Quote: There were close links between the armed forces and the railway inspectorate?

Best,tony heywood

Absolutely, the majority (if not all) of the early Inspectors for the Board of Trade, who not only investigated accidents, but also new lines, were drawn from the officers of the Royal Engineers eg Laffan,  Marindin et all Wikipedia says:

The Chief Inspecting Officer from 1916 to 1929 was Colonel John Wallace Pringle, responsible for investigating many accidents. It was during his tenure, in 1919, that the office became part of the newly created Ministry of Transport.^[3] Until the late 1960s HMRI's Inspecting Officers were all recruited from the Corps of Royal Engineers; as the Corps ran the UK's military railway system and they would be very familiar with the Railway Rule Book.^[1][2] The last Chief Inspecting Officer with a Royal Engineers background, Major Rose, retired in 1988 and he was replaced by an appointee from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) The full list of Chief Inspecting Officers is:

• General Sir John Mark Frederic Smith
• Sir Henry Watley Tyler 1870-1877
• William Yolland 1877-1885
• F.H. Rich 1885-1889
• Major General Charles Scrope Hutchinson 1892-1895
• Sir Francis Arthur Marindin 1895-1899 (RE)
• Lt Col. Sir Horatio Arthur Yorke 1900-1913
• Pelham George Von Donop 1913–1916 (RE)
• Sir John Wallace Pringle 1916–1929
• Sir Alan Henry Lawrence Mount 1929-1942
• George Robert Stewart Wilson 1949-1957
• Charles Ardagh Langley 1958–1963
• Denis McMullen 1963–1968
• Col John Richard Hugh Robertson 1969–1973
• Lt-Col Ian Kenneth Arnold McNaughton 1974–1982
• Major Charles Frederick Rose 1982–1988

Yours

Niall Ferguson