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The Quintinshill rail disaster was a multi-train rail crash which occurred on 22 May 1915 outside the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, resulting in the deaths of over 200 people, the worst in British history. Quintinshill box controlled two passing loops on each side on the Caledonian Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle (now part of the West Coast Main Line). At the time of the accident, both passing loops were occupied with goods trains, with a local passenger train standing on the southbound main line. The first collision occurred when a southbound troop train travelling from to Liverpool collided with the stationary local train. A minute later the wreckage was struck by a northbound express sleeper train from London to Glasgow. Gas from the Pintsch gas lighting system of the old wooden carriages of the troop train ignited, starting a fire which soon engulfed all five trains. Only half the soldiers on the troop train survived. Those killed were mainly Territorial soldiers from the 1/7th (Leith) Battalion, the Royal Scots heading for Gallipoli. The precise death toll was never established with confidence as some bodies were never recovered, having been wholly consumed by the fire, while the roll list of the regiment was also destroyed in the fire. The official death toll was 227 (215 soldiers, 9 passengers and three railway employees), but the army later reduced their 215 by one. Not counted in the 227 were four victims thought to be children, but which were never claimed or identified. The soldiers were buried together in a mass grave in Edinburgh's Rosebank Cemetery, where an annual remembrance is held. An official inquiry, completed on 17 June 1915 for the Board of Trade, found the cause of the collision to be neglect of the rules by two signalmen. With both loops occupied, the northbound local train had been reversed onto the southbound line to allow passage of the late running northbound sleeper. Its presence was then overlooked, and the southbound troop train was cleared for passage. As a result, both were charged with manslaughter in England, then convicted of culpable homicide after trial in Scotland; the two terms are broadly equivalent. After they were released from a Scottish jail in 1916, they were re-employed by the railway company, although not as signalmen. ==Background== The disaster occurred at Quintinshill signal box, which was an intermediate box in a remote location, sited to control two passing loops on each side of the double-track main line of the Caledonian Railway. On this section of the main line between Carlisle and Glasgow, in British railway parlance, Up is towards Carlisle and Down is towards Glasgow. The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1859 (but not modern maps) shows a house named Quintinshill at approximately 55.0133°N 3.0591°W, around half a mile south-southeast of the signal box. The nearest settlement was Gretna, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the south of the box, on the Scottish side of the England-Scotland border. Responsibility for Quintinshill signal box rested with the stationmaster at Gretna station, who was on the day of the accident, Alexander Thorburn. The box was manned by a single signalmen, and was staffed on a shift system. In the mornings, a night shift signaller would be relieved by the early shift signaller 6.00 am. On the day of the disaster, George Meakin was the night signalman, while James Tinsley was to work the early day shift. At the time of the accident, normal northbound traffic through the section included two night expresses from London to Glasgow, and a local service from Carlisle to . Normally the local train would not be shunted at Quintinshill but a rule allowed for the train to be shunted at one of the intermediate stations or signalboxes if one or other of the night expresses were running late. If both passing loops were occupied, as happened on the time of the accident, then the northbound local train would be shunted onto the Up main line. Although not a preferred method of operation, this was not a dangerous thing to do if the proper precautions were taken. Out of the previous 21 occasions that the local train had been shunted at Quintinshill, on four occasions it had been shunted onto the Up line. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Quintinshill rail disaster」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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