Quintinshill Train Crash

Quintinshill Train Crash

The Quintinshill Train Crash was a multi train crash which occurred on May 22, 1915, outside of the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green in Dumfriesshires, Scotland, The accident resulted in deaths of 226 people and remains the deadliest train crash of 1915 and in United Kingdom's history.

The Quintinshill signal box controlled two passing loops, one on each side of the double-track Caledonian Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle (now part of the West Coast Main Line). At the time of the accident, both passing loops were occupied with goods trains, and a northbound local passenger train was standing on the southbound main line.

Accident

The first collision occurred when a southbound troop train travelling from Larbert to Liverpool collided with the stationary local train. A minute later the wreckage was struck by a northbound sleeping car express train travelling from London Euston to Glasgow Central. Gas from the Pintsch gas lighting system of the old wooden carriages of the troop train ignited, starting a fire which soon engulfed all five trains.

Only half the soldiers on the troop train survived. Those killed were mainly Territorial soldiers from the 1/7th (Leith) Battalion, the Royal Scots heading for Gallipoli. The precise death toll was never established with confidence as some bodies were never recovered, having been wholly consumed by the fire, and the roll list of the regiment was also destroyed in the fire. The official death toll was 227 (215 soldiers, nine passengers and three railway employees), but the Army later reduced their 215 figures by one. Not counted in the 227 were four victims thought to be children, but whose remains were never claimed or identified. The soldiers were buried together in a mass grave in Edinburgh's Rosebank Cemetery, where an annual remembrance is held.

An official inquiry, completed on June 17, 1915, for the Board of Trade, found the cause of the collision to be neglect of the rules by two signalmen. With the northbound loop occupied, the northbound local train had been reversed onto the southbound line to allow passage of two late-running northbound sleepers. Its presence was then overlooked, and the southbound troop train was cleared for passage. As a result, both signalmen were charged with manslaughter in England, then convicted of culpable homicide after a trial in Scotland; the two terms are broadly equivalent. After they were released from a Scottish jail in 1916, they were re-employed by the railway company, although not as signalmen.

Background

The disaster occurred at Quintinshill signal box, which was an intermediate box in a remote location, sited to control two passing loops, one on each side of the double-track main line of the Caledonian Railway. On that section of the main line between Carlisle and Glasgow, in British railway parlance, Up is towards Carlisle and Down is towards Glasgow. The area around the signal box was thinly-populated countryside with scattered farms.

The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1859 (but not modern maps) shows a house named Quintinshill at approximately 55.0133°N 3.0591°W, around one-half mile (800 m) south-south-east of the signal box. The nearest settlement was Gretna, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the south of the box, on the Scottish side of the Anglo-Scottish border.

Responsibility for Quintinshill signal box rested with the stationmaster at Gretna railway station who, on the day of the accident, was Alexander Thorburn. The box was staffed by one signalman, on a shift system. In the mornings, a night-shift signaller would be relieved by the early-shift signaller at 6.00 am. On the day of the disaster, George Meakin was the night signalman, while James Tinsley was to work the early day shift.

At the time of the accident, normal northbound traffic through the section included two overnight sleeping cars expresses, from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, respectively, which were due to depart Carlisle at 5.50 am and 6.05 am. They were followed by an all-stations local passenger service from Carlisle to Beattock, which was advertised in the public timetable as departing Carlisle at 6.10 am but which normally departed at 6.17 am. If the sleepers ran late, the local service could not be held back to depart from Carlisle after them because precedence would then need to be given to the scheduled departure of rival companies' express trains at 6.30 am and 6.35 am. Also, any late running of the local train would cause knock-on delays to a Moffat to Glasgow and Edinburgh commuter service, with which the stopper connected at Beattock. Therefore, in the event of one or both of the sleepers running late, the stopping train would depart at its advertised time of 6.10 am, and then be shunted at one of the intermediate stations or signal boxes to allow the sleeper(s) to overtake it.

One of the locations where that could take place was Quintinshill, where there were passing loops for both Up and Down lines. If the Down (northbound) loop was occupied, as it was on the morning of the accident, then the northbound local train would be shunted, via a trailing crossover, to the Up (southbound) main line. Although not a preferred method of operation, it was allowed by the rules and was not considered a dangerous maneuver, provided the proper precautions were taken. In the six months before the accident, the 6.17 am local train had been shunted at Quintinshill 21 times, and on four of those occasions it had been shunted onto the Up line.

The disaster occurred on the morning of 22 May. On this morning, both of the northbound night expresses were running late, and the northbound local train required to be shunted at Quintinshill, but the Down passing loop was occupied by the 4.50 am goods train from Carlisle. Two southbound trains were also due to pass through the box's section of track - a special freight train consisting of empty coal wagons and a special troop train.

With the Down loop occupied, night shift signalman Meakin decided to shunt the local passenger train onto the Up main line. At this point, the southbound empty coal train was standing at the Up Home signal to the north of Quintinshill, and accordingly, it was still occupying the section from Kirkpatrick (the next signalbox to the north). This meant that signalman Meakin had not yet telegraphed Kirkpatrick the "train out of section" signal for the empty coal train, which in turn meant that he could not send the "blocking back" signal to advise the Kirkpatrick signalman that the local train was standing on the Up main line. Once the local train had crossed onto the Up main line, Meakin allowed the empty coal wagon train to proceed into the Up loop. Arriving late aboard the local train, the early day shift signalman Tinsley reached Quintinshill signal box shortly after 6.30 am. At 6.34 am one of the signalmen (it was never established which) gave the "train out of section" bell to Kirkpatrick for the coal train. At this point, two crucial failures in the signalling procedure occurred (see Rules breaches).

After being relieved by signalman Tinsley, the night duty signalman Meakin remained in the signal box reading the newspaper that Tinsley had brought. Both guards from the freight trains had also entered the signal box, and war news in the newspaper was discussed. Shortly afterwards, because the local train had stood on the main line for over three minutes, pursuant to Rule 55 its driver sent fireman George Hutchinson to the box, although he left at 6.46 am, having failed to fully perform the required duties (see Rules breaches).

At 6.38 am the first of the northbound expresses from Carlisle passed Quintinshill safely. At 6.42 am Kirkpatrick "offered" the southbound troop train to Quintinshill. Signalman Tinsley immediately accepted the troop train, and four minutes later, he was offered and accepted the second northbound express from Gretna Junction. At 6.47 am, Tinsley received the "train entering section" signal from Kirkpatrick for the troop train and offered it forward to Gretna Junction, having forgotten about the local passenger train (aboard which he had arrived that morning), which was occupying the Up line. The troop special was immediately accepted by Gretna Junction, so Tinsley pulled "off" his Up-home signal to allow the troop train to run forward.

Trains Involved

The troop train collided head-on with the stationary local train on the up line at 6.49 am. Just over a minute later, the second northbound express train ran into the wreckage, having passed the Quintinshill Down Distant signal before it could be returned to danger. The wreckage also included the goods train in the down loop and the trucks of the empty coal train in the up loop. At 6.53 am Tinsley sent the "Obstruction Danger" bell signal to both Gretna and Kirkpatrick, stopping all traffic and alerting others to the disaster.

Many men on the troop train were killed as a result of the two collisions, but the disaster was made much worse by a subsequent fire. The great wartime traffic and a shortage of carriages meant that the railway company had to press into service obsolete Great Central Railway stock. These carriages had wooden bodies and frames, with very little crash resistance compared with steel-framed carriages, and were gas-lit using the Pintsch gas system.

The gas was stored in reservoirs slung under the underframe, and these ruptured in the collision. Escaping gas was ignited by the coal-burning fires of the engines. The gas reservoirs had been filled before leaving Larbert, and this, combined with the lack of available water, meant that the fire was not extinguished until the morning of the next day, despite the best efforts of railway staff and the Carlisle fire brigade.

The troop train had consisted of 21 vehicles; all were consumed in the fire, apart from the rear six, which had broken away during the impact and rolled back along the line a short distance. The fire also affected four coaches from the express train and some goods wagons. Such was the intensity of the fire that all the coal in the locomotive tenders was consumed.

Aftermath

Rescue

By May 24, newspapers were already reporting the accident as the deadliest in the United Kingdom. The initial estimate was 158 dead, with over 200 injured. The bodies of the victims were initially laid in a field by the line and covered in white sheets. They were later taken to a nearby farm or to Gretna Green Village Hall. The Board of Trade appointed Lieutenant Colonel E. Druitt, R.E. to head the inquiry into the accident. The King sent a telegram to Caledonian Railway general manager Donald Mathieson expressing sympathy and asking to be kept informed of the recovery of those injured.

On 23 May, a recruitment meeting was held at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, to raise a new battalion. The railway was reopened through Quintinshill on the morning of May 25, although not all the wreckage had been removed. The two locomotives of the express train stood in a siding with all their paint burnt off.

Survivors

Amongst the first rescuers to arrive at the scene were Mr and Mrs Dunbar, caretakers at The Old Blacksmith's Shop, Gretna Green. Mrs Dunbar stated that when she heard the crash, her immediate thought was that the Germans had come. Mrs Dunbar telephoned doctors in Carlisle for assistance. Mr Dunbar spent the day assisting with the rescue efforts.

The last survivor of the accident was Peter Stoddart. Peter was interviewed in Wisbech by Michael Simkins in around 1985. Simkins wrote in The Guardian in 2001: "I asked him about a story I had heard of an officer who went about the scene shooting men trapped in the burning wreckage. 'That was true. I saw that. He was a Scottish gentleman, eventually a millionaire. But he had to.' There was a suspicion of a chuckle in his voice as he added: 'And there were one or two other survivors who made themselves scarce. They took their opportunity.'" Stoddart died on July 4, 1988, following a stroke.

On May 16, 2015, the BBC reported Colonel Robert Watson, a senior retired army officer who had served with the Royal Scots, saying that he believed that some soldiers were "probably" shot in mercy killings. The BBC said that while no official army records of the alleged shooting existed, "many reports written in the press at the time of the accident suggested that some trapped soldiers, threatened with the prospect of being burnt alive in the raging inferno, took their own lives or were shot by their officers". The colonel's remarks were recorded for a BBC Scotland documentary made to mark the centenary of the disaster, Quintinshill: Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster.

Victims

The roll call of the survivors of 1/7th Royal Scots after the accident

The overwhelming majority of fatalities were among the men of the Royal Scots. The precise number was not established as the roll list of the regiment was destroyed by the fire. Lt.-Col. Druitt's official report gives an estimated total of 215 deaths and a further 191 injured. Of the 500 soldiers of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Scots on the troop train, only 58 men were present for roll call at 4.00 pm that afternoon, along with seven officers.

In total, around 226 people died, and 246 were injured. The engine crew of the troop train also died in the first collision. Both driver Scott and fireman Hannah had driven the Royal Train.

Considering the double collision and the fire, casualties in the other trains were lighter than might have been expected. On the local train, two passengers died, with none seriously injured; on the express, seven passengers died, with a further 51 and 3 members of railway staff seriously injured.

Investigations

Regulations

The sequence of events leading up to the collisions featured multiple breaches of the railway's regulations, which formed the basis of the later prosecution of both signalers. In total, eight separate rule breaches by the signalmen were identified.

Shift Change Irregularity

For the 6.00 am shift change, the signalmen had developed an informal arrangement allowing whoever was working the early day shift to arrive for work at around 6.30 am. This allowed the day shift signalman to get up slightly later, and in the case of Signalman Tinsley (who lived in Gretna) it enabled him to travel to work on the local train on days when it was to be shunted at Quintinshill. The signalmen at Gretna Junction would let Tinsley know when this was to occur.

To avoid this malpractice being detected by company management, whichever signalman was working the night shift would record all train register entries after 6.00 am on a piece of paper rather than in the register book itself. When the day shift man arrived, he would copy the entries from the paper into the train register in his own handwriting, making it appear that the shift change had occurred at the correct time. The changing of shifts was a safety-critical moment where it was essential that the signalman taking over the box was fully aware of the position of trains and for all blocks signaling requirements to be properly completed and recorded. The need for Tinsley to copy out the missing train register entries as soon as he took over the signal box may have distracted him from his duties in relation to the handover of the box and seems likely to have been a factor in his subsequent acceptance of the troop train.

Memorials/Memoriams

As well as the memorial in Rosebank Cemetery, there is a plaque at Larbert railway station, from where the soldiers originally departed. Two memorials have been erected by the Western Front Association, the first in 1995, half a mile to the south of the scene of the accident. The second is at Blacksyke Bridge, west of the scene; it was unveiled in September 2010. A memorial to the unknown children was erected at the Western Necropolis in Glasgow in 2011. There is also a memorial to Lt Cdr C H E Head, who died in the accident, in St Ann's Church at Portsea, Hampshire.

The Rosebank Cemetery Memorial. The memoriam of the accident.

Annual remembrance services are held at Rosebank Cemetery attended by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh and the Royal Scots association. There were commemorative services at Gretna for the centenary of the disaster on 22 May 2015 and at Rosebank Cemetery on 23 May. They were attended by the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, and the Princess Royal.

On 22 May 2015, a remembrance quarter peal was rung, and new method named 'Quintinshill' by bellringers at St Peter's Church, Derby.

In 2017 a new housing area in Leith was given the street names Quintinshill Place and Gretna Place in memory of the disaster.