THE RAILWAY DISASTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 24

THE RAILWAY DISASTER

LONDON, May 24. It is estimated that the death roll in the troop train disaster is 200. The customary shunt of the local train to the western siding to allow the Boston express to pass was occupied by a. goods train, so the signalman sent the local train to the eastern siding. While it was going the troop train crashed in. This made the apparatus for moving the signals unworkable, and it was not possible to stop the

express. Fifty men only out of 500 Royal Scots are unscathed.

May 25.

At the inquiry into the railway catastrophe near Gretna Green, Meecham, the signalman at Quintin’s Hill, testified that he shunted the local train to the up main line, and told Tinsley, the signalman, when the latter relieved him, that the train was shunted. Tinsley, who had travelled by the local train, relieved him at 6.32. Witness stayed in the signal box reading a newspaper. A fireman and a brakesman also were there. The first alarm was the troop train passing the signal box at 40 miles an hour. A collision followed immediately. Meecham ran downstairs and saw a lot of soldiers running about. He rushed back to the box and sect telegrams for assistance. Tinsley gave evidence that he jumped off the local train, as it crossed to the up line, so he knew it had crossed. The collision occurred at 6.50. He quite forgot about the local train after he jumped off the engine. Only a minute interval passed between the first and second collision. Meecham put down the signal to “danger'’ just before the second collision, but it was too late to avert the accident. Wallace, the driver of the local train, gave evidence that he saw the troop train 200 yards away, but was too late to back. He jumped off the engine, and got under the goods train in the siding. The driver of the local train at Gretna attributed the fire to gas escaping from the cylinders. May 30. Tinsley, the signalman at Quintins Hill, has been arrested in connection with the troop train disaster near Gretna Green, by which three trains were wrecked and over 200 lives lost.