November 1917, p 12

Daily Herald, Wednesday 21 November 1917, p 3

Quorn Mercury, Friday 30 November 1917 p 2

Silverton Tramway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverton_Tramway, viewed 2/10/2023

Track layout diagram https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Track_layout_diagram_–conjoined_Cockburn%28South_Australia%29_and_Burns_%28New_South_Wales%29_railway_yards.png, viewed 2/10/2023