HEROES OF A RAIL DISASTER

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 19

HEROES OF A RAIL DISASTER

Women played a gallant part in rescue work when a disaster overtook the Scottish express at Castlecary, in December (says ‘ Reynolds News ’). One young woman, her face streaming with blood, was more concerned with tending an elderly man wrapped in the wreckage than her own injuries. ... Nearby an injured man on a stretcher was protesting that he should be left until the more gravely hurt were attended to. Mr P. Heron, of Memyss Bay, whose wife, formerly a nurse, rendered notable aid, ’ paid her tribute. . , “ Tho screams of people, pinned and jammed below the twisted wreckage, were heartrending,” he said. “At first we did not know whero to start, so terrible was the scene. ... “ Tho engine of the Edinburgh train, lying on its side, was hissing madly with telescoped carriage* lying all over it. My wife simply threw herself into the rescue work while I also did what I could to pull the wreckage off injured men and women. Mr William M'Leod, a Dennistoun commercial traveller, had a remarkable escape. Ho was in the fourth compartment when tho train left Edinburgh, but just before tho accident strolled along the corridor to see a friend in another compartment. He stopped to chat with him and found after the disaster that the compartment in which he had been sitting had been reduced to matchwood. ■ . A poignant scene was witnessed in Falkirk Infirmary when Miss Ina Elvin, of Garden street, Glasgow, was allowed a brief visit to her seriously injured sweetheart. Bandsman Albert Lake, who was on his way to be married to her at Glasgow Cathedral. The bandsman was singing to his soldier friends when the disaster occurred.

Private William Nesbil, a Cameron Highlander, said that for a moment it appeared that only a few people in the train had survived.

“ Tho pluck of many women passengers,” he added, “ was simply wonderful.” Mr William Kinnear. fireman of the Edinburgh train, first reported killed, was interviewed at his home in Murieston Lane, Edinburgh. He had a black eye, his right hand was bandaged, and he also appeared to bo suffering from shock. “ I was pinned under the cab of the engine,” ho said, “ but only momentarily, for I was quickly freed bv rescuers. Everything happened so quickly, and there was heavy snow at tho time.”