Quintinshill Signalman

[Jimbob52]

Recently Published: ‘Tinsley - The Signalman Who Simply Forgot’ by James Carron, published in October 2023 by Amenta. ISBN 9798863764160

This book makes extensive use of contemporary newspaper reports to describe the accident at Quintinshill on May 22nd, 1915, concentrating on the role played by one of the signalmen, James Tinsley. Most of the quotations have been published before but there are some details that seem to be aired for the first time. There is a little repetition in the narrative which, on occasion, deviates into irrelevancy. In particular, the section on the air disaster at Lockerbie seems unnecessary. There are also one or two clear misprints: the northbound sleeper train from Euston was operated by the London North Western Railway, not the London North Eastern.

The author dismisses robustly the suggestion that there were four child stowaways on the troop train, a ‘fact’ that is repeated from time to time despite no reliable evidence. The narrative is critical of the role played by the management of the Midland Railway though the criticism is qualified by the giveaway phrase ‘it is not beyond the realms of possibility that . ‘

It is a pity that the book does not include an index and that more attention was not paid to the paragraphing but, IMO, the book is a worthy addition to anyone’s collection of railway books.

 

[Gloster]

I can’t find who publishes this: there is an Amenta Publishing in New Delhi, which seems to produce educational books, and an Amenta Press in Damascus, Maryland, that seems to deal with health and nutrition, although it doesn’t seem to have a website. I am not sure if the book was published in the UK: Waterstones says five to six weeks, which is a long order time even for a print-on-demand. I am not suggesting it is a con, like the chap who offered books on railways and then just sent pages copied from Wikipedia, but if it was published in the USA, why there and not here as, unless he is a namesake, the chap has written a lot of books on various aspects of Scottish popular history. They may be very good, but they do look like the sort of simple popular histories churned out to satisfy tourists and people with only the haziest knowledge of the subject.

More pertinently, I am always suspicious of books that contain large amounts of newspaper cuttings. As we know, even now, newspapers are often inaccurate or biased, and it is all too easy for a lazy, hurried or non-expert author to accept what is written in newspapers. (One appalling book I failed to complete reading pontificated about the causes of railway accidents, but relied on newspaper reports and did not appear to have consulted the Railway Inspectorate’s reports.)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

"Independently published" whatever that means!

Believe that Amenta Publishing - as opposed to the Delhi based business Amenta Publications - is possibly owned by or is an imprint of NHBS Ltd, a natural history bookseller company based in Totnes, Devon.

Freelance writer? Reckon he (James Carron) is genuine, although I've not seen any of his numerous previous titles, so can't comment on the quality of his penmanship.

About

I am a freelance writer based in Scotland. I specialise in active outdoor pursuits including walking, hillwalking, backpacking, camping, cycling and mountain biking. Other topics I write about incl…

jamescarron.wordpress.com

Extract...

Other topics I write about include Scotland, Scottish history and overseas adventure travel.

 

[Gloster]

"Independently published" whatever that means!

Freelance writer? Reckon he (James Carron) is genuine, although I've not seen any of his numerous previous titles, so can't comment on the quality of his penmanship.

I have come across too many books that are independently published or published as an oddity by a specialist publisher because no mainstream publisher thinks they will sell. It is only one step up from self-publishing in my opinion.

He does seem to have a track record of writing, but he strikes me as a general hack (what I was, but more successful: he couldn’t have been less), so there is no certainty that he has the knowledge to add anything new, even if he writes well. Without having read it, I can’t give a review, but I doubt that it is going to come up with any revelations.

 

[6Gman]

Recently Published: ‘Tinsley - The Signalman Who Simply Forgot’ by James Carron, published in October 2023 by Amenta. ISBN 9798863764160

The author dismisses robustly the suggestion that there were four child stowaways on the troop train, a ‘fact’ that is repeated from time to time despite no reliable evidence. The narrative is critical of the role played by the management of the Midland Railway though the criticism is qualified by the giveaway phrase ‘it is not beyond the realms of possibility that . ‘

It is a pity that the book does not include an index and that more attention was not paid to the paragraphing but, IMO, the book is a worthy addition to anyone’s collection of railway books.

What was the relevance of the Midland Railway?

 

[Gloster]

What was the relevance of the Midland Railway?

I wondered if the northbound express had been delayed by a train off the Midland, but this would hardly seem to be a matter of great import and I can find no reference the Midland in the accident report. Nor was there any Midland stock in any of the trains, unless there some MR wagons in the looped goods.

 

[Elecman]

Wonder if Midland should have read Caledonian

 

[Harvester]

The author dismisses robustly the suggestion that there were four child stowaways on the troop train, a ‘fact’ that is repeated from time to time despite no reliable evidence.

Some similarity with Charfield thirteen years later? At Charfield two badly charred torsos found in the wreckage were never identified, and were assumed to have been unescorted children!

 

[Gloster]

Some similarity with Charfield thirteen years later? At Charfield two badly charred torsos found in the wreckage were never identified, and were assumed to have been unescorted children!

Sorry, no. This has been thoroughly squashed. Some of the bodies were such a mess that they did have difficulty in assembling the parts and ended up with one or two small coffins, but there wasn’t any evidence that any of the remains came from children. There were two young children on the train, but they were later traced: one was slightly hurt and the other uninjured. Sad but good stories like this hang around long after they have been disproved.

 

[Harvester]

Sorry, no. This has been thoroughly squashed. Some of the bodies were such a mess that they did have difficulty in assembling the parts and ended up with one or two small coffins, but there wasn’t any evidence that any of the remains came from children. There were two young children on the train, but they were later traced: one was slightly hurt and the other uninjured. Sad but good stories like this hang around long after they have been disproved.

I never mentioned ‘evidence’ of children’s remains, but said that it was assumed the unidentified remains were children. Then as you say stories hang around for a long time and broaden over the years, although the Lady in Black storyline was rather extreme!

 

[Jimbob52]

Wonder if Midland should have read Caledonian

You are correct. The reference should have been to the Caley.

 

[norbitonflyer]

What was the relevance of the Midland Railway?

Difficult to tell - the accident happened on the Caledonian. The sleeper was mainly West Coast Joint Stock, with a couple of LNWR carriages, the local was Caledonian and the troop train was made up of GCR stock (although I think all five locomotives were Caledonian)
The accident report only lists those wagons in the goods trains that were damaged. Of those, all the empties (southbound) were private owner, whilst the northbound coal train was a mixture of LNWR, Caledonian, GCR, Lancashire & Yorkshire, and - yes - one Midland.

 

[Rescars]

You are correct. The reference should have been to the Caley.

Given the old rivalries, perhaps fortunate not to have confused the Caley with the Sou' Western!