Quintinshill railway accident

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Burning cars after the train crash at Quintinshill

The Quintinshill railway accident in Dumfriesshire , Scotland , was the collision of three trains on May 22, 1915, in which almost 230 people were killed and 246 injured and five trains were destroyed. It is the most momentous railway accident in Great Britain to date . It was caused because all responsible railway workers disregarded or circumvented the necessary safety rules.

Starting position

Quintinshill was an operating station on the West Coast Main Line operated in this section until 1923 by the Caledonian Railway . The double-track line had an overtaking track for each of the two direction tracks .

The local train from Carlisle to Beattock , which came from the nearest station to the south , Gretna Green , was supposed to be overtaken by two express trains that were traveling from London to Glasgow . In the opposite direction, a troop train from Larbert to Liverpool was on the way. Due to the war, this consisted of 21 very old wooden passenger cars .

Both passing lanes were occupied by freight trains at the time of the accident . Therefore, the local train was dissolved in a opposite track drive via a corresponding switch on the through track pushed back the opposite direction. This was a permissible train movement, safe if properly secured, and had already taken place several times.

At the same time, the responsible employees of the signal box , which regulated the traffic in the Quintinshill depot, were replaced between the night and the morning shift. In order to save the walk from Gretna Green to the signal box, the employees of the signal box in Quintinshill had agreed not to change the shift as required at 6 a.m., but only after the arrival of the local train at 6:30 a.m., so that the shifting shift would be included could start this train. In order to cover up this, the employee wrote the train reports on a piece of paper from 6 a.m. , the details of which the reliever later entered in his own writing in the train report book.

the accident

Animation of the events that led to the crash

After the replacement had reached their workplace after the arrival of the local train, the employee began to enter the reports in the train log. He discussed the events of the First World War with two brakes of the waiting freight train . As a result he forgot the local train he had just arrived on and which was still in front of his signal box. He did not secure it against trains that could come from the opposite direction, nor did he report back to the next block in the direction of Gretna Green that the track was still occupied. So the person on duty there saw no problem sending the next train on the line . In order to prevent trains from being “forgotten”, there was “Rule 55”, which obliged the train stoker to make sure in the signal box that the necessary safety measures to protect the train had been taken. The stoker of the local train went to the signal box, but overlooked that the prescribed mechanical safety device, which would have prevented the signals from being switched, was not in place. The first of the two express trains passed Quintinshill at 06:38 without any problems.

Immediately afterwards, when the troop train was reported from the opposite direction, the employee in Quintinshill accepted it and reported it to Gretna Green, where it was accepted, so that he set the exit signal from Quintinshill to "clear travel". He had completely forgotten that the local train was still waiting in the corresponding through track. Four minutes later he was notified of the second express train from London, which he duly accepted. Shortly afterwards, when the troop train pulled into the track with the waiting local train, the two trains collided. The locomotive crew of the military train died instantly. The wooden wagons offered little resistance and were smashed. Before the sixth-last car broke clutch . Since the cars remained on the track, they rolled back a little. They were the only wagons on the military train that did not fall victim to the subsequent fire . It was 6:49 a.m. The rubble from the two trains blocked both through tracks.

After the collision, the signalman sent the warning to the next block points in both directions that the route was blocked, but forgot to set the signals for the approaching second London express train to "stop". The oncoming express train drove into the rubble a minute later. Many soldiers who had been able to escape from the troop train were also killed. The wreckage also caught fire from escaping gas from the gas lighting and ignited the two trains that were waiting on the passing tracks. The extent of the accident was increased by the location of the depot away from any settlement, which made the extinguishing work more difficult and significantly delayed. The fire was so strong that some of the bodies were so completely burned that the exact number of dead could not be determined. In addition to the majority of the vehicles on the military train - including its locomotive - the two steam locomotives of the express train, four of its passenger cars and the locomotive of the local train were destroyed by the fire, and the coal supplies in the tenders were also completely burned. The extinguishing work lasted more than 24 hours.

consequences

Funeral procession in Edinburgh
Memorial to the victims in Rosebank Cemetery, Edinburgh

230 dead and 246 injured were the result. The official report names 227 dead. Four bodies have been identified as minors who may have been stowaways on the troop train . The number of fatalities could subsequently be reduced by one person because the report was written very quickly after the accident. The vast majority of the dead were soldiers en route to the Battle of Gallipoli .

As far as the bodies could be recovered, they were buried in a mass grave in the Rosebank Cemetery in Edinburgh . The four young people could never be identified - no relatives came forward and there were no corresponding reports of missing persons . They were buried in the Western Necropolis in Glasgow . A memorial was erected for the soldiers killed in 1916 , and an annual memorial service is still held at Rosebank Cemetery today .

The railway technical study was from the pioneer - Colonel E. Druitt from the railway supervisory authority ( His Majesty's Railway Inspectorate ) on behalf of the Board of Trade conducted. His report was already available on June 15, 1915 and primarily blamed the two signal box employees on the night and early shifts. He further pointed out that the accident would not have occurred had there been an electrical block .

As the accident happened right on the border between England and Scotland and some of the victims died in England, the legal situation was complicated. For example, under Scottish law, an investigation by the Procurator fiscal had to take place as well as a procedure before the coroner under English law . Both legal systems differ from each other in terms of both procedures and substantive law . Competent England jury coroner Carlisle came to the conclusion that it is manslaughter IN QUESTION, and the two employees of the signal box and the heater of the local train according criminally indict were. The Scottish procedure came to the same conclusion. The two competent judicial authorities agreed to conduct the criminal trial in Scotland. This took place on September 24th and 25th, 1915 before the High Court in Edinburgh.

Both signal box employees were convicted of manslaughter. The employee who was responsible in the signal box during the accident was sentenced to three years of forced labor, the employee on the early shift, whom he replaced, was sentenced to 18 months in prison . The stoker of the local train was acquitted.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Quintinshill Railway Accident  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ OS Nock: Historic Railway Disasters. P. 109; Rolt, 1980, p. 208.
  2. ^ OS Nock: Historic Railway Disasters. 1980, p. 112.
  3. ^ J. Thomas: Gretna: Britain's Worst Railway Disaster. 1969, p. 45.
  4. ^ J. Thomas: Gretna: Britain's Worst Railway Disaster. 1969, p. 51.
  5. ↑ E. Druitt, p. 28.
  6. ^ E. Druitt: Investigation report (PDF file; 3.7 MB).
  7. ↑ E. Druitt, p. 26.

Coordinates: 55 ° 0 '53.1 "  N , 3 ° 4' 2.1"  W.