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The collision of the three trains at Gretna.
Unknown, 1915, Press cutting
The collision of the three trains at Gretna.
The collision of the three trains at Gretna.
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Item no
32357
Title
The collision of the three trains at Gretna - the most terrible disaster in the history of British railways.
Description
From the Illustrated London News published May 29th 1915.
Artist / maker
Unknown
Date
1915
Size
39.6 x 45.4 cm
Type
Press cutting
Location
Reference Library
The Quintinshill rail disaster occurred on 22 May 1915 near Gretna Green. 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 as the roll list of the regiment was destroyed by the fire.
The crash occurred when a troop train travelling from Larbert to Liverpool collided with a local passenger train that had been shunted on to the main line, then to 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.
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