Quintinshill rail disaster

The Quintinshill rail disaster occurred on 22 May 1915 near Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire, Scotland at Quintinshill, an intermediate signal box with passing loops on each side on the Caledonian Railway Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle (now part of the West Coast Main Line).

The crash, which involved five trains, killed a probable 226 and injured 246 and remains the worst rail crash in the United Kingdom in terms of loss of life. Those killed were mainly Territorial soldiers from the 1/7th (Leith) Battalion, the Royal Scots heading for Gallipoli. The precise number of dead was never established with confidence as the roll list of the regiment was destroyed by the fire.

The crash occurred when a troop train travelling from Larbert, Stirlingshire to Liverpool, Lancashire collided with a local passenger train that had been shunted on to the main line, to then be hit by an express train to Glasgow which crashed into the wreckage a minute later. Gas from the lighting system of the old wooden carriages of the troop train ignited, starting a fire which soon engulfed the three passenger trains and also two goods trains standing on nearby passing loops. A number of bodies were never recovered, having been wholly consumed by the fire, and the bodies that were recovered were buried together in a mass grave in Edinburgh's Rosebank Cemetery. Four bodies, believed to be of children, were never identified or claimed and are buried in the Western Necropolis, Glasgow.

The cause of the accident was poor working practices on the part of the two signalmen involved, which resulted in their imprisonment for culpable homicide after legal proceedings in both Scotland and England.

A memorial to the dead soldiers was erected soon after the accident and there are a number of more recent memorials at various locations. An annual remembrance service is held at Rosebank Cemetery.

Sequence of events
The accident occurred owing to poor working practices on the part of the two signalmen involved; George Meakin, who had worked the night shift, and James Tinsley, who was to work the early day shift. If they had been working according to regulations, then Tinsley would have taken over from Meakin at 6.00 am. The two men, though, had developed an informal arrangement allowing whoever was working the early shift to arrive later. If the local passenger train from Carlisle to Beattock was due to be shunted at Quintinshill then the signalman at Gretna would advise whoever was working the early shift of this and the day signalman would hitch a ride on the local train to Quintinshill, thus saving himself the 1.5 mi walk from Gretna. To avoid their malpractice being detected by company management, whoever was working the night shift would record all train movements after 6.00 am on a piece of paper rather than record them in the train register. When the day man arrived, he would copy the entries from the paper into the train register, making it appear that the shift change had occurred at the correct time.

On the morning of 22 May the night expresses were both running late so the local train had to be shunted at Quintinshill, and therefore Tinsley took advantage of the free ride on the local train to arrive there at about 6.30 am. As the goods loop was occupied with the 4.50 am goods train from Carlisle, Meakin decided to shunt the local passenger train onto the Up main line Although not a preferred method of operation, this was not a dangerous thing to do if the proper precautions were taken. Out of the previous 21 occasions that the local train had been shunted at Quintinshill, on four occasions it had been shunted onto the Up line. On this occasion neither of the important safety precautions were taken. Firstly, Kirkpatrick signal box (the preceding box in the Up direction) was not sent the "blocking back" signal which would have informed the Kirkpatrick signalman that the line was occupied and warned him not to send any more trains towards Quintinshill. Secondly, the signalman at Quintinshill should have placed a signal lever collar over the relevant signal lever to stop himself from clearing the signal and allowing another train to proceed from Kirkpatrick.

The laxity of the fireman of the local train, George Hutchinson, in carrying out his duties under Rule 55 meant that Tinsley's and Meakin's failures went unobserved. Had Hutchinson carried out his duty correctly, he would have reminded the signalman that his train was standing on the Up main line and would have checked that a lever collar was in place before returning to his train. He did neither, and merely signed the train register, using a pen which Tinsley, who was intent on filling in the train register, handed over his shoulder without looking up, and left the signal box at 6.46 am. Also in the signal box, against the rules, were two other railwaymen (brakesmen from the two goods trains) whose presence may have distracted Tinsley and Meakin who was discussing the war with the two brakesmen. At 6.34 am one of the signalmen (it was never established who) gave the "train out of section" bell to Kirkpatrick for the coal train which now stood in the up goods loop. After giving train out of section, this was the point at which the "blocking back" signal should have been given to Kirkpatrick but neither man did this. At 6.38 am the first of the expresses from Carlisle passed Quintinshill heading north. At 6.42 am Kirkpatrick "offered" the troop train to Tinsley. Tinsley immediately accepted this and four minutes later was offered 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 all about the local passenger train which was occupying the Up line. It was immediately accepted by Gretna Junction so Tinsley pulled "off" his Up home signal to allow the troop train forward. Had he placed a lever collar on this signal as he should have done (and as Hutchinson should have checked) then Tinsley would not have been able to pull the signal lever.

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 of the express trains ran into the wreckage. The wreckage also included the goods train in the down loop and a train of empty coal trucks in the up loop. At 6.53 Tinsley sent the "Obstruction Danger" bell signal to both Gretna and Kirkpatrick, stopping all traffic and alerting others to the disaster.

Fire
A great number of men on the troop train were killed as a result of the two collisions and 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, so had 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, the escaping gas igniting from the coal burning fires of the engines. The gas reservoirs had just been charged prior to leaving Larbert and this, plus the lack of available water, meant it was not until the morning of the next day that the fire was extinguished despite the best efforts of railway staff and the Carlisle fire brigade.

The troop train had consisted of 21 vehicles and apart from the rear six, which had broken away during the impact and rolled back along the line a short distance, the entire train was consumed in the fire, as were four coaches from the express train and some goods wagons. All four locomotives (the express was double headed) of the troop train, the local train and the express, were also badly damaged by fire and the intensity of the fire was so hot that all the coal in the tenders was consumed.

Rescue efforts
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 the rescue efforts.

Aftermath
By 24 May, 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 lineside field 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 25 May, 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. These – no. 140 of the Dunalastair IV Class and no. 48 of the 43 Class, both of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement – were later repaired and returned to traffic, but no. 121, a 4-4-0 of the 139 Class, which had hauled the troop train, and no. 907, a 4-6-0 of the Cardean Class, which had been hauling the local, were both written off and scrapped.

Casualties
The overwhelming majority of fatalities were among the men of the Royal Scots and 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, 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 Hannan 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.

Funerals
A number of bodies were never recovered, having been wholly consumed by the fire, and when the bodies of the men of the Royal Scots were returned to Leith on 24 May, they were buried together in a mass grave in Edinburgh's Rosebank Cemetery. The coffins were laid three deep, with each on the top row covered in the Union Flag. The public were excluded from the cemetery, although 50 wounded servicemen who were convalescing at a nearby military hospital were allowed to attend. The ceremony lasted three hours, at the end of which a volley of three shots was fired and the Last Post was sounded.

The bodies were escorted by the 15th and 16th Battalions Royal Scots, the Edinburgh Pals battalions recently assembled and still undergoing training. The cortege took four hours to complete its task. A memorial to the dead troops was erected in Rosebank Cemetery in 1916.

Of the troops, 83 bodies were identified, 82 were recovered but unrecognisable, and 50 were missing altogether, giving the total of 215, later revised by the army to 214. The soldiers were buried with full military honours. Among the coffins were four bodies which were unidentified. One coffin was simply labelled as 'little girl, unrecognisable,' and another as 'three trunks, probably children'. As no children were reported missing the railway company moved the bodies to Glasgow for possible identification, but no one came forward to claim the bodies. The four were buried in Glasgow's Western Necropolis on 26 May. The engine crew of the troop train were both from Carlisle, and they were also buried on 26 May at Stanwix Cemetery.

Survivors
The surviving officers and men of the Royal Scots were taken to Carlisle on the evening of 22 May. The next morning they were redispatched on a new train to Liverpool, but on arrival at Liverpool they were medically examined and all the enlisted ranks plus one officer were declared unfit for service overseas and were returned to Edinburgh. It was reported in the Edinburgh Weekly that on their march from the port to the railway station the survivors were mistaken for prisoners of war and pelted by some children.

Board of Trade inquiry
The first official investigation into the disaster commenced in Carlisle on 25 May at County Hall, Carlisle. It was conducted by Lieutenant Colonel E. Druitt RE of the Railway Inspectorate on behalf of the Board of Trade. Lt.-Col. Druitt had already spent some time at the accident site and spent the day in Carlisle interviewing witnesses including both Meakin and Tinsley. Both men were honest about their failures to abide by the rules and their generally lax behaviour. Lt.-Col. Druitt presented his report to the Board of Trade on 17 June 1915 and laid the blame squarely on Meakin and Tinsley. "This disastrous collision was thus due to want of discipline on the part of the signalmen, first by changing duty at an unauthorised hour, which caused Tinsley to be occupied in writing up the Train Register Book, and so diverted his attention from his proper work, secondly by Meakin handing over the duty in a very lax manner; and, thirdly by both signalmen neglecting to carry out various rules specially framed for preventing accidents due to forgetfulness on the part of signalmen." Druitt was also critical of Fireman Hutchinson for his failure to comply properly with rule 55, and also of Alexander Thorburn, the stationmaster at Gretna who had responsibility for Quintinshill signal box and who, in Lt.-Col. Druitt's opinion, cannot have been unaware of the irregular shift changes operated by Meakin and Tinsley.

Druitt concluded that even had all the trains been lit by electricity, a fire would still have occurred as the wagons of the goods train in the down loop caught fire. He also concluded that had Quintinshill been equipped with track circuiting, then the accident would have been avoided as the electrical interlocking of the signals would have prevented Tinsley from pulling the relevant signal levers, but that with its simple layout and good visibility from the signal box Quintinshill was a low priority for track circuits to be installed.

Coroner's inquest in England
The legal position was complicated by the fact that although the accident occurred in Scotland, some of the injured subsequently died in England where the law was different. In Scotland, deaths were investigated by the Procurator fiscal who if he found culpability on the part of anyone could order their arrest and charge with culpable homicide. In England the coroner investigates death and if the coroner's jury found that death was due to neglect then the coroner could indict charges of manslaughter against the named parties. The coroner for Carlisle, Mr T S Strong, asked for guidance from the Home Office and was instructed to conduct inquests on those who had died in England in the normal way. The inquest opened on 25 May but was immediately adjourned until 23 June to allow Lt.-Col. Druitt to finish his investigation. After two days hearing evidence from, among others, Tinsley, Meakin and Hutchinson, Strong summed up the evidence to the 19 man jury. He highlighted that if Meakin and Tinsley had obeyed the rules on any of (a) blocking back, (b) lever collars or (c) a correctly kept train register, they could not have forgotten the stationary train. He concluded his summing up with: If you find as a result of your deliberations that the rules and safeguards were broken by one or more of the railwaymen concerned, or in other words that they have been negligent, there remains one point which you must decide, and it is this. Was that negligence of such a character—having regard to all the surroundings—as to be culpable negligence, or in other words gross negligence? If so it was manslaughter.

The jury retired and an hour later came back with a verdict that the 27 people who were the subject of the inquest had died due to the gross negligence of Tinsley, Meakin and Hutchinson. The coroner therefore committed all three to the next sitting of Cumberland Assizes on a charge of manslaughter; all three were granted bail.

The solicitor representing the three railwaymen protested that the committing of them to trial was outside the Coroner's jurisdiction, as the alleged offence had been committed in Scotland. The Coroner stated that he had been instructed to proceed with the inquest by the Home Office. The verdict of the English inquest was to leave Tinsley in an unusual position as he was arrested by the Scottish authorities on 29 May 1915, and charged with culpable homicide. He now faced a charge of manslaughter in England based on the same facts. After discussion between the Law Officers of England and Scotland it was decided to proceed against the three men in Scotland.

Trial of Tinsley, Meakin and Hutchinson
The trial of the three men started on 24 September 1915 in the High Court in Edinburgh. The Lord Justice General, Lord Strathclyde, presided over the trial;  the Lord Advocate, Robert Munro KC prosecuted and the three men were defended by Condie Sandeman KC. Tinsley, Meakin and Hutchinson all pleaded not guilty to the charges of culpable homicide and breach of duty against them. The trial lasted a day and a half; after the prosecution had concluded their case, Sandeman submitted to the Lord Justice General that there was no case to answer by Hutchinson. This submission was accepted by the Lord Justice General and the jury were instructed to find him not guilty at the conclusion of the trial. Sandeman called no witnesses on the part of Meakin and Tinsley but instead sought to persuade the jury that neither had been criminally negligent but that Tinsley had just had a momentary loss of memory.

After Sandeman's speech, Lord Strathclyde summed up to the jury, ending: At 6.43 on the morning of the day in question the men in the signal box at Quintinshill were asked to accept the troop train coming from the north. They accepted it. That meant that they gave the signal to the north that the line was clear and that the troop train might safely come on. At that very moment when the signal was given there was before the very eyes of the men in the signal box a local train which was obstructing the line on which the troop train was to run. One man in the signal box had actually left the train a few minutes before just at the time when it was being shunted on to the up line. The other man had a few minutes before directed the local train to leave the down main and go on to the up main. That is the staggering fact that confronts you. If you can explain that fact consistently with the two men having faithfully and honestly discharged their duties you should acquit them. If you cannot explain that staggering fact consistently with the men having faithfully discharged their duties then you must convict them.

The jury retired to consider their verdicts at 12.40 pm and returned only eight minutes later finding Hutchinson not guilty as directed, but finding Tinsley and Meakin guilty as charged. After hearing mitigation on behalf of the two Lord Strathclyde sentenced Tinsley to three years penal servitude and Meakin to eighteen months imprisonment.

Fatal accident inquiry in Scotland
The final legal inquiry into the disaster was held on 4 November 1915 in Dumfries and was an inquiry under the Fatal Accidents Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1895 into the deaths of the crew of the troop train. Presided over by Sheriff Campion it came to the same conclusion as the English inquest and the trial that if Meakin and Tinsley had followed the rules then the accident would not have happened.

After the trial
Meakin and Tinsley were released from prison on 15 December 1916. After release, Tinsley went straight back to working on the Caledonian railway as a lampman. He died in 1967. Meakin also returned to the railway, as a goods train guard. Some years later he was made redundant from that job and set himself up as a coal merchant, trading from Quintinshill siding, right next to the scene of the crash. In the Second World War, he worked in the Gretna munitions factory until he retired due to ill health. He died in 1953.

The pair were not the first signalmen to be convicted for their part in causing an accident; James Holmes was tried for manslaughter following the Thirsk rail crash of 1892 but was given an absolute discharge; nor the last as Signalman Frost was gaoled for two years for his part in causing the Connington South rail crash in 1967.

Memorials
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, just to the south of the scene of the accident and the second near to the site of the disaster 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.

Annual remembrance services are held at Rosebank Cemetery attended by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the Royal Scots association and others.

Similar accidents
The Hawes Junction rail crash of 1910 also involved a busy signalman forgetting about a train on the main railway line. Likewise, at the Winwick rail crash of 1934, an overworked signalman forgot about a train in his section, and was misled by a junior.