Thursday 18 February 2016

1915 Gretna Green rail crash

In 1915, 5 Trains (04:50 Goods ex-Carlisle, 06:17 Local ex-Carlisle, 05:50 Express ex-Carlisle, Empty coal wagons special, and Troop special) were all were involved in a crash at Quintinshill.
This crash was due to 2 signalmen breaking Rule 55.  The 06:17 ex-Carlisle crashed into the Troop Special, which was carrying all the Royal Scots which only a seventh survived, and the 05:50 ex-Carlisle crashed into the remains of the Troop special.  The 04:50 ex-Carlisle parked in the Up Loop and the Empty coal wagons special parked in the Down loop, causing the 06:17 ex-Carlisle on the Down Line to reverse onto the up line.

The accident occurred at 06:50 GMT.  226 people died, and 246 got injured.

For more information go here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintinshill_rail_disaster

This is a animation of what happened:
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous25 February 2016 at 01:05

    I read some of your links. Rule 55 (what a great name!) is clunky, yet was the only way to handle those situations. I am surprised the signalmen were in jail for ONLY a year or less.

    ReplyDelete
  2. C.J.25 June 2016 at 13:41

    Only one of them was arrested, given 6 months prison sentence.
    Then he was given hard labour.

    ReplyDelete

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