1981-1984
The rails that trains run on underground in coal mines are stacked on bogeys in a pyramid shape. A bogey is a flat carriage used for transporting equipment from above-ground to below-ground which runs on rails and is pulled by an engine. To unload the rails from a bogey two guys stand at either end of the rails, pick up an end each and hurl them onto the ground. After chucking about fifty of those heavy motherfuckers I was knackered, so knackered that I misjudged my chuck and didn't chuck as hard as the other chucker and the rail rolled over crushing my fingers and breaking them. I was 17 and it hurt like billy-o.
One time I was working with a couple of engineers fixing a water pump underground when two fellas ran past with another fella on a stretcher. They were heading for the mine shaft and then hospital. A minute after they passed us another fella ran past carrying a boot. With a foot still in it. A coal-face disaster caused by negligence around dangerous machinery.
A year later in 1984 the miners strike started so I left the employ of the NCB and became a rent boy in London. Much less dangerous.