Working horse and boy
Photograph showing a heavy horse (possibly a Shire) at work pulling a tipping wagon on the excavation of the cutting near Wotton Underwood in Buckinghamshire. Horses would have been used for such work when the ground wasn't suitable for the contractor's steam locomotives. The section of railway featured is the Princes Risborough to Grendon Underwood section of the link line to the Great Western & Great Central Joint line. This was built by Louis P. Nott between 1902 and 1905. A young boy is pictured holding the horse while another sits on the tipping wagon. A steam excavator is busy loading the wagon and a group of navvies shovel earth in the background. Note the muddy ground scrape marks left on the cutting sides left by the excavator.
