RAIL DISASTER IN SCOTLAND

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22274, 13 December 1937, Page 9

RAIL DISASTER IN SCOTLAND

THIRTY-FIVE KILLED EXPRESS CRASHES INTO STANDING TRAIN HORROR AND CONFUSION IN RAGING BLIZZARD tTJjriTED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 11, 3 p.m.) LONDON, December 10. Thirty-five persons were killed and more than 40 were injured when the Edinburgh-Glasgow express, speeding at 60 miles an hour through a raging blizzard, crashed into a stationary Dundee-Glasgow train at Castlecary, a village 13 miles from Glasgow. Rescuers, struggling in the deep snow and inky darkness, were forced to build bonfires from the wreckage of the coaches before they could find the dead and injured, who were dragged through the blinding snowstorm and laid out in a goods shed. Two carriages were thrown right over the engine and one landed on top of it. The others were telescoped and were smashed to matchwood.

Hissing jets of steam from the upturned locomotive, combined with the blizzard, added to the frightfulness of the accident. Jets of steam penetrated the wreckage and passengers could be heard screaming with the torture of the hot steam.

An uninjured passenger said that at first it was impossible to penetrate the twisted wreckage because of the snow, steam and darkness. Cries from the women and children were unanswered until half an hour after the crash, when piles of broken coachwood were set on fire. Driver Escapes Slowly the parties of rescuers, with their hands almost frozen, dragged out the dead and injured as the bonfires began to shed a lurid glare over the bodies huddled alongside the tracks, with snow covering them in a white pall.

Ambulances dashed from Glasgow and Falkirk, and even Edinburgh, skidding crazily over the ice-covered roads. Doctors and nurses from all nearby hospitals stood by to treat the injured, who, covered with blood and snow, were lifted into ambulances by the villagers and uninjured passengers.

The condition of several of the injured is very grave. The fireman was killed, but the driver had a remarkable escape, being hurled from the cabin. After recovering from the shock, he risked scalds and climbed through the wreckage to cut off the steam. Hurled Through Window Mr Gordon Dickson, of Edinburgh, told a most amazing story. “I was dozing in a compartment, in which there were four others, and I knew nothing until I awoke, lying on the snow several yards from the wrecked carriage,” he said. “I had been hurled through the window uninjured. My four companions were all killed. I helped in the rescue work, and the first person I dragged out was an elderly woman, who was buried in the wreckage. I was staggered to find , that it was my mother, who was travelling on the train unknown to me. She was miraculously uninjured.” Twenty-six bodies have been recovered and eight are believed to be still in the wreckage. This is the worst smash since the troop trains were wrecked at Gretna Green in 1915, resulting in 227 being killed and 250 injured. ' Mistake About Signal It is officially stated that 35 were killed. The last body was extricated at 11 p.m. An appeal was issued for help / to identify two men and three women. William Kinnear, fireman on the Edinburgh train, who was thought to have 6een killed, had a remarkable escape. He suffered minor injuries and severe shock. The bodies of three men and one woman were recovered from the coach piled on the engine. Dawn revealed a harrowing scene. A hundred men were still working with numbed fingers, the ghastly silence being broken only by the clank of a crane tearing away masses of twisted steel.

The snow turned into slush and the rescuers worked ankle deep. Many had come from the scene of a minor accident at Haddington. 50 miles away, and had not slept since Thursday night. Cameron Highlanders, going home for Christmas leave, were aboard the express. Some were injured. Others effected gallant rescues. In spite of the cold they took off their puttees and used them as bandages. Miners who were passing on the way to work used their safety lamps.

Beside some of the bodies were Christmas toys which the victims were taking to Glasgow. Several bodies are unrecognisable. It is feared that if any persons in the wreckage are alive they will perish from cold. The disaster was caused ,by a mistake about a signal. The Chief Inspecting Officer of the railways will undertake preliminary investigations in preparation for an official inquiry, the date for which is not yet fixed.