Searchable article text
RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: june 2015 :: RMTnews
18
Nearly 250 people died one
hundred years ago when three
trains crashed at Quintinshill in
Dumfries and Galloway on 22
May 1915 during the First World
War in what became known as
the railway's Titanic.
Two signalmen were sent to
prison as part of a cover up
which hid the true causes of the
crash, the drive for profit, corner
cutting and the war drive itself.
One of the trains was a troop
transport carrying hundreds of
Scottish soldiers who were
bound for Gallipoli.
At 06:50 the troop train
crashed into a passenger service
which was stationary on the
main line near the border
between Scotland and England.
Just over a minute later, an
express train travelling north
crashed into the wreckage of the
first crash.
Gas from the antiquated
lighting system of the troop
train's old wooden carriages
caught fire and it took 23 hours
to extinguish.
More than 200 soldiers were
killed, as well as 12 civilians,
although some remains were
never identified and the exact
death toll is uncertain, 246 were
also injured.
The two signalmen
controlling the line, George
Meakin; who had worked the
night shift, and James Tinsley;
who was to work the early day
shift, were both sent to prison.
THE QUINTINSHILL
RAIL DISASTER
one hundred years on
New research reveals
that two signalmen
were scapegoated for
Britain’s worst rail
disaster