THE QUINTINSHILL RAIL DISASTER

Quintinshill was the worst train crash not caused by overloading a train, a runaway train, or a disaster starting elsewhere and falling upon the trains involved. This is a new look at this 5/22/1915 crash and its causes.

Glossary of railway terms


THE CRASH

The setting:

Five trains were involved - but the block post has room for only four trains:

  1. The 4:50 down goods train from Carlisle
  2. The 6:17 down local train from Carlisle
  3. An up empty coal train
  4. An up troop train from Larbert
  5. The 6:05 down Scotch Express for Glasgow, running half an hour late
  6. The 5:50 down Scotch Express for Edinburgh, also half an hour late, passed through safely just before the crash.

quintinshill layout The Quintinshill layout - North is up.
The signal box is the black rectangle. The tracks are (left to right): - Down Loop - Down Main - Up Main - Up Loop

There are trap points at the ends of the loop tracks to keep runaway wagons off the main lines.

The order in which things happened:

  1. The 4:50 down goods train arrived, and was switched into the down loop.
  2. The empty up coal train arrived and was held until the local train arrived.
  3. The 6:17 down local train arrived, and was backed through the crossover onto the up main line.
  4. The empty up coal train was switched into the up loop.
  5. The signalmen changed shift late.
  6. The 5:50 down Scotch Express for Edinburgh, passed through safely on the down main line.
  7. The up troop train arrived and crashed head-on into the stationary local train on the same track.

    The troop train engine was deflected and hit the empty coal train.

    The heavy engine of the local train was driven back 40 yards and derailed.

    The tender of the local train broke its couplings and was thrown onto the down main line.

    Detached from the tender, the local train coaches rolled on the track away from the crash.

    The local coaches stopped when the gradient slackened to the point where friction stopped them.

    A coupling broke, and the troop train baggage wagons also rolled away from the crash.

    The wooden troop train coaches telescoped, with the tender across the down line.

    A brakesman stopped the runaway baggage wagons to keep them from rolling back into the wreckage.

  8. The 6:05 down Scotch Express for Glasgow crashed into the tender, wreckage, and survivors already on the down main line.

    The express train's pilot engine shoved the troop train's tender completely through some wagons on the goods train.

  9. Escaping illuminating gas and spilled burning coal set most of the wreck on fire.

THE ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION

Investigators interviewed all pertinent witnesses. Colonel E. Druitt issued the final report of the Board of Trade. The following facts are part of the report:

Meakin and Tinsley were sentenced to jail time for their acts of manslaughter.


RECONSTRUCTING THE TRAIN REGISTER AND THE PIECE OF PAPER

The Train Register is the book in which a signalman keeps track of each train he handles:

Each train is supposed to have each of the following events recorded in the Train Register:

For the Rear Section - the section of track approaching the station or block post

For the Advance Section - the section of track leaving the station or block post

Because the original Train Register pages are not included in the report by Col. Druitt and are not available elsewhere, the page author has reconstructed the relevant parts of them from the evidence contained in the references (Rolt Druitt) .

The reconstructed Train Register:

A few columns are combined for fit on a web page. The original used the left and right facing pages in the book for recording the down and up trains respectively.

TRAIN REGISTER FOR Quintinshill on Saturday the 22 day of 5 month of 1915
Train
Descrip.
DOWN T
r
a
c
k
UPRemarks
Rear Section:
Gretna JCT
Advance Section:
Kirkpatrick
Rear Section:
Kirkpatrick
Advance Section:
Gretna JCT
Trn
Offr
Trn
Acc
Trn
On
Trn
Arr
Out
Sec
Trn
Offr
Trn
Acc
Trn
On
Trn
Dep
Out
Sec
Trn
Offr
Trn
Acc
Trn
On
Trn
Arr
Out
Sec
Trn
Offr
Trn
Acc
Trn
On
Trn
Dep
Out
Sec
450 D Goods ?:???:???:??6:156:20 DL
Empty U Coal UL 6:176:176:256:286:34
6:17 D Local 6:206:206:286:306:33 UM 6:38 Hutchinson
5:50 D Expr 6:336:336:366:386:38 6:336:336:386:386:42 DM
Shift Change 6:34 6:36 6:34 6:36 6:00 Tinsley
U Troop Tr UM 6:426:436:476:49 6:476:47 Gretna rang once
6:05 D Expr 6:466:466:496:50 6:466:46 DM
Obst Danger 6:53 UD 6:53 Obst Danger
Ambulance Train ?:???:???:??8:10 D
 
Meaken
Meaken on paper
Tinsley
unknown
?:?? = time unknown

The reconstructed list on the piece of paper:

  • ?:?? Gretna JCT offered down 4:50 goods. Accepted.
  • ?:?? Gretna JCT belled 'train on line' for 4:50 down goods. Ack.
  • 6:15 Down 4:50 goods arrived, down loop.
  • 6:17 Kirkpatrick offered up empty coal train. Accepted.
  • 6:17 Offered up empty coal train to Gretna JCT. Can't take it.
  • 6:20 Belled 'out of section' to Gretna JCT for down 4:50 goods.
  • 6:20 Gretna JCT offered down 6:17 local. Accepted.
  • 6:25 Kirkpatrick belled 'train on line' for up empty coal train. Ack.
  • 6:28 Up empty coal train arrived, held at home.
  • 6:28 Gretna JCT belled 'train on line' for down 6:17 local. Ack.
  • 6:30 Down 6:17 local arrived, cross to up main.
  • 6:33 Belled 'out of section' to Gretna JCT for down 6:17 local.
  • 6:33 Signal up empty coal train into up loop.
  • 6:33 Gretna JCT offered down 5:50 Edinburgh express. Accepted.
  • 6:33 Offered down 5:50 Edinburgh Express to Kirkpatrick. Accepted.

?:?? means the time is not known to the page author.


INVESTIGATING THE FACTS

Factors contributing to the crash:

Other pertinent facts:

Analyzing existing photos of trains, the signal box, and the crash:

The first photo is a photo of the Quintinshill signal box. A railfan interested in the case (who does not want to be identified on this page) sent it to me. A man is walking on the track in front of the box. I copied the image of the man and shrunk it slightly to compensate for the increased distance from the camera, using the tallest possible case. Then I put two copies of the result next to the signal box, as though one was on the first floor, and one was on the second floor. I assumed that the lighter rectangles around the box between the floors are the floor supports.

The idea is to show the height of the eyes of the signalman on the second floor. This shows that the eyes of the signalman would be very near the tops of the windows, showing the best case for how much the signalman could see from the box.

Some of these photos are larger, but are shown with reduced size on this page for fit. For a better view of any picture on this page, right click the picture and choose "view image". Then use ctrl + to magnify it. Use BACK to return here (If your browser makes this page too large when you come BACK to it, use ctrl 0 to get the proper size again.)

Quintinshill signal box height

Quintinshill signal box and a train The next photo is of the Quintinshill signal box and a passing train. Note how large the train is, compared to the signal box. It would completely hide any train beyond it from the signalman. The signal box is too short for safety.

The train shown is a passenger train. But note that the coaches are the height of the high style of coal wagons seen in the photo of a coal train on the far right. The rounded tops of cars are necessitated by British rail tunnels.

These photos were sent by the same railfan.

Coal train
Quintinshill wreck on fire

The photo on the near right is the public domain photo wpd of the Quintinshill crash on 5/22/1915. An enlarged and contrast-enhanced portion of it appears below. Note that four rail vehicles are visible.

A cropped version of this photo appears in Red for Danger Rolt that shows only the burning coach. Nothing to the right of it is shown.

The engine in the far right photo is the engine of the local, taken years before the crash. Note the odd roofline of the cab.

The engine of the local train

Quintinshill fire - excerpt Four objects, plus some wreckage, appear in the above wreck photo, left to right:

  • A burning express coach the firemen are putting out
  • The engine of the local
  • A high-style coal wagon
  • A low-style open-top coal wagon

The three vehicles on the right in the above photo are in the excerpted photo on the right.

Note that the leftmost vehicle in the excerpted photo has the same cab design (including the funny curved roof and the corner posts) as the engine of the local. Therefore, it is the engine of the local. According to witnesses, this engine ended up in the shown location after being pushed 40 yards by the first collision.

The next vehicle to the right (behind the low coal wagon) is a high coal wagon. It is similar to the coal wagons in the coal train shown in an image above. The page author first thought this was the signal box roof. But the shape is wrong, and the signal box was more than 120 yards away from the photographer.* Because the tracks curve to the left, the signal box should be mostly hidden from the photo by the engine of the local train.

The burning coach is on the down main line.

The track in the foreground is the up main line.

The coal wagons are on the up loop line.

* This distance includes the 65 yards the local engine stopped to the left of the box, plus the 40 yards the local engine was pushed by the collision, plus the distance from the engine to the photographer.

Too many trains at Quintinshill in too little time:

There were too many trains and too many rules prohibiting the stopping of important trains that contributed to this disaster. This was an unusual occurrence:

There were too many trains in the area for the stations involved to handle:

The local train was probably hidden from Tinsley.

Claims that this was sabotage against the war effort are untrue. These facts are evident:


Putting it all together

The following facts are evident:

The reconstructed sequence:

  1. The 4:50 down goods train arrived, and was switched into the down loop.
  2. The empty up coal train arrived and was held until the local train arrived.
  3. The 6:17 down local train arrived, and was backed through the crossover onto the up main line.
  4. Meakin had not placed the lever collars on the up main signal levers to protect the local train.
  5. The empty up coal train was switched into the up loop.
  6. The signalmen changed shift late.
  7. Someone changed the up line block indicator back to 'line clear'. Who did it is not known.
  8. The 5:50 down Scotch Express for Edinburgh, passed through safely on the down main line.
  9. Tinsley had conflicting clues of whether or not the down local was still on the up main line:

    He had seen the down local backing onto the up main line.

    Hutchinson signing the Train Register was evidence the train was there.

    The down local train was probably invisible to him, hidden by the up empty coal train. Even if it was not, the coal train hid enough of it that the rest of it might have looked to be a continuation of the goods train.

    Meakin had not put the lever collars on the up main signal levers to protect the local.

    Meakin had done a lot of belling just before Tinsley took over the box, meaning the local might have already left (or was waiting to pick up Hutchinson).

    The up line block indicator to Kirkpatrick was set to line clear as Tinsley found it.

    Tinsley had not finished copying the entries into the Train Register, so he did not know what happened to the down local.

    The requirement that troop trains not be stopped may have led Tinsley to believe that, after receiving notice of the troop train, Meakin had moved or released the local train.

  10. Tinsley accepted the 6:05 down Scotch Express for Edinburgh and the up troop train from Larbert.
  11. The up troop train arrived and crashed head-on into the stationary local train on the same track.

    The troop train engine was deflected and hit the empty coal train.

    The engine of the local train was driven back 40 yards and derailed.

    The tender of the local train broke its couplings and was thrown onto the down main line.

    Detached from the tender, the local train coaches rolled on the track away from the crash.

    The local coaches stopped when the gradient slackened to the point where friction stopped them.

    A coupling broke, and the troop train baggage wagons also rolled away from the crash.

    The wooden troop train coaches telescoped, with the tender across the down line.

    A brakesman stopped the runaway baggage wagons to keep them from rolling back into the wreckage.

  12. The 6:05 down Scotch Express for Glasgow crashed into the tender, wreckage, and survivors already on the down main line.

    The express train's pilot engine shoved the troop train's tender completely through some wagons on the goods train.

  13. Escaping illuminating gas and spilled burning coal set most of the wreck on fire.

The page author's conclusions:

The page author has inferred the following as the most likely explanations of the crash:

All of the above contributed to the accident. If any ONE of these six points had not been present, the accident would not have happened.


Final Conclusion:

If all of the rules had been obeyed, no accident would have happened.


Glossary of railway terms


Works Cited

  1. Rolt, L. T. C. Red for Danger, 1966 David and Charles LTD, Newton Abbot, Devon UK
  2. Druitt, Lt Col E Accident at Quintinshill on 22 May 1915, 6/17/1915 Board of Trade. Whitehall, London, UK
    http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_Quin1915.pdf
  3. Public domain photographs found at
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quintinshill_rail_disaster_-_Secours-voiture-de-queue.jpg

Note that, since the crash occurred in 1915, most materials on it entered the public domain long before the extension of copyright periods.

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