matchmaker
Established Member
Lest we forget - 97 years ago today. RIP 226 souls.
I just came on to make a passing comment about the day too.
Not sure why I should remember it but shocking scenario, with
five trains and signalman forgetting one standing near his box.
Messrs Makin and Tinsley, no?
The Quintinshill rail disaster occurred on 22 May 1915 in Scotland near Gretna Green at Quintinshill, an intermediate signal box with loops on each side on the Caledonian Railway Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle (the line now forms part of the West Coast Main Line).
The crash, which involved five trains, killed a probable 226[nb 1] and injured 246 and remains the worst rail crash in the United Kingdom in terms of loss of life.[2] Those killed were mainly Territorial soldiers from the 1/7th (Leith) Battalion, the Royal Scots heading for Gallipoli. The precise number of dead was never established with confidence as the roll list of the regiment was destroyed by the fire.[1]
Every time one passes that spot one can't help remembering the event with a shiver. That such events are so rare, and were so even then, is a tribute to the professionalism of Railmen and Women in keeping us safe over the years.
I'm sure the signal box is long gone, but do the two loops on either side of the line still exist?
'The express hit us and then I lost consciousness'
In 1915, 225 people died in Britain's worst ever rail disaster. Researching the incident for a film, Michael Simkins made an incredible discovery - one of the survivors was still alive.
As the train pulled out of London King's Cross on its journey towards Peterborough, I tried again to make sense of the arithmetic of the journey I was making. I'd been researching the events of the Quintinshill train crash to see if it would make an idea for a film, and after months of studying yellowing newspaper clippings and official inquiry reports, I was about to meet a man who claimed to have been in it...
Truely a horrific event.
An interesting interview with a survivor was published in the Guardian back in 2001:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/may/18/transport.uk
99th anniversary on Thursday :cry:
I just googled this following your post. I was vaguely aware of some sort of rail accident of that name, but had no idea of the scale of loss of life / injuries. Must have been pretty horrible.
.......the Gallipoli Campaign...